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When you think of haunted locations, you probably picture old, decrepit mansions or vacant, decaying asylums. Chances are fast food restaurants don’t usually make the list. However, after doing some digging, we found 15 fast food places that are certified haunted. Full-body apparitions, voices, and dark shadows have made eating and working at these fast food establishments a daunting, and downright terrifying, task.
Who the heck would want to haunt a fast food place, you ask? Some of the below haunts are spirits of those who met tragic ends at the restaurant. Others have been haunting the location for decades — even centuries — prior to the fast food restaurant’s arrival. Each haunt must be somehow linked to the history of the site — however, many of the below remain mysteries.
The stories have come from former employees and guests of these fast food establishments. Sure, they could be tall tales. But with so many people claiming to see, hear, and interact with the same things, we definitely shouldn’t write these stories off completely.
So, if you like your Number 6 with a side of spookiness, then make note of these haunted fast food locations and add them to your future ghost adventure road trip — because, you know, who doesn’t have a ghost road trip in the works?
The McDonald’s restaurant in Cuero, Texas was actually a gas station before its fast food transformation. And sadly, it was at this gas station where multiple tragedies took place. A young boy was accidentally run over by his own mother, and a mechanic (who may or may not have murdered his 6-year-old daughter ten years prior) was crushed when the garage’s car lift malfunctioned. As of 2002, guests and employees of the McDonald’s have heard eerie sounds, seen toilets flush themselves, and their walk-in fridge has gone haywire.
In 2012, a team from Long Island Paranormal Investigators (LIPI) checked out the famous haunted Pizza Hut in Centereach, New York. According to staff, the restaurant is haunted by a man who died (either by suicide or murder) in the restaurant bathroom back when the place was a Jack-in-the-Box. Employees often hear whispering among the stalls, witness pots and pans falling, and experience cold spots throughout the location. LIPI didn’t find anything of note. However, they did report feeling something eerie while investigating the Pizza Hut’s bathroom.
The Burger King in West Palm Beach, Florida is supposedly haunted by a mischievous young man who gave a former janitor a literal run for his money. The janitor supposedly chased the young man around the restaurant two separate times, trying to get the young man to leave. Both times this chase sequence happened, the young man simply vanished into thin air. Being totally creeped out, the janitor ended up quitting. But other former managers at this location have also seen the ghost, who is clearly there for a good time.
In 1986, McDonald’s spent $9 million to build a floating McDonald’s restaurant in the waters off Vancouver. Although the company intended on having it travel the high seas as a fast food-themed attraction, the yacht was ultimately abandoned and is now a literal shell of its former self. Locals have dubbed it the “ghost ship” due to its spooky appearance. *Technically* no one has experienced paranormal activity within the ship. However, after seeing the pictures of the inside, there’s no way you can avoid having an eerie feeling about the place.
Before it was a fast food restaurant, the Dodgeville, Wisconsin Subway was a Harley Davidson motorcycle shop. During its time as a Harley shop, the owners were involved in a fatal car crash (on Friday the 13th of 1984). Now, employees believe the wife of the shop owner haunts the restaurant and many have seen a ghostly woman standing behind the register. Other workers have heard their names being called, yet no one is there. Items have been knocked off shelves, and the door buzzer goes off when no one is around.
A 2009 Dark Haunts post details the supposed hauntings that plague a Pizza Hut in Glendale, Arizona. The post notes that guests at this location reportedly hear phantom baby cries and disembodied children’s voices. In 2014, a former manager commented on another Glendale Pizza Hut post stating she believed the place is definitely haunted, writing that the faucets had a mind of their own and her employees had seen a little ghost girl playing under tables on multiple occasions. And in 2018, yet another former employee wrote he often saw items flying off shelves and thought the building used to be a mortuary way back when.
In the 1970s, McDonald’s set up shop in Lewiston’s historic Frontier House — one of the oldest structures in the area. Unbeknownst to the fast food chain, the Frontier House has been haunted by William Morgan since 1826. Morgan died mysteriously after a run-in with the local Freemasons, and some say Morgan sticks around in the Frontier House because the building was a Masonic temple during his day. Until the McDonald’s closing in 2004, Morgan reportedly spooked employees by manifesting in the storage pantry.
Back in the late ’90s, the manager of this Arby’s location in Colorado Springs was shot by an employee she had just fired. Customers and employees have reported hearing whispers in the lobby, having items move on them, and when alone, they’ve seen a woman walk through the kitchen and out the back door. Store openers have also reported hearing their name called when they’re the only ones in the building. And closers say that when they put the chairs up on the tables, the’ll end up back on the ground before the morning comes.
On two separate occasions, two different maintenance workers both reported seeing a little girl enter the men’s restroom in the Idabel, Oklahoma McDonald’s restaurant. Both instances occurred around 5 a.m., before the store opened. A McDonald’s employee later saw the door to the men’s room open and remain open. When the employee checked to see if anyone was in there — no one was — all the toilets in the women’s room flushed on their own. Another employee quit after she heard a little girl laughing in the women’s room while she was in there after hours.
Oddly enough, this Taco Bell restaurant has been dubbed “the most terrifying establishment in Twinsburg.” Guests and employees have spotted at least four ghosts within the location — a woodsman, a military veteran, a young girl dressed in white, and a teenaged boy dressed in an old Taco Bell uniform who supposedly helps the living employees with their day-to-day tasks. In the above video, a customer reportedly had a run-in with the Taco Bell teen apparition, whom he asked for extra hot sauce. The teen, with dark circles under his eyes, did not acknowledge the customer, so the customer asked another employee, “What was wrong with the guy?” “What guy?” the other employee responded. Eek!
In 2014, a reddit user asked for scary haunted Starbucks stories in the r/starbucks subreddit — and man, did employees deliver. One story came from a Starbucks Hawaii employee who reported that the location’s CD player would stop working every night at exactly 10:51 p.m., regardless of the track it was on. The reddit user also wrote that there was a tall, dark figure wearing khaki pants whom they saw during almost every shift. After another coworker confided that they had also seen the apparition almost a year after the reddit user had began seeing it, the Starbucks’s computer system went bonkers, as did the security cameras they set up to catch the ghost in action.
In 2013, a “third party vendor” for the combination KFC-Taco Bell-Pizza Hut in Coronado submitted a story to the San Diego Haunted Places and Locations forum. The vendor writes that their team was doing repairs after-hours at the location. All the employees had gone home — or so they thought. One team member asked, “Hey I thought all the employees went home,” to which the author confirmed they had. “Well who just went into the [walk-in] refrigerator?” the team member asked. The vendors looked inside the fridge and found no one, but the place was trashed. After talking to the general manager the next day, the vendor learned that employees had been seeing that apparition for the past 10 years.
Employees at the St. Anthony Dairy Queen have reported hearing disembodied children’s laughs and names being called out after closing when no one else is in the building. The ordering system also prints out customer orders that were never put in. And employees note that items have been known to fall off shelves for no apparent reason. In 2015, a HauntedPlaces.org reader commented that she believes the spirit may be her grandfather haunting the place. He reportedly owned a Dairy Queen in that area years ago.
Similar to the helpful Taco Bell ghost employee in Twinsburg, the Papa John’s Pizza in Seymour, Indiana may also have a ghost with a past in fast food. Employees and customers have reported seeing a full apparition of a man wearing a blue uniform. Some believe the ghost is actually the spirit of a former law enforcement officer. Three Seymour police officers have lost their lives near the area, leaving some to believe one of them is still on patrol. Others have also supposedly heard knocking on the walls within the restaurant that sound like they’re coming from next door. However, the storefront next to Papa John’s remains vacant.
The Domino’s Pizza in Boynton Beach has been a few different establishments throughout its history. Before it was Domino’s, it was the Red Lion Pub, Sheehans, and also Shea’s Corner Pub, according to a few people who used to frequent there. No matter the restaurant or name of the place, customers new and old say the place is “seriously haunted.” According to HauntedPlaces.org, brunette women are the mysterious target of whatever haunt is residing there. They often get things thrown at them, whereas blondes usually feel their hair being lovingly stroked by an invisible hand. The bartenders at the old pubs each had an arsenal of creepy stories that would chill any patron who dared ask for ghost stories.
Do you have a haunted fast food place near you? Let us know and share all the creepy details.
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