Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 15

Contact: STEVEN HARKER steven.harker@acetarc.co.uk Sometimes you get the feeling that the place watches what you are doing and can either approve or disapprove. Obviously, it’s all in the mind but some jobs, for no reason, just seem to go badly while others go well. This one, which had a lot of potential to go badly, went very well. If there was indeed a spirit to this place it was smiling down on us. However, by the penultimate weekend we had started to notice that some of the background noises seemed a little too difficult to dismiss. There was also the occasional moving shadow, typically spotted out of the corner of the eye that were also difficult to rationalize. Then, someone suggested that the place was haunted. Of course this idea immediately took root in a jokey sort of way. So if a tool went missing, the ghost had taken it and when it turned up, usually where it should have been in the first place, the ghost had returned it. By the penultimate weekend, my presence had mostly become superfluous and it was agreed that I would visit site on the last Sunday to sign things off. I arrived at the foundry about 45 minutes later than I should have, parked the car, and made my way inside. It was darker and more shadowy than usual as the installation team had set up two temporary floodlights and they divided the area into light and dark. Bob, the installation leader, was at the top of an access platform welding a final support bracket in place. His colleague, Tom, was atop another work platform a little further away. Both were wearing welding helmets and the bright welding glare contrasted with surrounding shadows. I waited, looking into the gloom, having more sense than to be dazzled by the glare. Bob stopped, raised his helmet, and spotted me. I was expecting a mild reprimand for being late but instead received quite an outburst, mostly unrepeatable, and at a volume that got the attention of Tom, who watched with some amusement. As nothing Bob was saying had anything to do with me being late, I asked him to explain and he said that some 30 minutes earlier he’d run out of welding rods and, seeing me below, had shouted down for me to fetch him another packet of rods, a task I’d done for them on previous occasions. This request had been ignored and when Bob had started to climb down the tower scaffold, I’d disappeared into the gloom. Tom backed all this up. I pointed out the problem with this was that 30 minutes ago I was still several miles away from the site, having only just arrived. I was also starting to get angry under what I considered to be an unwarranted verbal onslaught. Tom, probably in attempt to defuse the situation, said “the ghost”? Bob admitted that due to the lights and shadows he hadn’t got a good look at me, but who else could it have been? This got us all thinking, though fortunately the job was completed and signed off without further incident. The answer to our puzzle came next day when we received a visit from the police. It seems that we had not been the only ones working that weekend. Thieves, possibly with a little inside help, had cleared out several tons of castings, foundry returns, and other raw materials. All with a high value to any scrap metal merchant prepared not to look too closely at where his supplies were coming from. The thieves had spent most of the weekend clearing out their haul. Not only that but any call of nature had necessitated a trip to the toilet block at the far end of the foundry. Or possibly they had just had somebody to keep an eye on us. For a short while we fell under suspicion but we were able to prove that it was nothing to do with us. However, it did explain the ghost and the noises. 10