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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Trevp666 said:
In a house I used to live in, over in Hemel Hempstead, I once found a very rusty key on the pavement outside, some distance down the street, and when I checked it, it turned out to be the key for my front door!
Both myself and my (then) missus were the only people who had keys, and it was a house we had bought some 3 years previously, and neither of us had ever lost a key.
That pavement was one I walked everyday for a couple of years too, in a nice area, with regular cleaning & litter picking, and the key I found was just in plain view in the middle of the pavement.
Now that did strike me as peculiar yet I attributed it to JOOTT.
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Did you change your locks when you moved in? Was there a hidden outside key you'd forgotten?
 
Trevp666 said:
In a house I used to live in, over in Hemel Hempstead, I once found a very rusty key on the pavement outside, some distance down the street, and when I checked it, it turned out to be the key for my front door!
Both myself and my (then) missus were the only people who had keys, and it was a house we had bought some 3 years previously, and neither of us had ever lost a key.
That pavement was one I walked everyday for a couple of years too, in a nice area, with regular cleaning & litter picking, and the key I found was just in plain view in the middle of the pavement.
Now that did strike me as peculiar yet I attributed it to JOOTT.
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If your front door lock was old another, nearish-matching key might open it. I've seen this done. I imagine you lined up the rusty key against your own before trying it though.
 
We didn't change the locks when we moved in. And there was no 'hidden outside key'.
I realised it was the key to our front door when I saw it cos it had a distinctive cut to it, so lined it up against my own key and it was identical, but waaaay too rusty to even get it in the keyhole.
 
Trevp666 said:
We didn't change the locks when we moved in. And there was no 'hidden outside key'.
I realised it was the key to our front door when I saw it cos it had a distinctive cut to it, so lined it up against my own key and it was identical, but waaaay too rusty to even get it in the keyhole.
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So maybe the previous owner hid a key and lost it or forgot about it.
 
Bad Bungle said:
So all I actually have is an absolutely-standard replacement key that appeared on the sitting room carpet
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Do you wear shoes that have a serious tread upon their soles?

These are capable of accidently acquiring/ relocating small underfoot objects such as bolts/nails/bullets & cartridge cases....and even lost keys.

Another vector via which shiny slippery alien keys can deposite themselves onto your floor can be a delayed escape from the deep pockets of an unused outdoor seasonal jacket that's been left on the hook for years, then reanimated from its slumber (and inadvertently inverted) whilst being shaken back into needful service.

Keys can also become effortlessly-kicked huge accidental distances over slick laminate floors (including via the undergaps of closed doors) and can lurk under rugs for ages (irrespective of supposed cleaning regimes)
 
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Heard a crash/bang/wallop on Sunday with no discernable cause or consequences, but didn't associate it with the key appearance as that was a couple of days later. However - thinking back, the commotion wasn't dissimilar to some-one falling out of bed in the room above me. Or maybe some-one falling onto the bed, like I did this morning. Time slip ? Will I get a replacement key cut next week ?
 
When my husband died I gave lots of small coins he had collected to our granddaughters.
As my grandson loves to collect coins I was thinking the other day that it's a shame I didn't have any for him.
Since then I've been finding 5 cent coins again, not a lot but when I open a box or drawer that I've previously put something in recently there will be a coin there.
I like to think that maybe he's still around.
 
Trevp666 said:
Lobbing a key randomly onto the path, some hundred yards from the house, 3 years after moving out, seems like a rather poor way to hide a key.
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lt might have been dropped just outside the front door, then kicked / carried in shoe tread the 100 yards to where you saw it over a period of months or years.

maximus otter
 
Min Bannister said:
Any pot plants out the front that you had given away? A key could have been stuck underneath then dropped off the bottom as it was carried away.
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Good point. I hadn't considered that. But no, no potted plants (or similar, and I would keep the pot plants...) were moved.
Tempest63 said:
Any recent poltergeist activity?
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Not AFAIK - the house was fairly modern and no spirit manifestations or portals to the netherworlds were apparent.
maximus otter said:
lt might have been dropped just outside the front door, then kicked / carried in shoe tread the 100 yards to where you saw it over a period of months or years.
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Well I guess it might have, but seeing as I walked along that path daily, back and forward, over the course of many months and hadn't spotted it until then, it seems extremely unlikely.
That part of Hemel Hempstead was rather posh and well kept, with no litter, and the paths kept clear and clean, doncha know.
 
Any recent poltergeist activity?
Tempest63 said:
Didn't the Battersea Poltergeist case start with a key unexpectedly appearing on a bed?
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Here's a clip from 'The Battersea Poltergeist' story. . .
Screenshot (101).png

I vaguely remember hearing about this when I lived on the outskirts of London, and I think I'm right that it was put down by so-called 'experts' as being a hoax? (I think this was the conclusion as hoaxing was admitted to (in part) at some stage?)
 
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henry said:
different key
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No, it was absolutely, undeniably, the key for that lock.
No doubt about that whatsoever. Our front door lock was a particular type of key shape, and the cut to the business edge was such an extreme shape that it was a 100% clear match for the key we found.
If anything, that was what made it so memorable and totally bizarre, as if it had been just a similar looking key, or obviously different, then it would have just been cast aside and forgotten about.
 
Replacement key found on carpet fits my front door - another minor strangeness reduced to a sequence of non-mysterious events.
I found a new local keysmith months ago and had a copy cut for the door in case I locked myself out. Problem was where to keep it ? Obviously not in the flat, unhappy with it under the mat, not in the car as I already had the master on the ring with my car keys and quite capable of leaving that in the flat. That left the motorbike which has an underseat storage I don't lock, so the key went into the wet weather poncho pouch. And forgotten about.
Bike was stolen/damaged/recovered at the station carpark in December whilst I was at work. Before the Garage towed the bike (smashed ignition lock) I removed the wet weather gear (including the poncho).
Fastforward to preparing my bag in the sitting room for a Dig I knew would be wet .... poncho pouch retrieved from spare room, key fell out onto carpet unobserved, bag went on top. The rest, as they say, is senility.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Replacement key found on carpet fits my front door - another minor strangeness reduced to a sequence of non-mysterious events.
I found a new local keysmith months ago and had a copy cut for the door in case I locked myself out. Problem was where to keep it ? Obviously not in the flat, unhappy with it under the mat, not in the car as I already had the master on the ring with my car keys and quite capable of leaving that in the flat. That left the motorbike which has an underseat storage I don't lock, so the key went into the wet weather poncho pouch. And forgotten about.
Bike was stolen/damaged/recovered at the station carpark in December whilst I was at work. Before the Garage towed the bike (smashed ignition lock) I removed the wet weather gear (including the poncho).
Fastforward to preparing my bag in the sitting room for a Dig I knew would be wet .... poncho pouch retrieved from spare room, key fell out onto carpet unobserved, bag went on top. The rest, as they say, is senility.
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I love happy endings! Solved then - good. :twothumbs:
 
Trevp666 said:
No, it was absolutely, undeniably, the key for that lock.
No doubt about that whatsoever. Our front door lock was a particular type of key shape, and the cut to the business edge was such an extreme shape that it was a 100% clear match for the key we found.
If anything, that was what made it so memorable and totally bizarre, as if it had been just a similar looking key, or obviously different, then it would have just been cast aside and forgotten about.
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should unlock the door then
 
Trevp666 said:
Well yes, it would have done if the excessive amount of rust on the flat sides would have allowed it to slide easily into the tight hole.
(Quiet at the back).
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I was once talking to a locksmith and he said that back in the 1970s there were basically only three keys for doors. That's why quite often your key would fit your mates door (as mine did).
 
Floyd1 said:
I was once talking to a locksmith and he said that back in the 1970s there were basically only three keys for doors. That's why quite often your key would fit your mates door (as mine did).
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The ignition on my Escort van in the late 70s was so worn that you could start it with virtually any similar shaped key. I improved the security of the van by accident when my key snapped off in the ignition one day and from then on only my half of the key would start it:)
 
Floyd1 said:
I was once talking to a locksmith and he said that back in the 1970s there were basically only three keys for doors. That's why quite often your key would fit your mates door (as mine did).
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And you tried this out on your mate's door? Are you still mates?:evillaugh:
 
I found a combination padlock and chain for a bicycle on the banks of a flooded gravel quarry in the early '70s. Near Heathrow, under the Concorde flightpath, I was in a rowing boat - memories starting to return. Anyway, I opened the lock with the 4 (or was it 5) number code for my own chain at home. Not particularly unusual, but it did impress my mate.
 
Trevp666 said:
No, it was absolutely, undeniably, the key for that lock.
No doubt about that whatsoever. Our front door lock was a particular type of key shape, and the cut to the business edge was such an extreme shape that it was a 100% clear match for the key we found.
If anything, that was what made it so memorable and totally bizarre, as if it had been just a similar looking key, or obviously different, then it would have just been cast aside and forgotten about.
Click to expand...
Floyd1 said:
I was once talking to a locksmith and he said that back in the 1970s there were basically only three keys for doors. That's why quite often your key would fit your mates door (as mine did).
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Trev I suspect Floyd's explanation might be the answer, so rest easy. I remember having to visit someone who repeatedly reported items missing from her home with no signs of anyone forcing entry. Suspected dementia or fraud but the Police found her neighbour had exactly the same lock and key which was being used to get in when the lady was out.
 
Morning Sir - it was a club dig on short cropped pasture (sheep) to get us out of the house and it rained and then really rained. Water on the surface but wasn't cold until the wind picked up on the hillside and blew my new Sou'wester storm-hat off six times. 3 buttons, a bullet and a car full of mud. One occasion when I should have stayed in the house.
 
Oh that’s a bugger hope you have better weather next time.
But it got you out of the house and wet through sounds a lot like most of the digs I went on
 
brownmane said:
And you tried this out on your mate's door? Are you still mates?:evillaugh:
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Haven't seen him for years as I moved away, but this was a time (and place) when doors could be pushed open with a gentle nudge, let alone having to use a key. And the wooden window frames in some houses were that rotten in places that they were ready to fall out.
 
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