Synchronicity in Atlantic City
Or, Ghosts on the Ghost Tour
This is a recent story, and it starts back in April 2021. I will jump around a bit as I write this, but a professor in my life once called a story like this a “Disneyland” story. He always said the payoff should be incredible if we tell a long story. And I have an astonishing payoff here.
This happened to me and a co-worker; I will call him Tyler to protect his name. We work for a ghost tour company in Philadelphia as tour guides. Of course, it’s a fun job that pays fairly well when he has bookings. Tyler actually trained me on giving tours in the city. I shadowed his own tour back in August.
Now I wrote that the story starts in April 2021, and it does. I’m going to get back to that. But I’m going to start with my personal, first-hand account.
I was giving a tour one night in October 2021, which is our busy season. It was an extended tour through the lower part of Society Hill, Philadelphia. The tour was okay up to this point. I only had three left on the extended tour. They were a group of ladies vacationing from Washington State. I didn’t ask how they were related. One looked to be in middle age, one was in her thirties, and the other was a teenager.
At the beginning of the tour, the middle-aged woman told me she was clairvoyant. She elaborated and explained that she could see spirits that weren’t here in our world or something to that effect. I smiled and continued my check-in process.
I’m going to call her Ma.
I don’t know how I was supposed to react. I keep an open mind with this job, but what she told me was completely out of the blue. I didn’t have any reason to believe her or not to believe her. Ma tipped me at the end of the night, so if she was trying to scam me out of money, she did an abysmal job of it.
As I was leading this group of three down 4th street, Ma walked quickly to catch up to me and whispered in my ear, “There’s a man following us.”
I then turned around as I walked to ensure the small group was okay. I didn’t see anyone following us, and Ma whispered, “No, he was hit by a car. I can’t tell when he died, but he’s just checking out the tour.”
“He was hit by a car?” I asked her. And I want to reiterate that I’m humoring this, but also, I have no reason not to accept it.
“Yes,” Ma told me. “His name is ‘John,’ and he’s bleeding from his forehead. His nose is broken.”
I was uneasy at this point, but I finished the tour. Adam Sandler was shooting the film Hustle, where we ended up walking, and there was a small crowd around us, which helped my uneasiness. From there, I put the experience out of my mind. From time to time after that night, I would tell that story to my other tour guests, who would ask if I ever had a paranormal experience on my ghost tours.
Fast forward to last week, the second week of March 2022.
The company is setting up a ghost tour in Atlantic City, and I will be the first guide. I’m excited to start it. As a kid, I loved Atlantic City, and it’s due for a comeback. Tyler is our first guest. We gave him a free tour to test the booking site and the route and get his input.
I conclude the tour in Atlantic City, and Tyler and I walked back down the boardwalk, catching up and talking about old tour stories, and he brought up personal experiences.
“Have you ever seen a ghost?” he asks me.
“On the tour? I don’t think so,” I tell him back. “I had this woman once who claimed she was clairvoyant. You should hear what she told me.”
“Well, listen,” he starts. “I only started giving tours in April of last year, you know that, right?”
And I nod.
“I was the only guide. It was a real mess,” Tyler continues. “Well, halfway into April, I give my second or third extended tour, okay? It was four people at this point. There were two college girls and this boomer couple. You know where the Kosciuszko house is?”
I tell him that I do. The Thaddeus Kosciuszko house is one of our best stops. When I was training, I had to learn the phonetic pronunciation; Kos-Choo-Sko.
“Well,” he continues. “I’m wrapping up the tour. I give them the whole lecture about rating us on Tripadvisor and everything, and this guy jogs up. It’s near the end of April and about 10 p.m. at night, so it’s not the warmest. Yet, this guy is wearing a jogging outfit.”
“Jogging outfit?” I ask back, and now my heart starts beating faster as we walk.
“Yeah, it was the damndest thing,” Tyler replied. “He had these tiny jogging shorts, a tank top, and sneakers. And he jogs up, looks at the group, and smiles. And that’s when I noticed his face!”
The wind picks up because it has excellent timing. I pull my coat close together as I let Tyler continue, ready to interrupt him the second he stops.
“His face,” he continued. “Blood was running down his forehead, and his nose looked broken.”
And then I knew for sure what he was about to tell me.
“So I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh man, this guy got into a fight with a cop or something.’ So I ask him, ‘, Hey, sir, are you okay?’ And he replied, ‘Oh, I’m just checking in on everything.’”
“Really?” That was all I could ask at this point.
“Yeah, and I’m scared now,” Tyler continued. “Like, I don’t know what’s wrong with this guy. The boomer couple had already left at this point, so it was just me and these two college girls. We’re all looking at him, and I say to him, ‘Well, this tour is complete now. But you can always book for tomorrow or this weekend; let me give you our website!’”
“And what did he say?” I ask Tyler.
“He said it again,” Tyler replied. “‘Oh, I’m just checking in on everything.’ And then I get my phone out to call 911 and get this guy some help, and he just…vanishes. He didn’t fade away; it was like he disintegrated.”
“He disintegrated?” I repeat.
Tyler is excited now.
“Yeah!” he exclaimed. “I couldn’t process it, either! I asked the girls, and they’re both freaked out now; by the way, I asked them, ‘Hey, where did that guy go?’ And after a moment, one of them finally tells me, ‘He just disappeared!’ And they were both freaked out and asked me to walk them back to their car. It still took me about three days to process that I may have seen a ghost with a group of people. I don’t think it can get any weirder than that!”
And I smile, and I stop him.
“Oh, it can, Tyler,” I say with the biggest smile. “Because the guy’s name was apparently John. He was hit by a car some time ago. He really loves to check in on our tours, by the way.”
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