Ghost or Not; My Friend's Strange Uber Request (Ogden, UT)

 My friend works part time as a Lyft/Uber driver around the Ogden metro area and recently shared this story with me.

*NOTE: this story is from his perspective.

Normally I work remotely from home, checking security certificates and filing reports. It doesn't sound like much, but it can be an all day job. Once a month my job requires me to show up at the Salt Lake City office for a mandatory in-person meeting.


Around Early summer of 2022, I was leaving SLC to head back home to Ogden for the day when I remembered that I had installed the Uber app and had registered as a driver some time ago. While I had never actually picked up a rider before, I figured that the drive from SLC to Ogden might earn me some nice spending money, and since it was during the active hours (it was around 12-1:00 PM) I was destined to get a bite somewhere.


I activated the app and within minutes several potential riders pinging. I looked over the ones in my immediate vicinity, and most of them were only going as far as a mile, which I figured wouldn't be as rewarding to me financially. I saw one that wanted to be picked up here in SLC and be driven all the way out to Ogden, that's where I was going anyway and I accepted the rider.


Long story short, the rider was a normal college-age female with a friend. I dropped her and her friend off at the destination in the Weber State University parking lot, pressed 'drop off' and perused the app for other potential riders since I figured I had at least one more in me. One particular ride request had suddenly appeared.


The pick-up location wasn't far and was in the vicinity of Ogden itself, and the destination was all the way into Clearfield, which was a good 2-3 Towns over. So I accepted and thought nothing of it. As I continued on the road I noticed that the pick-up location was something like "Ogden 10th Ave and Martin Hilltop Dr", which sounded familiar but didn't immediately stand out to me. So after zig-zagging through some little suburbs and one or two good busy streets is when I come to it and then it dawned on me, "Ogden 10th Ave and Martin Hilltop Dr" is at the fucking cemetery.


I pulled over out of the way of traffic, parallel parking at the curb directly across the street from the cemetery. By this time it was something like 3:00 or 3:30 PM, traffic from SLC to Ogden has always been hectic. It was still light out, but it didn't change the fact that my rider was pinging from the Ogden Cemetery.


I had a thought that perhaps it was a glitch in the system; Uber's navigation and tracking has never exactly been 1:1 and it routinely leads drivers to pick up locations that are inaccurate. I decided to test it by canceling the ride. I sat waiting in my car, phone in hand waiting to see if the potential rider would perhaps reset its location or something, but no it was still there pinging from the Ogden Cemetery.


I wondered if perhaps it was just someone without a car who was visiting the grave of a deceased loved one. It was recently Memorial Day, which in my mind made sense. It didn't make accepting the ride a second time  and proceeding through into the actual cemetery any easier.

On the drive into the Ogden City Cemetery it was deserted, like there was no one around. There were however signs that people had been in and out in the past few days, paying respects to their loved ones as many graves had been decorated with patriotic decor and flowers. The idea that it might be a disabled or car-less person, just needing a ride from visiting their deceased relative was comforting, but not enough to ease away the butterflies in my stomach.


I reviewed the details and as it turned out, I was already pretty close to my pick up. It was a section of the cemetery intersection 10 Avenue and Martin Hilltop Drive, which was near the very back, far left corner of the place. If you've never been or aren't from Ogden Utah, the Cemetery here is huge and sprawling, filled with many graves from the pioneer and World War II eras.


I glanced at the details again and the alleged rider's name was C. Cunningham...odd I thought, as usually it would only list a first name and no initials. I continued along the drive, noticing that as I progressed through the cemetery, more and more headstones began to look dilapidated, displaced, or outright destroyed. Also in this area the trees have taken on a very odd appearance of 'bulging' at the trunk giving the appearance of being pregnant. I think it's called a "burl" or "burr" and has something to do with a deformed growth from within the tree's ecosystem.


On the trees, one thing that my mind randomly conjured up was an old elemetary school memory of some of my peers on the playground informing me that those "pregnant trees" for lack of a better term, were in fact evil. The bulging was caused by a ghost or spirit desperate to regain a living body that it possessed a tree and became stuck and created the abnormal appearance. I thought that was all hogwash, but of course driving through a cemetery road lined with several of these dead and honestly demonic-looking trees makes me feel less confident in my original assertion.



I came up on ‘10 Ave’, it was along the evil tree-lined street. Lots of decayed, toppled over and outright destroyed headstones and they appear to have very little in the way of care to them. These graves were old, like really old. If you've seen any Documentary on Salem, Witchcraft or Halloween in old America then you've seen the types of headstones; slate gray or solid white, the epitaph more or less erased from decades of sun decay. Likely these graves have no living relatives to visit them, which explains the lack of flowers or Memorial Day decor.


Martin Hilltop Drive, it was just around the bend and curves straight back and around, my rider is very near now. What's unsettling is that there are lots and I mean hundreds of graves in this cemetery as well as bigger pine trees that obscures my view and prevents me from seeing who may be waiting for me ahead.


"In five-hundred yards, pick up 'C. Cunningham'." my GPS droned out in that dreadful monotone voice. As I rounded the bend, I dropped my car to a crawl. I could see pretty clear ahead of me now that I was away from the trees, but I saw no one. They might still be paying respects at a grave I thought. "In two-hundred yards, pick up 'C. Cunningham'." Well I can easily see two hundred yards ahead of me, and I saw no one or nothing waiting for me.


I kept the car crawling; slowly inching my way through the old cemetery road eying the different graves on either side until I came to an abrupt end, the very corner of the road, a particularly dead-looking treet overhangs some indiscernible graves. "Pick up 'C. Cunningham'," my GPS blurted out plainly. I looked around on either side of the street, there's no way anyone is waiting for me here...because there was no one here. I decided to wait for a one solid minute, and if I didn't someone approach the car from around that ugly tree then I was canceling and getting the hell out of there.


"Pick up 'C. Cunningham'," my GPS droned again. I reached for the lock button and locked all of the doors of my car without second thought, IF there really was someone in need of a ride then they could verify their order as they approach. Keeping my hands in a death grip on the steering wheel, I gazed into the rear view mirror, having a thought that someone could in fact be trying to stealthily enter my car or pull a weapon on me. Ogden does have a criminal element and a small gang presence, even if diminished due to recent gentrification projects throughout the city. Even so, I didn't want to risk it.


"Pick up 'C. Cunningham'," my GPS ordered once again, like a drill sergeant issuing a command. That's it, it had been one full minute and no one was coming, because there was NOBODY to get. Eying the area once more before taking off, my eyes did notice a couple of distinctly older-looking headstones nestled quietly underneath the overgrown ugly tree. None of them stood out to me as being noteworthy, but they were remarkably old, like probably prohibition or civil war era old.


Feeling spooked enough as it was, I floored it out of there. My GPS didn't hesitate to scold me again, "In 1 yard, in 5 yards, in half a mile pick up 'C. Cunningham'." This had to be a glitch I thought as I reached for my phone, "In two miles, pick up; 'C. Cunningham'." the GPS once again commanded. I was ready to cancel and shut the GPS up for the night, but as I reached to cancel my eyes caught notice of something startling in the ride details; rider, 'C. Cunningham'. Location of course was the Ogden Cemetery, but the destination...Clearfield, not just anywhere in Clearfield, no. It wanted dropped off at the Clearfield Cemetery. I instantly hit cancel and got the hell out of dodge.
 

I felt too creeped out to immediately drive home, and my Mom had warned me against going directly home from places where spirits are active. I drove out to a nearby Maverik, bought some drinks and sat in the parking lot for what felt like an hour or until I felt reasonably sure I could go home without something latching on and following me.


A few months later I was bored and out of curiosity I checked the lyft and uber apps for potential riders again, and once again I found the mysterious "C. Cunningham" still waiting for a ride acceptance, clear out at 10 Avenue and Martin Hilltop Drive, at the Ogden City Cemetery.

 

Could it have been wannabe gang members looking for an easy mark or a target for an initiation? Perhaps. Was it just someone's sick idea of a joke? Could be, it is possible to set a location for a pick-up while not physically being in the area. Was it a just a glitch in the system? Again, possible but seeing as how the same ride request for the same person in the same location to the same destination has been active for WEEKS after this initial encounter, I'm going to say no. Was it a ghost? Honestly, I don't know. I know a lot of people hate it when others immediately jump to the "it's paranormal" as a possible explanation, and this incident could very well have been something as mundane as the above mentioned. However, something deep inside about this whole thing just doesn't sit right with me, like what sane, well-adjusted, mentally stable person would commit to doing this bizarre and rather scary request? Once was bad enough, but to keep at it for weeks after the fact, that's dedication.

And even if it was just a person and not a ghost doing it, that individual is probably not someone I'd want to meet much less have them in my car. 

 I have since deleted my Lyft and Uber apps after that and now only work Doordash for part-time monetary income.