Prior to moving into our current 60,000 square foot home to Coed Naked in 1995, some of our employees took a ride over to check out the new facility. One of those employees, my cousin Kristin, so happened to take a picture on a wall in the warehouse of some graffiti that was painted in a blood red color that proclaimed, “Hell Awaits.” Not necessarily a very welcoming sentiment. However, we cleaned the graffiti up and didn’t think about it again, until….

Fast forward to a year or so after we moved in. Kristen and another employee Kathy were working a night shift in the warehouse. They were standing by the wall where the “Hell Awaits” graffiti once was, when they suddenly felt a breeze and saw a light fly above them. They looked at each other in horror and without saying a word, they both ran out of the building. That was one of our fist encounters with the ghost at Coed Naked.

Since that early encounter, there have been many more ghost sightings from many of our employees. And these are perfectly sane and believable people. And given that I have no reason to believe ghosts aren’t real, I guess I believe them. And many of their accounts were a bit hair-raising.

One of the most hair-raising accounts was in late 1995. Scott, one of our production artists, was working late in his cubicle when suddenly he felt a presence. As he looked up, a ghost dressed as a Civil War soldier marched by his cubicle. He claims the image was clear as day. The soldier, or ghost I guess, seemed to have no interest in Scott other than to let him know he was there. After marching past his desk, he disappeared. Scott disappeared from the building as quickly as the ghost did.

Lesa, our accountant, was working late one night when she strolled from her office down to the kitchen. There was a blue-and- white striped couch just outside the kitchen door. As she passed it, out of the corner of her right eye, she saw a man sitting on the couch. Startled, she turned quickly toward the couch, and he was gone. She shook it off and proceeded through the kitchen doors. On her way back out of the kitchen, this time out of the corner of her left eye, she saw the man again. Needless to say, she booked it out of the building.

My brother Don was also at the office late one night when he heard some noises outside of his office door. His dog Haley took note of the situation, growling at seemingly nothing. As Don went out of his office to investigate, he heard the toilet flush from the bathroom. When he went into the bathroom to see who was there, it was empty; but the toilet was still running. Don ran too.

My younger brother Dave encountered the ghost twice. The first time he was sitting in our conference room doing his taxes after hours when he heard someone walking up and down the hallway outside his office. His dog Teddy walked out of the conference room and stared intently down the hallway growling, similarly to Haley. Dave got up to see who was walking in the hallway and who had garnered Teddy’s full attention. No one was there, just an eerie presence. On another occasion, Dave was working late in the warehouse inventorying t-shirts. There were many full boxes of shirts palletized and wrapped. As he was counting, he heard a large crash about 40 feet away. When he checked to see what caused the commotion, it was a box of tees that had fallen off one of the pallets. The odd thing was that the box had come from the middle of a wrapped pallet. It couldn’t have fallen on its own. Without hesitating, David bolted from the building.

Ceil was working in our warehouse next to the time clock. Suddenly she heard a loud noise, and when she turned around to investigate, she found the time clock on the floor. But it hadn’t just fallen off the wall, it went flying from the wall. Ceil found Archie and told him the ghost had thrown the clock from the wall. Skeptical, Archie replaced the clock assuring Ceil that there had to be a logical explanation. After replacing the clock and calming Ceil down, the clock flew off the wall again. They both agreed that the only rational explanation was our ghost.

There have been dozens of other siting’s over the years as well. Thankfully I have never encountered our ghost. But if I do, I will take solace in the fact that so far, he seems to be friendly and just wants a little attention every now and then. Or maybe he just wants a new Coed Naked tee.

Mark Lane

Coed Sportswear