Haunted Taco Bell in Columbus Ohio

Ghost stories make sense when they take place in dilapidated mansions, old stagecoach inns and former funeral homes, but when they occur in a 20 some year old fast food joint that’s just insane, right? Well, supposedly, it is – at least for those who work at the Taco Bell on Beall Avenue in Wooster.

Employees there will be going about their business refrying beans, stocking straws or mopping when they feel someone grab them. When they turn to see what needy bastard has violated their personal space they have the grade D meat scared right out of them by the absence of any other living souls. At closing they also occasionally hear strains of sad music coming from somewhere in the restaurant. Could this just be the universe supplying a soundtrack to their existence or is there something else going on?

According to a local historian, the restaurant was built on the site of an insane asylum that was demolished in the 1930s. My research has found no records to support this claim but the history of private institutions can be difficult to dig up, so I’m not discounting it.

This is also thought to be the cause of hauntings at the neighboring Pizza Hut. I know this is supposed to be about Taco Bell, but since they share a parent company, why not give PepsiCo one more plug?

At the Pizza Hut things are a bit more ominous. People have reported hearing doors open and close where no doors exist and have even watched apparitions walk through walls. One of the creepier stories involves a manager who was locking up one night when she heard someone walking behind her. When she turned to investigate she saw a thick mist hanging in the air three feet above the ground. She stared in disbelief for a moment before the apparition quickly dissipated. I like to imagine her grease coated shoes caused her to run in place for a few seconds before successfully gaining traction, just like on Scooby Doo.

There is another Taco Bell where spirits have made a run for the border between life and death in Twinsburg. The joint is located next to Crown Hill Cemetery and old timers say the land where the Taco Bell sits was also a burial grounds before being reclaimed for development. At this place phantom figures have been seen lurking in the kitchen, only to disappear when approached. There are also a few specific characters that have repeatedly been seen amongst the chalupas. There is a man in mountaineer garb that is occasionally spotted by the drive-in window and a girl in a white nightgown that witnesses guess to be around 7 years old who sits in the corner of the dining room at night.

So, if the idea of an afterlife with such unappealing provisions that the dead are returning to places like Taco Bell and Pizza Hut hasn’t depressed you enough, consider the ghost of a teenage boy that appears in his outdated employee uniform and helps clean the Twinsburg Taco Bell’s dining room. One can only imagine the dark deed he committed to be assigned an eternal shift at his fast food job.

These aren’t the only haunted fast food restaurants in the state {Columbus has a haunted Subway!} but I’ll stop for now as I think most of you will take these stories with a grain of salt and I don’t want to responsible for increasing your sodium levels any more than I already have.

Thanks for reading