I've worked security for a large commercial building for six years. I've seen strange things on the monitors — people behaving oddly in empty hallways, shadows that move slightly wrong, the standard inventory of inexplicable things that every night security person eventually accumulates.
None of it prepared me for camera 12.
Camera 12 covers the east loading dock — a concrete bay used for deliveries, locked outside of business hours, accessible only by key card. On the night in question, a Thursday in late October, there had been no key card entries since 6 PM.
At 2:17 AM, something appeared on the loading dock.
I want to be precise: I don't know what it was. I've watched the footage many times. It appeared in a single frame — camera 12 updates every three seconds — and in that frame it was standing near the southeast wall, approximately six feet from the camera. In the next frame, it was gone.
But the frame it appeared in was not ambiguous. It was not a shadow. It was not a lens artifact. It was a figure, in full resolution, standing and apparently looking at the camera.
What I mean when I say the footage is strange is not the appearance of the figure. Figures appear on security footage. People get into secured areas. This is normal.
What I mean is what the figure was doing.
It was holding something in front of its face. Not covering its face — holding something at arm's length, between itself and the camera. The object, when I zoomed in on the frame, appeared to be a photograph. A photograph it was showing to the camera. Showing, deliberately, toward the lens, as though aware of being recorded and choosing to be recorded showing this specific image.
I have not been able to resolve what the photograph depicts. The frame rate and zoom aren't sufficient. My IT department looked at it. They couldn't resolve it either.
I filed a report. Maintenance checked the loading dock the next morning. No signs of entry. The key card log showed nothing.
I've thought about what it would mean — for someone to stand in a secured area in the middle of the night specifically to hold up a photograph for a security camera. What message that would be. What photograph would be worth that.
Camera 12 still covers the loading dock. I watch it more carefully now. I watch the frame update every three seconds.
I'm not sure if I'm hoping to see it again or hoping not to.