THE WORLD'S MOST HAUNTED PLACES

TOYS "R" US, SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, USA

The Sunnyvale Toys "R" Us houses more than playthings. Built in 1970 over an 1800's apple orchard once owned by John Murphy, the store is said to be haunted.

The ghost of a disappointed lover haunts the store. Enter the Play-Doh aisle at your own risk. Browse the children's books with cautions. And don't even ask to go upstairs, where the toys are stacked. An employee, Putt O'Brian who has spent 18 years stacking toys at the store said she doesn't believe in ghosts. BOO! "But you feel a breeze behind you. Someone calls your name and there's nobody there. Funny things happen here that you can't explain."

Rag dolls and toy trucks leap off shelves. Balls bounce up and down the aisles. Children's books fall out of racks. Baby swings move on their own. The folks at Toys "R" Us say they've tried to explain it logically but can't. "Many people have experiences, not just one or two of us," O'Brian said. "He's like Casper. Nothing he does ever hurt anybody." O'Brian said she saw Johnson once. A young man in his 20s or 30s wearing knickers, a white long-sleeved work shirt, and a gray tweed snap-brim cap, walked past her. Another time she heard the sound of galloping horses. "Yohan used to exercise horses, they say," O'Brian said. Now apparently he get his exercise playing with the staff.

There was the time when men were waxing the floor, and a teddy bear kept appearing in the each aisle as they moved their equipment through the store. There's the overwhelming sweet smell of garden flowers that haunts aisle 15c next to the Mickey Mouse dolls and Batman toothbrush sets. So now for the obvious question: is it all just a desperate sales gimmick? Director Stephanie Lewis said it actually is very good publicity for them, but she personally does not believe in it. But others do believe in it. She has employees who will not go into the women's bathroom alone because Johnson follows them in there and turns on the water faucets. Long time employees say Johnson has also pulled pranks on contractors who went there to do short-term jobs. They see a toy leap from the shelf and refuse to come back. O'Brian believes Johnson lives upstairs in a breezy, cool corner. The pranks he pull upstairs are also harmless, she said but it's spookier because one is usually alone. "When I go up there, I'll say, 'Johan, I'm only here to work.'" So if the place is haunted why stick around?

Lisa, another employee said that it is a good ghost and that it's fun there.

Others have also taken notice of the store. Newspapers have written about him. The toy store has been featured on television's That's Incredible and other shows. A Hollywood script writer for the movie Toys spent two nights inside doing research. Psychic Sylvia Brown held a séance there in 1978 and has been back a dozen times.

The Toys "R" Us ghost, Johnny Johnson, haunts aisle 15C, other back aisles and the women's rest room. Johnson was a wood chopper at John Murphy's farm where he fell in love with the farmer's daughter. His axe missed the wood one day, cut his leg and he bled to death. He now roams the back aisles of Toys "R" Us seeking his love, Beth, Elizabeth Yuba Murphy Tafee. Women report feeling their hair brushed when no one is behind them, faucets turn on and off in the women's restroom and boxes fly off the shelves unaided.

On one occasion in February 1997 Sunnyvale had a horrible ice storm that knocked out the power in town and the staff got the ok to shut down and send everyone home. One of the employees was alone with the Assistant Store Director waiting for a security guard to arrive so they could leave, and they heard a crash down a back isle sounding like a group of books had fallen in their Books R Us area. The employee ran back to see what happened and there was nothing wrong, but she heard a slide whistle sound walking away in the store rooms. They were alone, and the ASD was on the phone up in front of the store.

A number of years later in 1999, she returned as a manager, and was running a remodel of the store. She was in the store one night with a small crew merchandising. She was alone in the rear of the store and the remainder of the crew was in the seasonal area up front. She was filling holes in a perimeter wall, with a storeroom on the back of the wall she was working on. She heard a box drop on the other side so she walked back to put it up, figuring she shook the box when she was loading up the shelves. No boxes had fallen and she felt someone staring at her from the top of the stairs into their mez. Needless to say she headed up front real quick to turn on all the lights in the store and from that point on she never worked in that area or went back into that store room while working a night shift again. There are also other stories form people that say they actually saw movement or heard voices. One person was actually hit in the head, while in the mez, knocking her unconscious after talking about the ghost.

Psychic Sylvia Brown conducted a séance here, bringing with her a photographer and others to record any appearances. An infrared photograph taken during the séance shows a man leaning on a wall with his hands jammed in his pockets, an image which did not appear on a photograph taken simultaneously with high-speed film. Brown said Johnson told her he was a preacher and ranch hand in the 1880's on the Murphy family farm. He spoke with a mild Swedish accent, and his first name was John, Yon, or Johan. Ten of sixteen people assembled there for the séance said they heard a "high buzzing noise" when Brown was supposedly listening to the ghost.