With Halloween approaching, we must get in the spirit! Trick-or-treating, dressing as your favorite villain, and sharing spooky stories are a couple of ways to get in touch with Halloween. Here are some spooky shipping container facts that will get you excited for Halloween!
1. Phantom Cargo Ships
Approximately 2,500 shipping containers fall off cargo ships and sink to the bottom of the ocean each year. Legend has it that the ghostly tale of the Flying Dutchman, a spectral ship doomed to sail the seas for eternity, inspired the nautical term “phantom cargo ships.” These are ships that reportedly sail without a crew. Some believe these eerie echoes of the vessel’s past serve as a reminder of the treacherous nature of the open sea.
In the vast expense of the ocean, shipping containers sometimes go missing due to storms, rough seas, and accidents. Some unexplained disappearances have led to speculation about supernatural forces.
Approximately 2,500 shipping containers fall off cargo ships and sink to the bottom of the ocean each year.
2. Cursed Cargo
Some shipping containers have gained a reputation for being cursed or haunted. For instance, workers at a port in Italy conducted a routine, random inspection of shipping containers. When they scanned one container for radiation, they found it was emitting the highest level of radiation possible. They were alarmed that there could be a dangerous weapon or bomb inside, but the only thing found was a small piece of copper. The copper seemed harmless, and there was nothing else to justify the high levels of radiation.
3. Hide & Seek
In 2011, a burglar named Ronald Dennis had the idea that shipping containers would make a perfect place to hide his stolen items. At night, he snuck around the storage unit, cut open the lock, and went inside. Not long after, a security guard checked the perimeter and found the open storage unit. He tried to open it all the way, thinking the owners were trying to air it out. When the door wouldn’t budge, the guard decided to close it instead, trapping Ronald Dennis inside. He was found the next morning when a different guard heard strange noises from inside the container. His plan was destroyed, and he was arrested.
4. Found Corpses
Many spooky findings have been discovered in shipping containers. One such finding that has spooked any discoverer is corpses and body parts.
In the 1990s, George Gennai was just another guy buying a storage unit. When he opened it, he found a human skull sticking out from a pile of garbage bags and evidence of a gruesome triple murder. The police found the body of a woman named Barbara Bender and her two children who had been missing since 1980. They had last been seen loading up a moving truck to leave her husband whom she was divorcing. Bender’s husband confessed to having killed his wife and his children and putting them in a storage container.
In 2007, Shannon Whisnaut bought a storage unit at an auction and was delighted to find there was a meat smoker inside. After gathering the meat to cook in his new meat smoker, he opened the lid for the first time and found a human leg lying on the grill. Whisnaut called the police who began to track down the owner of the leg. They discovered the owner of the leg was the very man who sold Whisnaut the storage unit.
Spooked yet? Get ready for Halloween! Learn how to decorate your shipping container by checking out our other blogs!
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