Baby monitor spookiness

[_Danforth_]

I was in the kitchen one morning, about a week ago, preparing breakfast for my two small daughters. While they're not babies anymore, we still have a baby monitor, for when they're up in bed and we're downstairs with the telly on / eating in the kitchen / etc. They share a bedroom, and if we can hear one of them kick off, we can get upstairs before it wakes the other one!

Anyway, that morning, the speaker was in the kitchen with us and the microphone was in the girls' room.

I had my back to the girls, buttering their toast. The girls were trying to get my attention.

"Daddy!"
"Daaaaaddy!"
"Daddy daddy daddy"
"DA! DY!"
"...daddy?"

Tingles shot up my spine as I realised this last, uncertain, fuzzy "daddy?" had come from the speaker, broadcasting from the empty upstairs room...

Now there are plenty of potential rational explanations for this - baby monitors are notorious for broadcasting cross-chatter from other people's monitors, minicab radios, Russian spies etc. and, let's face it, if it was interference from someone else's monitor, that's just the sort of word that's likely to come through.

But damn, it was still spooky.

 

[GNC]

Probably a coincidence, but creepy all the same. You didn't recognise the monitor voice, did you? A bit difficult from one word, I'll grant you.

 

[titch]

I was thinking interference,but it still sent a shiver down my spine...imagine you heard it at 3 in the morning... :shock:

 

[Dingo667]

I love stories about baby monitors. I once had a creepy experience, told already on this forum somewhere but in a nutshell:
I was in the kitchen with the kid in question eating when I heard a very distorted [as in deliberately] voice saying strange things in a strange way. Sort of like "Whyyyyyyyyy diiid you haave to gooooooooo" and extremely loud shrieking, panting, breathing. It went on and on and sounded like a mad old woman, screaming and talking nonstop for about 5 or more minutes.
First I was curious, knowing fully well about interferences and picking up other people's phones or monitors etc. I started listening because I wanted to hear what was going on in someone else's home . The longer I listened though the more queazy I got as this was not a normal person speaking. The voice was going low and high and words were strung out and the things that were said were not normal either. In the end I had that 'knot' in my belly when you suddenly realise that something is 'serious' [or unnatural].
All it could have been is as I said earlier, a really, seriously deranged person being monitored probably [privately cared fore as there was no homes anywhere near]. I had to switch off as it was getting seriously horrid.

 

[GNC]

Is it possible for monitors' transmissions to go all wonky like that? Something to do with the distance the stray signal they're picking up is?

 

[Rushfan62]

Is it possible that your daughters were shouting "Daddy" loud enough fo the microphone upstairs to have picked it up?
Dingo667, your tale creeped me out, I'm gonna see if I can locate the full account you said you posted, both great stories. I was starting to think nothing happened to anyone anymore

 

[OneWingedBird]

I had to switch off as it was getting seriously horrid.

Now if you switched it off and you could still hear it, that would be a real pant wetter :shock:

Good story. Didn;t you worry it could be a crazy person in your house?

 

[_Danforth_]

@gncxx: No, I didn't recognise the voice. It was a youngster, but I wouldn't guess beyond that. If it wasn't for the angle the sound came from, and the transmission distortion, I'd have put it down to one of my daughters changing attention-grabbing tactic

@titch: Yes, hearing it at 3am from a room I knew to be empty would give me the willies; I hope I'd still be rational about the mundane explanations, though that's a good deal easier on a bright sunny morning!

@rushfan62: Definitely not my two - they were out of range of the microphone, and the transmission time is next to nothing so the monitor "copy" would have overlapped with the original speech.. The "daddy?" was in the clear, as it were.

@gncxx, again: The sound on my model is sent down the power lines. I've never heard of sustained distortion on the lines of Dingo667's experience. For which I count myself fortunate. But I do get CB-radio-esque squelching and pitch shifting occasionally.

 

[Dingo667]

The OP creeps me out because of its subtleness. Kids shouting, then just a normal quiet voice "copying" what they say... brrrr. Can monitors be also microphones, like speakers? The reason I ask is, that it may have been an 'echo' from the kids shouting?


As to my own experience, it would be interesting to find the OP, to see how well I remembered
The thing is, I was able to 'cope' with the voice because I thought it must have a rational explanation, even though I felt really scared, I kept up a 'normal' attitude, as the child I was looking after was with me and I didn't want to worry her as she asked what I was doing.

I want more baby-monitor stories, they give me nice chills...

 

[linesmachine]

My Mum's neighbour has a good story where she and her husband were watching "The Money Program" (sorry but I always like to mention that part) and her two infant sons were in bed. She heard one of them crying and went up stairs to referee the incident whilst the father sat drinking homebrew in front the TV. When the Mum had sorted out the crying she came down and the dad grinned and said something like;
"....don't joke about it, it won't be long before they ARE like that." the Mum was like "what?" and he just laughed and went to bed.

The next day the full story was revealed. The Dad, whilst sat watching TV had listened to the baby monitor whilst the Mum went upstairs. He heard the usual comforting "shhshshhhs" etc and then, after the crying had died he heard what he thought was the Mum putting on a childs voice and saying "She's gone! she's gone! What a bitch!" Now the oldest was just over 1 year old. It freaked them out a bit but a few nights later they explained it. My bro and I were about 13 and 14 and lived next door. We had received walky talkies for Xmas and during the night spoke on them between our rooms. We must have been talking, heard the neighbour climb the stairs and thought (because the houses were so cheaply constructed) that it was our own mother checking up on us. Then when she went back down reported the all clear!

 

[AngelAlice]

My Mum's neighbour has a good story where she and her husband were watching "The Money Program" (sorry but I always like to mention that part) and her two infant sons were in bed. She heard one of them crying and went up stairs to referee the incident whilst the father sat drinking homebrew in front the TV. When the Mum had sorted out the crying she came down and the dad grinned and said something like;
"....don't joke about it, it won't be long before they ARE like that." the Mum was like "what?" and he just laughed and went to bed.

The next day the full story was revealed. The Dad, whilst sat watching TV had listened to the baby monitor whilst the Mum went upstairs. He heard the usual comforting "shhshshhhs" etc and then, after the crying had died he heard what he thought was the Mum putting on a childs voice and saying "She's gone! she's gone! What a bitch!" Now the oldest was just over 1 year old. It freaked them out a bit but a few nights later they explained it. My bro and I were about 13 and 14 and lived next door. We had received walky talkies for Xmas and during the night spoke on them between our rooms. We must have been talking, heard the neighbour climb the stairs and thought (because the houses were so cheaply constructed) that it was our own mother checking up on us. Then when she went back down reported the all clear!

You call your mom a bitch? :shock:

 

[linesmachine]

!

You call your mom a bitch? :shock:[/quote]

Lol, I know! Terrible really but we were going through a teenager grump stage maybe.

 

[maxley]

I did my motorcycle course in Bristol and we had to wear radio receivers so the instructor could talk to us. These were on the same wavelength as baby monitors and one day we were riding around Bradley Stoke, a huge, seemingly deserted housing estate. Suddenly and dramatically the sky darkened and it absolutely slashed down with rain. Then came a huge clap of thunder. There was a short pause and we heard dozens of just-woken babies wailing in fear.

Rarely have I experienced anything so dislocating and scary.

 

[escargot]

:shock: Bet that rattled you!

 

[maxley]

Too right. I always thought it'd make a great scene in a movie. Disembodied children's voices being a staple of scariness - although usually it's nursery rhymes done in a minor key.

 

[SarahF]

Spooky monitor

My sister uses a monitor at night for our very elderly mother. I was having a lie-in while visiting them recently and had the monitor in my room, to give my sister a break. My sister had just got our mother up so there should have been no-one in our mother's room, we keep the door closed to stop my sister's dogs from going in, when I heard what sounded like snoring on the monitor - it was clear and lasted for about a minute. When I went downstairs and asked my sister about it she said that she has heard the snoring over the monitor on previous occasions.

 

[_Danforth_]

Re: Spooky monitor

...Suddenly and dramatically the sky darkened and it absolutely slashed down with rain. Then came a huge clap of thunder. There was a short pause and we heard dozens of just-woken babies wailing in fear.

Rarely have I experienced anything so dislocating and scary.

Frankly I'm impressed you kept the bike on the road! And I thought mine was spooky

...I heard what sounded like snoring on the monitor - it was clear and lasted for about a minute. When I went downstairs and asked my sister about it she said that she has heard the snoring over the monitor on previous occasions.

Like my own experience, although that's just the sort of noise that might come over your baby monitor from someone else's receiver... doesn't stop it being spooky.

Going back to my original post. There are no babies in the houses around me, that I know of (and I've been specifically keeping an eye out for them since the event). Wonder how far interference can carry? maxley's post suggests a longer range than I'd first supposed...

 

[paranoid420]

I work midnight shift alone in creepy industrial area, when i go out for smoke i bring baby moniter in case phone inside rings. I live in fear of disembodied voices, is it just distortion? Is that guy from the scream movies waiting inside to kill me when i come back in? I cant very well call the cops on my cell and say i think someones inside, they would know what i was smoking. I havent heard any evil children singing nursey rhymes at 2 AM or anything yet, thank god.

 

[linesmachine]

I work midnight shift alone in creepy industrial area, when i go out for smoke i bring baby moniter in case phone inside rings. I live in fear of disembodied voices, is it just distortion? Is that guy from the scream movies waiting inside to kill me when i come back in? I cant very well call the cops on my cell and say i think someones inside, they would know what i was smoking. I havent heard any evil children singing nursey rhymes at 2 AM or anything yet, thank god.

Lol, that IS a pretty spooky situation. From my dope smoking days I know it can't help if you've been smoking the 'erb either.

 

[AtomicBadger]

There's a spooky short film (ultra short, actually) about just this topic from Daywalt Studios:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9IhzPTMSk

Most of their stuff is just jump scares, but a few are really inspired and chilling. Made me think of this one right off.

 

[nowt5]

I love stories about baby monitors. I once had a creepy experience, told already on this forum

Been trying to find that post but I've had no luck, have you got any idea which thread it was in?

 

[Dingo667]

I love stories about baby monitors. I once had a creepy experience, told already on this forum

Been trying to find that post but I've had no luck, have you got any idea which thread it was in?

I am even worse at finding old posts, or I would have probably given a link. It could have been under the thread about some speakers that were making funny noises or something similar, it was just a post I think, not a thread. I'll have another look.

If not I'll write it again if anyone wants to know.

 

[nowt5]

I love stories about baby monitors. I once had a creepy experience, told already on this forum

Been trying to find that post but I've had no luck, have you got any idea which thread it was in?

I am even worse at finding old posts, or I would have probably given a link. It could have been under the thread about some speakers that were making funny noises or something similar, it was just a post I think, not a thread. I'll have another look.

If not I'll write it again if anyone wants to know.

lol fair enough, i had another look but had no luck unfortunately. it'd be great if you could type it up again, cheers.

 

[Number 6]

I love stories about baby monitors. I once had a creepy experience, told already on this forum

Been trying to find that post but I've had no luck, have you got any idea which thread it was in?

I am even worse at finding old posts, or I would have probably given a link. It could have been under the thread about some speakers that were making funny noises or something similar, it was just a post I think, not a thread. I'll have another look.

If not I'll write it again if anyone wants to know.

lol fair enough, i had another look but had no luck unfortunately. it'd be great if you could type it up again, cheers.

Think I've found it, or a reference to it anyway
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 170#683170

Definately not a taxi or police radio.

It's more like groans or someone shouting something nasty. Bit like an "oiiii!" but quite threatening.

I'll try to listen really hard next time I have the audio setting on.

O jeez, on the baby-radio thread I mentioned [I think] that I quite know the difference between a cab firm or police radio or normal people speaking, so when I heard a voice coming once from a baby-radio, I listened with glee, believing that I could spy on the neighbours. However after a few minutes I got the heebie-jeebies. It was a combination of what was said and how it was said.
First of all there was only one voice, that of an old woman. She said stuff like: " Why did you gooooooooooooo....?" [Pls see above cut sentence, because it was that "oiiii" that brought back this memory], then stuff like strange noises, threatening a little, hissing howling and strangely drawn out words. In between this voice kept saying:"I didn't want to leeeeeeaave" or "Why?" and dramatic stuff like that.
First I thought it might be a phonecall that I stumbled upon, lets say that of an older mum to her accusing kids or similar, which might have been distorted. However that also changed, because she kept repeating stuff and didn't particularily wait for any answers, just really horrible sounding [brrrrrr]. Wasn't a TV program either due to the above, it just didn't fit and believe me I really tried to find something rational because it freaked me out big time.
I must have listened to it for at least 15 minutes of the same stuf, then I had to switch it off...could take anymore and wasn't funny either.

So TigerLily I believe you when you say it wasn't a cab or similar because it is the first thing we all think about when this happens.

 

[Dingo667]

That's the one. Amazing how some people can find these things on here.