Workers at an Illinois coroner's office said unexplained sounds and other strange happenings began when a body was left in a cooler for months.

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Robert Barrett, senior deputy coroner with the Lake County Coroner's office, said workers began hearing strange knocking sounds and glimpsing figures walking around the autopsy room after the body of a woman who died in a nursing home was inadvertently left in a cooler for several months before she was identified, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

"Some things that have happened here have made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up," said Barrett, who described himself as skeptical of the supernatural.

"The first time I heard the knocking on the inside of the cooler, I was here at night by myself," Barrett said. "I didn't get up for at least an hour or two, so if anyone did come out I was at a safe distance."

County Coroner Richard Keller said he has also had mysterious experiences at the office.

"Shortly after I took office I went to check for a pulse on a woman and when I touched her I received some sort of electric shock and was knocked back into a sitting position," he said. "It was quite a surprise. I looked around to see if there were any wires down or something to explain it, but there was none of that."