The Mysteriously Reappearing Key

[BaronHardacre]

I did plan on posting this to Minor Strangeness, but it seems more than minor…

Some weeks ago my car (an aged Fiat Punto. I’m not a proud man…) went in for an MOT, but sadly, due to a list of problems as long as my arm, it never came out. The garage disposed of it, thankfully.

A couple of days later I was at my parents’ home, and came across the spare key for the car I’d left with them (my dad had taken it for its MOT).

I was stood in their kitchen and discussing it with my mother, and we both agreed that there was no need to keep the key given the car was, by then, a cube.
So, I opened the kitchen bin and dropped it in.
Now, I must note, the bin is a large 50 litre one, with a clip down lid, which had only recently had the bag changed. I put my hand into the bin to drop the key.

About half an hour later I went into the kitchen for something and found said key on a work top, about three metres away from, and 6 inches higher than the bin.

I checked with mother to see whether she’d retrieved it for some reason, but she hadn’t, and it would have been difficult for me not to notice her go to the kitchen, as we were both sat in the lounge the whole time (you have to go through the lounge to go into the kitchen, unless you enter the kitchen from the external rear door).

I then spoke to my dad, who’d been out when I threw the key away, but he hadn’t even been in the kitchen (when he’d returned he’d used the front door).

So far, so perplexing.

So I checked the key itself, which had clearly been in the bin as it was wet and stained from a tea bag that had gone in after I’d dropped it in…

I have no clue how the key escaped from its fate, but somehow it did.

Just to add some background; there were only ever two keys for the car, the primary set having been left with garage; whilst my parents are aged (70 and 78) neither have any major memory issues, and I have no reason to think they’d be playing any kind of practical joke.

Now, what I will add is that my dad has aired suspicions before that there might be “something” in the house (he refers to it as a poltergeist), as things have had a habit of going missing, and reappearing, however I’ve always put it down to my parents being somewhat untidy, and vaguely hoarder-ish (my dad has 5 garages, none of which you can get a car into).
The poltergeist theory is not something my mother ascribes to.

The house itself is a bog standard 3 bed mid-townhouse, built in the early ‘70’s and they are the second owners, and have owned it since 1974.
Before that it was fields, and mine workings.

Frankly, I’m stumped. None of the practical theories I can think of, fit the facts.

It’s all a bit odd…

 

[Mythopoeika]

Baffling!

 

[BaronHardacre]

Baffling!

Indeed.
The most obvious solution is that one of my parents retrieved the key from the bin, but for one there'd be no reason for them to, and neither had any real opportunity.

It could, I suppose be a "Christine" type scenario.
If you read of a man run down by mysteriously driverless burgundy Fiat Punto (with a tasteful cream interior), you'll know what's happened...

 

[rynner2]

Be sure to update us if anything else happens.

So far it's a mystery!

 

[henry]

it does rather sound like your dad has a reluctance to throwing things away ... perhaps one of your parents retrieved it then felt foolish about it ?

 

[Mystereaux1]

I'm genuinely stumped.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I had a random thought - and I'm sure you'll dismiss it - is it possible that when you dumped it in the bin, it became snagged on a thread from your sleeve, and it was lifted out and fell off as you passed by?
This has happened to me, because my coat has a few loose threads hanging off the sleeve...

 

[BaronHardacre]

it does rather sound like your dad has a reluctance to throwing things away ... perhaps one of your parents retrieved it then felt foolish about it ?

That would be the logical conclusion, if it weren't for the fact that I was sat in the living room from the time of throwing away the key, and it reappearing.

For my father to have had to do it, he would have had to enter the kitchen from the back door, retrieve the key, exit via the back door again, and come around to the front door to come back into the house.
All of this without my mother, or I, hearing, which would be unlikely due to the size/shape of the downstairs, and my father not exactly been the subtlest of creatures.

Which leads me onto the second point that it would have need my father to open the bin, look inside, see the key, and fish it out. As I said above, the bin is quite a deep one, and the bin bag had only recently been replaced, meaning the key was pretty much at the bottom.

I had a random thought - and I'm sure you'll dismiss it - is it possible that when you dumped it in the bin, it became snagged on a thread from your sleeve, and it was lifted out and fell off as you passed by?
This has happened to me, because my coat has a few loose threads hanging off the sleeve...

It's not theory I can dismiss out of hand, as I can't quite remember what I was wearing that day, however I have a tendency to wear t-shirts or have my sleeves rolled up.

I still have no clue as to what happened.
The only theory, beyond one of my elderly parents being a secret ninja, is the lid to the bin clips down.
When the release is pushed, the lid opens with some force, though not that quickly.
Now, if the key had somehow got caught on the underside of of the lid I suppose it's possible the lid could have flung the key, but it's some distance between the bin and the worktop where it was discovered.
But that is clutching at straws.

Interestingly, I was speaking to my dad in the past week, trying to see if he had somehow retrieved the key.
Whilst he still denied it, he did tell me of some of the other odd occurrences he thinks have/are happening.
Due to health issues, my parents sleep in different rooms, with my dad's being above the hall/front door.
He told me that once every week or so, he'll hear a definite knock on the front door, usually some time between 1am and 3am.
He'll get up, an look out of the window (directly above the front door), and of course find no one there.
Apparently this has been happening since he moved into that room, so about 10 years ago.

Further to this, he said that for the same period, he keeps hearing "bleeps", but from the other side of his room (this is above a ginnel between their house and the one next door).
Again, not regularly, or long enough for him to locate, and again in the middle of the night. He compared it to when I used have a dial-up modem and it was "ringing out".

Finally, he says he keeps seeing shadows out of the corners of his eyes, as if someone is there, but when he looks, there's no one there.
He was very matter of fact about it all, and he's not one prone to flights of fancy.

Now, the rationalist in me obviously has probable theories for all this; the "knocks" are probably the house settling/cooling; the "bleeps" either a travel alarm clock, or a noise from next door; the shadows, just issues with old age - he's had two cataract operations already, and being a diabetic they do keep a check on his eyes.

However, it is interesting to wonder, especially about that damn key...