Sandy Daum has worked at SamB’s Restaurant for more than 20 years and when she works late nights alone, she sometimes catches herself looking over her shoulder.

The third floor of the restaurant is rumored to be haunted and Daum believes the rumors.

“It’s rumored there was a murder on the third floor,” Daum, a manager at SamB’s, said. “I’ve heard people who’ve said they’ve seen ghosts and I believe them.”

The alleged paranormal activity has even caused past employees to quit. One employee was vacuuming late one night, when he looked up and saw the ghost of an old woman.

“He ran out and didn’t come back,” she said. “He always felt like he was being watched.”

The sensation of being watched is a common occurrence at the restaurant, Daum said.

Although Daum has never seen a ghost herself, she did have an experience she thinks may have been paranormal.

One night, Daum was standing in the kitchen alone and all of a sudden, all the pans fell down.

“I still don’t know what it was, but I’d love to debunk it myself,” she said.

Daum wasn’t the only person interested in debunking the SamB’s haunting.

The paranormal research team, Toledo Haunted Occurrences Research, went to the restaurant in 2009 to investigate the claims.

Director Bryan Sayre said he and his team set up cameras and sound equipment in the restaurant once it got dark.

“After a half-hour, we could hear something moving,” Sayre said. “We heard plain as day something being drug across the floor.”

The team’s sound equipment also picked up the noises the group heard and after running additional tests, the group concluded it was a folding chair moving across the floor on it’s own.

“That building is definitely active,” Sayre said. “There’s paranormal activity in SamB’s.”

The team went back to the restaurant for a second time and encountered more paranormal activity.

The research team was in the Garden Room of the restaurant when its audio recorders started picking up sounds and the team went to investigate.

“I heard what sounded like someone cackling and another investigator goes, ‘I heard it too,’” Sayre said. “The best way to describe it was that it was like a cackling laugh.”

A psychic was also present at the investigation and Sayre said she sensed a presence in the room with them.

Senior Alexis Hatano said she’s always heard SamB’s was haunted.

“My friends who grew up here talk about it all the time,” Hatano said. “[The story] has been passed down between the townspeople.”

Although Hatano has never seen a ghost in the restaurant, she has had paranormal experience of her own.

When she was younger, she said she walked downstairs in her house and saw a young ghost.

“He was nice,” Hatano said. “It was just kind of weird.”

Because of her experience, she said she’d like to see the ghosts in SamB’s.

“I would like to go, but I’m easily afraid of everything,” she said. “It’s kind of iffy.”

Daum said she’d probably believe anyone who claims to have seen ghosts in her restaurant because she believes there’s more in the universe than meets the eye.

“I just believe when I look outside on a summer night and see those stars, I think they can’t be there just for us,” Daum said. “I’ve just been forever curious.”