According to a 1958 edition of The Sheffield Star, an Irish coal miner named John McGroary passed out after seeing a ghost at work. He later described his experience as "a vision and a light..it looked like Wilfred Hales". This same event occurred again, this time to another miner called Keith Plant. He too said it bore resemblance to Wilfred Hales. The ghost in question was that of a fellow miner who had suddenly collapsed a few years earlier, aged only 30. The story travelled quickly through the couple of thousand miners employed by the company which led to complaints about reduced productivity. It seems everyone was loking out for Wilfred. It was common belief among the mining trade that seeing ghosts was a sign of coming disaster, where their departed friends would return to pass on the warning.