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Workers' spooky stories swirl around spa
By LEON M. TUCKER © St. Petersburg Times, published October 30, 2000
Its piercing eyes, pointed face andstare give her the creeps. Four years ago, the dog was kept in the corner of the spa's Signature Shop gift store, where McHale said she would be sure to give it a 2-foot berth when she walked by it. Then one day, she said, it bit her. "I'm telling you, that thing jumped out and bit me. I had a mark on my leg that big," she said, connecting her fingers in the shape of a silver dollar over her thigh. Management moved the dog. But that didn't stop creepy occurrences at the Safety Harbor spa. From mysterious movement of salt and pepper shakers to doors opening by themselves, employees swear the place has ghostly qualities. "There are some people out there who don't believe anything like this can happen," said Susan Kennedy, director of marketing for the spa. "But it's fun -- and it's Halloween." Brinda Lydick still gets chills when she talks about what happened to her in the main dining room three years ago. "I'm loaded down with dishes," said Lydick, a waitress, as she pretended to carry a platter from the spa kitchen. "I was praying to myself, "Lord, don't let me drop this food.' And then the door just opened right up for me." Lydick said she looked for her co-workers to thank them for opening the door. "No one was there," she said. "I told the guys thanks for opening the door for me, and they said they didn't know what I was talking about. They said they were nowhere near the door. I delivered the food, but I was still shaking for about 15 or 20 minutes." The six-year spa worker said she was spooked on two other occasions when she was serving guests seated at the dining room's center table. While stooped over talking to the guests, she said she felt someone, "or something," nudge her on the shoulder. Then it grabbed her waist. Both times, Lydick said, she spun around to find that no one was there. "I wouldn't lie about that," she said. "It truly, truly happened." So why does she continue working there? "Things like this have happened to me all my life," she said. "But this was like a kind ghost." Kennedy said she believes the employees when they tell the stories but views it as a part of the resort's history. "Stories like this add to the uniqueness of this place," Kennedy said. "In the Tampa Bay area, there aren't really a lot of properties that have the richness and uniqueness as the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa." The recorded history of the springs on which the spa sits dates to the 1500s, and the facility began taking shape in the early 1920s. Black-and-white photos from about 1925 decorate the lounge area of the resort and show resort life back then. Front office manager John Vitucci was a front desk clerk nine years ago when he volunteered to fill in on the graveyard shift for a security guard who called in sick earlier that evening. At about 3:15 a.m., Vitucci said,he walked alone down a corridor that led into the kitchen and turned off the lights to conserve electricity. "When I came back there was this huge room-service tray on the floor," he said. "I thought that was really strange because it wasn't there when I walked up those steps. It certainly was when I came back by, and it was still moving like it was just placed down. "I spent the rest of the night in the security office." Vitucci said that was the last time he volunteered to work a late shift. Rick George attended a seminar at the resort last week and recalled the night in August he spent at the resort as a guest. "I'm not one to disregard that sort of stuff, but I've never seen anything," said George, who is also a member of the spa. "But I'll probably look differently at it when I'm by myself." Kennedy said there haven't been any reports of eerie happenings in the past couple of years. She gave a practical explanation for the mysterious events. "The fact that a lot of this happened at night and happened to employees who worked all day long -- I think a lot of it was in their head," she said. "It's never happened to me. I may change my tune if it did."
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