To a large extent, I am personally the strangest thing that happens at my work---but you've already seen evidence of that. I work at a government research and development contractor company. People are a bit nerdy, but quite professional, and not usually strange. However, just as I was losing hope of ever being able to do this task, something odd began to happen. Every few minutes, a high pitched electronic tone would come from the general area of my desk and computer. (beeep)

First, I started asking everyone who came to my office whether they heard the noise. (I think I even asked JJason when he was in town.) Turns out that a significant fraction of my older coworkers can't hear this frequency, so they just thought I was getting all excited about auditory hallucinations. (beeep) But I was able to get someone to confirm that they also heard the noise. I was advised by a sys admin that perhaps there was some kind of feedback happening between computer components, so we changed a bunch of audio settings on my computer, and then plugged in some external speakers to try and determine if the sound got louder or not.

Well, the sound did seem to get louder. However, when I unplugged the speakers, the sound was still at the new louder volume. (beeep) And, most peculiarly, I heard the sound even when my laptop was off the docking station and powered off. I started asking my friends for suggestions, convinced that some kind of incompatibility in computer peripherals was producing the noise. My sys admin discovered an odd device on the wall, which looked like an old thermostat. Yet, I'd never noticed it before---was this some kind of recent monitoring device or experimental sensor? (beeep) Or had I just never noticed?

As it turns out, the thing on the wall was in fact a defunct thermostat. The strange noise was revealed to be coming from a small, electronic strange noise emitter (Annoy-A-Tron) that my department manager had planted under my desk. The ironic thing is that several days before this started, I had been in my manager's office when he heard a strange high pitched noise, and we'd discussed what might be causing it. (beeep) But this all completely slipped my mind when I started hearing the noise so I did not suspect him at all.

This incident was strange because I don't work at the sort of place where people play jokes. Also, I sometimes don't get jokes and can come across as not being the sort of personality that reacts well to pranks, so it was surprising to me that I was selected as the target. All in all, I was more entertained than annoyed.