Minor Strangeness

[IamSundog]

I'm wondering what would happen if they rang me with a British version of that spiel and I said 'OK then, come and arrest me, I won't go without a fight! I have guns!'

Yeah I got to thinking if there’s a next time, I’ll just tell them, “Yeah it was me, I can’t live with the guilt anymore, come and arrest me.”

 

[IbisNibs]

Last Wednesday I got a scam call that my social security number had been tied to criminal activity and was going to be suspended.

That's one way to get out of paying income taxes (until, I guess, they issue you a "new number" )

I needed to cooperate with the authorities and “stop Googling”

Yeah! STOP GOOGLING, EVERYONE!

 

[PeteS]

Sadly not everyone thinks things through, and even the most cautious person can be overwhelmed when under pressure.

True. Sadly Ms Petes, horrendously stressed out from work, got scammed by the "refund" from Sky scam. The scammer got full access to her computer (while I was out for just an hour), obviously looking for bank details. Within minutes after the end of the call, her bank had stopped all transactions, catching the scam immediately. A week later "Sky" tried it again, but I answered, let the scammer ramble for a bit, and then let rip in less than glamorous language. These characters are ruthless indeed.

 

[escargot]

So I've now decided that next spam call we get will not be ignored but picked up and savoured, if it's a real person.

I'll be easing myself into this new hobby. To begin with, all questions will be answered with 'I am naked right now'.

 

[Sogna]

I knew a truck driver once (lets call him 'Dave') who was always getting bargains - usually while parked at 'truck stops', other drivers might have some items in their load that they were.....(cough cough)......'disposing of'.
One time he was massively conned though, when he purchased a brand new DVD player, still in it's original unopened box etc, for £30 (this was when they were the latest thing and would have cost a good couple of hundred quid).
The guy selling them even opened the box to show the item to 'Dave' and all seemed fine.
So anyway, when 'Dave' gets back to the yard and shows us his latest bargain, upon getting it out of the box and inspecting it, it was discovered to be a DVD-player-shaped-piece-of-wood with all the correct labels applied in all the right places though, also the remote control, and no plug or wires, or connection ports or anything.
Clearly someone had come into possession of all the labelling and packaging for the DVD players, and had then spent a bit of time cutting wood into the right size, painting it black, then labelling it and boxing it up.

If they’d spent the same amount of time and energy doing something legal they would probably have been able to make more than £30

 

[gordonrutter]

My email account was hacked by someone claiming to be me stranded in France and asking for money for a flight back to England. I certainly found out who my friends were, my sister said she knew it wasn’t me because I don’t fly, but even if it was she’d only have sent me enough for the ferry.

That happened to someone at my work and a lot of peoples reactions before realising it was a scam was “good, glad to see the back of them”.

 

[Bad Bungle]

I was watching pigeons in Aylesbury Market Square at lunchtime today, lining up at the plant holders. There are drainage holes in the planters at bird head-height, just the size to fit a beak and clearly the birds were taking a drink. I don't know if that was a deliberate design feature - strangely genius if it was.

 

[maximus otter]

I was watching pigeons in Aylesbury Market Square at lunchtime...

maximus otter

 

[PeteS]

'I am naked right now'.

Don't do video calls then - no what am I saying do video calls. By the way are you aware that refunds are available from HMRC and DVLA by phoning a number which I'll send to you.

 

[Dick Turpin]

This is an odd one that I thought I’d share with you.

Quite late on Saturday night, I was sitting in the living room watching a documentary via the BBC I player.

The wife had sloped off to bed about an hour before, so I’m sitting there alone, when very suddenly I started to notice a very strong smell of smoke, not tobacco smoke etc. but proper smoke as if wood was burning.

I’d liken the smell to sitting next to a wood burning fire place in a country pub etc.

Now to smell wood burning in this house is alarming, as the house is mainly timber built. I checked the hallway, and can smell nothing, I checked the kitchen, upstairs, the kids rooms (quietly) and also nothing. I came back downstairs and re-entered the living room, and if anything the smell seemed to be even stronger.

I opened up the patio doors to the back garden, as I thought the smell must be wafting in from outside – but no, I couldn’t smell anything there either.

This house does not have a fireplace, and nor do any of my neighbours houses (it’s an old barn conversion and the houses wasn’t originally built as homes) so where the smell came from, I have no idea.

When I first moved into this house 5 years ago, one of my neighbours told me a little history of the property, and sometime in the 1750’s the place caught fire, and the entire village turned out to help put out the flames, so on a fortean level did I smell the ghost of fire smoke from the 1750’s…?

 

[Sollywos]

I’d liken the smell to sitting next to a wood burning fire place in a country pub etc.

Sure you haven't got one of those plug in multi change air freshners and in between 'Summer Glade' and 'Scents of the Sea' there's an 'Atmosphere of Country Pub' ?

No of course you haven't .. I don't think there is such a thing although there aught to be!

I prefer to think it was a whiff from the past although no doubt someone on here will come up with a more rational explaination.

Mind you as we don't know everything maybe in the bigger picture 'Whiff from the fire of 1750' could be the more rational reason!

Sollywos x

 

[EnolaGaia]

... When I first moved into this house 5 years ago, one of my neighbours told me a little history of the property, and sometime in the 1750’s the place caught fire, and the entire village turned out to help put out the flames, so on a fortean level did I smell the ghost of fire smoke from the 1750’s…?

Was there a significant change in the weather and / or windy conditions at the time? Changing humidity, etc., can sometimes cause a house to exude faint traces of old odors.

 

[Analogue Boy]

This is an odd one that I thought I’d share with you.

Quite late on Saturday night, I was sitting in the living room watching a documentary via the BBC I player.

The wife had sloped off to bed about an hour before, so I’m sitting there alone, when very suddenly I started to notice a very strong smell of smoke, not tobacco smoke etc. but proper smoke as if wood was burning.

I’d liken the smell to sitting next to a wood burning fire place in a country pub etc.

Now to smell wood burning in this house is alarming, as the house is mainly timber built. I checked the hallway, and can smell nothing, I checked the kitchen, upstairs, the kids rooms (quietly) and also nothing. I came back downstairs and re-entered the living room, and if anything the smell seemed to be even stronger.

I opened up the patio doors to the back garden, as I thought the smell must be wafting in from outside – but no, I couldn’t smell anything there either.

This house does not have a fireplace, and nor do any of my neighbours houses (it’s an old barn conversion and the houses wasn’t originally built as homes) so where the smell came from, I have no idea.

When I first moved into this house 5 years ago, one of my neighbours told me a little history of the property, and sometime in the 1750’s the place caught fire, and the entire village turned out to help put out the flames, so on a fortean level did I smell the ghost of fire smoke from the 1750’s…?

Saturday night BBQ somewhere? Does one of the neighbours have a fire pit?

 

[Analogue Boy]

Mind you as we don't know everything maybe in the bigger picture 'Whiff from the fire of 1750' could be the more rational reason!

When I was in my early teens, things were usually explained fairly rationally with a liberal sprinkle of practicality.
I discovered FT and loved the plain weird, outlandish and fantastic events it detailed. However, since then the internet and social media now promotes the weird, outlandish and fantastic as the first and only ‘possible option’ without research into the history of the subject beyond 5 google references. Now a weary old me is left pondering the mundane, logical and bubble-bursting simple explanations in the face of a new ignorance.*

*Like the woman who was UFOically puzzled by a murmuration of starlings recently for example.

 

[IbisNibs]

'Atmosphere of Country Pub'—should be a cologne, too.

 

[PeteS]

This is an odd one that I thought I’d share with you.

Quite late on Saturday night, I was sitting in the living room watching a documentary via the BBC I player.

The wife had sloped off to bed about an hour before, so I’m sitting there alone, when very suddenly I started to notice a very strong smell of smoke, not tobacco smoke etc. but proper smoke as if wood was burning.

I’d liken the smell to sitting next to a wood burning fire place in a country pub etc.

Now to smell wood burning in this house is alarming, as the house is mainly timber built. I checked the hallway, and can smell nothing, I checked the kitchen, upstairs, the kids rooms (quietly) and also nothing. I came back downstairs and re-entered the living room, and if anything the smell seemed to be even stronger.

I opened up the patio doors to the back garden, as I thought the smell must be wafting in from outside – but no, I couldn’t smell anything there either.

This house does not have a fireplace, and nor do any of my neighbours houses (it’s an old barn conversion and the houses wasn’t originally built as homes) so where the smell came from, I have no idea.

When I first moved into this house 5 years ago, one of my neighbours told me a little history of the property, and sometime in the 1750’s the place caught fire, and the entire village turned out to help put out the flames, so on a fortean level did I smell the ghost of fire smoke from the 1750’s…?

I wonder if there are still some burnt timbers, semi buried under the house, which let off an odour in say damp conditions.

 

[Dick Turpin]

Was there a significant change in the weather and / or windy conditions at the time? Changing humidity, etc., can sometimes cause a house to exude faint traces of old odors.

Hi EG.

Thanks, but the answer to that is no. Weather was calm and dry, and had been for the past few days prior to Saturday night.

 

[Dick Turpin]

Saturday night BBQ somewhere? Does one of the neighbours have a fire pit?

Not that I am aware of AB. In any case I couldn’t smell the smoke outside in the Garden, only in the living room.

 

[Dick Turpin]

I wonder if there are still some burnt timbers, semi buried under the house, which let off an odour in say damp conditions.

That’s possible I suppose Pete.

I posted this picture on this forum about a year ago. These are some of the charred beams hanging in my living room.

Whether or not they are charred because of the 1750’s fire is a mystery though

 

[GNC]

When I was in my early teens, things were usually explained fairly rationally with a liberal sprinkle of practicality.
I discovered FT and loved the plain weird, outlandish and fantastic events it detailed. However, since then the internet and social media now promotes the weird, outlandish and fantastic as the first and only ‘possible option’ without research into the history of the subject beyond 5 google references. Now a weary old me is left pondering the mundane, logical and bubble-bursting simple explanations in the face of a new ignorance.*

*Like the woman who was UFOically puzzled by a murmuration of starlings recently for example.

Post of the Week! I can relate to this.

 

[escargot]

This is an odd one that I thought I’d share with you.

Quite late on Saturday night, I was sitting in the living room watching a documentary via the BBC I player.

The wife had sloped off to bed about an hour before, so I’m sitting there alone, when very suddenly I started to notice a very strong smell of smoke, not tobacco smoke etc. but proper smoke as if wood was burning.

I’d liken the smell to sitting next to a wood burning fire place in a country pub etc.

Now to smell wood burning in this house is alarming, as the house is mainly timber built. I checked the hallway, and can smell nothing, I checked the kitchen, upstairs, the kids rooms (quietly) and also nothing. I came back downstairs and re-entered the living room, and if anything the smell seemed to be even stronger.

I opened up the patio doors to the back garden, as I thought the smell must be wafting in from outside – but no, I couldn’t smell anything there either.

This house does not have a fireplace, and nor do any of my neighbours houses (it’s an old barn conversion and the houses wasn’t originally built as homes) so where the smell came from, I have no idea.

When I first moved into this house 5 years ago, one of my neighbours told me a little history of the property, and sometime in the 1750’s the place caught fire, and the entire village turned out to help put out the flames, so on a fortean level did I smell the ghost of fire smoke from the 1750’s…?

Could be phantosmia.

 

[Trevp666]

...suddenly I started to notice a very strong smell of smoke...

I had this too some months ago and posted about it, many pages ago (I can't be arsed to go find it) but I tracked it down to a particularly well designed (poorly designed) 'uplighter' in my living room, which is basically an upturned metal dish with a very strong halogen lightbulb in its centre with a glass cover over the bulb.
Upon inspection (standing on a chair) I found the charred remains of several insects, most likely fat moths.
I only managed to discover this source after I had noticed the burning smell on several occasions, and not managed to track it down, thinking maybe electrical fault, or me having a seizure of some sort.
But then one evening I noticed a plume of smoke suddenly rising from the uplighter.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Could be phantosmia.

When you can smell an elephant?

 

[catseye]

There is a zoflora scent (I think it's called something like Country Fireside or something) that does give a curious odour of burning for some while after using it. I've got a whole range of Zoflora smells (it's a disinfectant cleaner you dilute with water, for those who haven't yet discovered it) and they range from the clean linen smell to what I call 'tart's boudoir'. But some of them do have a darker sort of smell. Check that nobody has had a wipe around with that!

And re dog thefts. I posted somewhere about the reported incident in my nearest town, where someone was reportedly stabbed in the leg and a theft of their dog attempted. That has now been re reported as an isolated incident and the local police are in our local paper trying to reassure people that there is no local increase in incidents of dog thefts. And yet, I get to work to be warned by co workers, I've been stopped in the road and warned by passers by, there are letters and email warnings doing the rounds... Is there really a huge upsurge in dog thefts? And why would anyone attempt to sell an adult dog? Who would want to buy an adult dog which obviously didn't belong to the person selling it and was behaving in a scared fashion?

So many questions...

 

[Souleater]

And re dog thefts. I posted somewhere about the reported incident in my nearest town, where someone was reportedly stabbed in the leg and a theft of their dog attempted. That has now been re reported as an isolated incident and the local police are in our local paper trying to reassure people that there is no local increase in incidents of dog thefts. And yet, I get to work to be warned by co workers, I've been stopped in the road and warned by passers by, there are letters and email warnings doing the rounds... Is there really a huge upsurge in dog thefts? And why would anyone attempt to sell an adult dog? Who would want to buy an adult dog which obviously didn't belong to the person selling it and was behaving in a scared fashion?

Media fueled hysteria, again!

 

[escargot]

Who would want to buy an adult dog which obviously didn't belong to the person selling it and was behaving in a scared fashion?

The usual explanation is that gangs running dog-fighting use stolen dogs and cats as 'practice' for their own dogs.

Dunno if that's true but it's a frightening story for a pet-owner to hear.

 

[catseye]

The usual explanation is that gangs running dog-fighting use stolen dogs and cats as 'practice' for their own dogs.

Dunno if that's true but it's a frightening story for a pet-owner to hear.

Yes, I don't know about this either - it's another one that sounds like a media-hyped hysteria. I mean, I'm sure it does happen, but the current atmosphere of terror seems to be a wee bit over-done. Like the Great Social Worker Panic someone quoted before, something that never actually happens to anyone you know, but happens all the time.....over there.

 

[escargot]

Yes, I don't know about this either - it's another one that sounds like a media-hyped hysteria. I mean, I'm sure it does happen, but the current atmosphere of terror seems to be a wee bit over-done. Like the Great Social Worker Panic someone quoted before, something that never actually happens to anyone you know, but happens all the time.....over there.

Totally in agreement. We used to have to rely on the tabloids to scare us with unlikely horror stories but these days it's all delivered electronically.

 

[bugmum]

And re dog thefts. I posted somewhere about the reported incident in my nearest town, where someone was reportedly stabbed in the leg and a theft of their dog attempted. That has now been re reported as an isolated incident and the local police are in our local paper trying to reassure people that there is no local increase in incidents of dog thefts. And yet, I get to work to be warned by co workers, I've been stopped in the road and warned by passers by, there are letters and email warnings doing the rounds... Is there really a huge upsurge in dog thefts? And why would anyone attempt to sell an adult dog? Who would want to buy an adult dog which obviously didn't belong to the person selling it and was behaving in a scared fashion?

FaceBook is full of dog thefts at the moment. In my home town, a quiet part of South Lincolnshire, there are forever warnings about two men in a van, a van with an RSPCA logo, a woman working in tandem with two men, somebody asking whether you want to sell the caravan on your front drive but eyeing up your dogs, all manner of tricks. They say the pandemic has fuelled puppy farming as big business, so people are stealing dogs in the hope of them being an unspayed female that they can breed from - although that has more than a whiff of UL because I would imagine the chances of getting unspayed females is pretty slim.

 

[mikfez]

Meanwhile - on the other side of the coin -
Hull Daily Mail Link >
White van man - 'I'm not a dog napper, I'm just collecting scrap'
"I'm getting harassed on Facebook by people. I'm trying to start my own business and people are constantly reporting me to the police for asking about peoples dogs but I'm not," he said.