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The Scariest Fortean Thing Ever To Happen To You

I once got a phone call out of the blue one afternoon. There was absolutely nothing odd about the ring or anything about getting a phone call at that time, but I was struck by a sense of dread and a vision of ghosts and graveyards in a faux eerie almost parody green. I figured, based on the vision and premonition, it was either a ghost calling me, or my intuition telling me that the phone call would place me in danger. I elected not to answer it. Does that count? Probably not. Really I was probably being paranoid, but security experts tell us to listen to our instincts, so I did.
Did you ever learn who called you or what the call was about?
 
The kitty posts remind me of a scare though it was non-Fortean. We had moved an old house to our property and were living in a garden shed while we got the house up to city code. We were with our two cats and two pups. Not too bad. We'd actually moved a full-sized fridge into the shed. Made a loft level place to sleep. Perhaps it was more cramped for our cats than we realized.
I opened that fridge one evening to see our cat Jeremy looking up rather casually from a veg bin. My blood runs cold every time I think we might have smothered him in a closed fridge.
Hi been a while since i read the old paper fortean times magazine, just an interesting fact your post reminded me of, if you put a siamese cat in the fridge it will turn completely black (the same colour as its muzzle, feet, tail end etc..) not that i condone putting cats in fridges, it returns to its original colour when it warms back up, a bit like those 'global hypercolour t-shirts you could get in the '90 s (because everyone needed to see when you were hot and sweaty lol) on another note, we had a cat when i was very young, it would sit by my baby brothers cot and stand guard, coming and meowing to tell my mum when he was crying, not really fortean but interesting.
 
Not famous earthquake fault called the New Madrid Fault near Memphis, Tennessee produced the biggest earthquake in U.S. history in 1811.

It was so strong, it made the Mississippi River run backwards.

In the 1960’s I was visiting my mom in Memphis and we had a earth tremor.

The vibration threw me out of the bed without any warning.

I was stunned

If this fault ever goes big, it would destroy the middle of the U.S.
 
Proves a point—what cat likes guacamole? Especially when it's properly spicy! (The guac, not the cat.)
Oxygen deprivation, obviously . . .
 
Cats do not belong inside a refrigerator.:willy:

Or as Mammy Two-Shoes puts it:

IMG_1186.PNG

Thomas! You is a naughty cat an if ah catch you in dat ice box again ahs a gonna tan yo hide!
 
I commiserate with your situation Calgacus03. I wonder if your bed was copping a random vibration from nearby machinery travelling thru some sort of rock substrate under a foundation stump beneath your bed? Did it ever happen again? It sounds like a recipe for desertion anxiety.

Sorry AlchoPwn, I've only just come across your reply to my post.

No, there was/is no type of subterranean travelling (or tunnelling) in that part of the world (a small north-east coastal town) and the house in question was a four-square, sandstone built, detached affair, probably dating from about 1870 or so. So no foundation stumps (I shouldn't think).

There was coal mining at one time in the area, but that was several miles away on the other side of the river, and stopped during WWII.

I've tried to think of a rational explanation for it over the years, but have come up empty. It never happened again, and I continued to sleep in that bed and bedroom until I was about twelve or thirteen (by which point I'd pretty much outgrown the bed), I then got a proper bed in another room at the back of the house.

I haven't asked my cousin whether he remembers it, once lockdown is over and I see him, I'll see if he does and whether he'll be amenable to providing his recollection of that night. He normally has a pretty good memory for events from our childhood.

As for "desertion anxiety" :D no, I don't think it led to that. As I recall (and it was many years ago) during most of the occurrence I was frustrated (by M. denying that he was doing it when I knew that he must be (because I wasn't)). Puzzlement (when I realised that neither he nor I were doing it), and only fright (when M. bolted) and I realised I was on my own. :horr:
 
I've worked in security for the past few years and I do love the night shift. A few years ago I worked for a company who monitored an abandoned care home on the far outskirts of Dumfries. This alarm regularly activated as the building was pretty much falling to bits. The windows were boarded up and steel shutters covered the front entrance. Even during the day there was very little natural light.. what little there could have been was diminished by the tall trees that surrounded the building. I've known big, burly security guards who refused to attend alarm calls there during the day let alone at night. So, you get the picture, pitch dark, abandoned care home in the middle of nowhere, just me and my torch. On one of the first call-outs I decided to go full Scooby Doo (more Velma than Daphne) and have a look around. I found myself in what had been a laundry room, now empty except for the large, wooden, overhead pulley. All well and good except that in this windowless room the heavy pulley was lazily swinging back and forth, back and forth. It wasn't even one of those, "Hang on, did I see something move" times, oh no, this pulley was most definitely swinging, never speeding up nor slowing down. I was more surprised than scared. All of my spooky tales have happened when I wasn't expecting them. I ended up saying, "Eh....... ok,. I'll be off then and leave you to it." Thereafter, any time I had to attend alarms at that site I would just shout, "It's only me, Marsha". I definitely preferred whatever was lurking in that building to whatever roams Heathhall business park on the site of the former RAF Dumfries. That place really was creepy!
 
I've worked in security for the past few years and I do love the night shift. A few years ago I worked for a company who monitored an abandoned care home on the far outskirts of Dumfries. This alarm regularly activated as the building was pretty much falling to bits. The windows were boarded up and steel shutters covered the front entrance. Even during the day there was very little natural light.. what little there could have been was diminished by the tall trees that surrounded the building. I've known big, burly security guards who refused to attend alarm calls there during the day let alone at night. So, you get the picture, pitch dark, abandoned care home in the middle of nowhere, just me and my torch. On one of the first call-outs I decided to go full Scooby Doo (more Velma than Daphne) and have a look around. I found myself in what had been a laundry room, now empty except for the large, wooden, overhead pulley. All well and good except that in this windowless room the heavy pulley was lazily swinging back and forth, back and forth. It wasn't even one of those, "Hang on, did I see something move" times, oh no, this pulley was most definitely swinging, never speeding up nor slowing down. I was more surprised than scared. All of my spooky tales have happened when I wasn't expecting them. I ended up saying, "Eh....... ok,. I'll be off then and leave you to it." Thereafter, any time I had to attend alarms at that site I would just shout, "It's only me, Marsha". I definitely preferred whatever was lurking in that building to whatever roams Heathhall business park on the site of the former RAF Dumfries. That place really was creepy!
I'm in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire, and a large care home almost opposite my house was closed down recently. Sometimes walk dog past the back of it and it still has some security lights on so we noticed a fair bit of the stuff inside is still there (they closed it down suddenly, mid-pandemic). Until the trees in front grew bigger, we could always see the entire frontage at night, from our house and we'd see them wheeling out the dead uns. Neighbour worked there years and told me it has a mini morgue. I guess they all have that room, somewhere? I think it would be the scariest type of building to have to do a sweep of, at any time, let alone night as you say. There's something really godforsaken about the sight of abandoned hospital beds...
 
I've worked in security for the past few years and I do love the night shift. A few years ago I worked for a company who monitored an abandoned care home on the far outskirts of Dumfries. This alarm regularly activated as the building was pretty much falling to bits. The windows were boarded up and steel shutters covered the front entrance. Even during the day there was very little natural light.. what little there could have been was diminished by the tall trees that surrounded the building. I've known big, burly security guards who refused to attend alarm calls there during the day let alone at night. So, you get the picture, pitch dark, abandoned care home in the middle of nowhere, just me and my torch. On one of the first call-outs I decided to go full Scooby Doo (more Velma than Daphne) and have a look around. I found myself in what had been a laundry room, now empty except for the large, wooden, overhead pulley. All well and good except that in this windowless room the heavy pulley was lazily swinging back and forth, back and forth. It wasn't even one of those, "Hang on, did I see something move" times, oh no, this pulley was most definitely swinging, never speeding up nor slowing down. I was more surprised than scared. All of my spooky tales have happened when I wasn't expecting them. I ended up saying, "Eh....... ok,. I'll be off then and leave you to it." Thereafter, any time I had to attend alarms at that site I would just shout, "It's only me, Marsha". I definitely preferred whatever was lurking in that building to whatever roams Heathhall business park on the site of the former RAF Dumfries. That place really was creepy!
I'm in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire, and a large care home almost opposite my house was closed down recently. Sometimes walk dog past the back of it and it still has some security lights on so we noticed a fair bit of the stuff inside is still there (they closed it down suddenly, mid-pandemic). Until the trees in front grew bigger, we could always see the entire frontage at night, from our house and we'd see them wheeling out the dead uns. Neighbour worked there years and told me it has a mini morgue. I guess they all have that room, somewhere? I think it would be the scariest type of building to have to do a sweep of, at any time, let alone night as you say. There's something really godforsaken about the sight of abandoned hospital beds...

Escette (youngest Snailet) worked doors/security for a while.
Her favourite security posting was a closed care home where there was little to except wander around being haunted. :chuckle:
 
Morning Marsha we all need to know about the business park now so spill the beans my friend.

Heathhall business park is situated on the site of the former RAF Dumfries. During the last war many test flights left never to return. There were multiple crashes and, if I remember correctly, a mid air collision during a training flight over the Lake District. These days there are still a few of the old Blister style hangars. It was one of the regular sites which I had to attend as it had several data points. The main site I patrolled was the Crichton, a former psychiatric complex and I had no problems getting out of my van and walking around. Any time I found a building insecure I would go for a bit of an explore. Don't get me wrong, my most paranormal experience happened on that site but I still had no problems being there alone in the middle of the night. Nothing happened as such at Heathhall but it was just so creepy. It could be clearest of nights everywhere else but there was a prevailing mist there. There was that old Fortean standard, the feeling of being watched, I was always convinced that one day I would round a corner only to be met by a phantom airman. It never happened but I could never shake that feeling. I was so creeped out by the place that I learned how to hit the data points by hanging out the van window! Technically it's not in the middle of nowhere but it feels so utterly desolate. I once mentioned the creepy feeling to a colleague, a tough, no-nonsense sort and he admitted he never got out of the van at this site either and for the exact same reasons
 
I'm in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire, and a large care home almost opposite my house was closed down recently. Sometimes walk dog past the back of it and it still has some security lights on so we noticed a fair bit of the stuff inside is still there (they closed it down suddenly, mid-pandemic). Until the trees in front grew bigger, we could always see the entire frontage at night, from our house and we'd see them wheeling out the dead uns. Neighbour worked there years and told me it has a mini morgue. I guess they all have that room, somewhere? I think it would be the scariest type of building to have to do a sweep of, at any time, let alone night as you say. There's something really godforsaken about the sight of abandoned hospital beds...


Before we sold up and moved away to the sticks, we lived in a flat which was directly behind the old Queen Elizabeth children’s hospital, in Bethnal green.

The hospital closed in the mid 1990’s, but the building remained intact until just a few years ago, before being redeveloped into flats.

Our bedroom window looked directly into the old hospital, and from it we could see directly into one of the old wards.

For security reasons the lights were on 24/7, and we could see posters of Micky mouse and Donald duck etc. which hadn’t been taken down from the walls.

Bloody creepy, looking into that ward from our bedroom window each night, but strangely fascinating at the same time, if you know what I mean.
 
Escette (youngest Snailet) worked doors/security for a while.
Her favourite security posting was a closed care home where there was little to except wander around being haunted. :chuckle:
Hello, Snail! Lovely to see you back.

You know, Escette is brave because I think I'd be more scared in an abandoned care home, alone at night, than in the spookiest looking churchyard!
 
I used to live directly ajacent to our little village churchyard. Now I live two houses down on the other side. I walk past most nights with the dog and it's the least scary place in the world. I wonder if this is possibly because it's on the very very top of the hill and therefore fully illuminated by the moon, stars etc, with no mysterious shadows. It's basically the pimple on the top of the bald head.

The tiny copse of about an acre half way down the hill, on the other hand, gives me the spooks like nowhere else, but I assume that is because of all the shadows and the impossibility of seeing more than a couple of yards in on a dark night.
 
I used to live directly ajacent to our little village churchyard. Now I live two houses down on the other side. I walk past most nights with the dog and it's the least scary place in the world. I wonder if this is possibly because it's on the very very top of the hill and therefore fully illuminated by the moon, stars etc, with no mysterious shadows. It's basically the pimple on the top of the bald head.

The tiny copse of about an acre half way down the hill, on the other hand, gives me the spooks like nowhere else, but I assume that is because of all the shadows and the impossibility of seeing more than a couple of yards in on a dark night.

Exactly catseye.

The garage block to this house is approx. 150 yards away from the house itself, and whenever I’m coming home from somewhere after dark, I park up and then walk the 150 yards through a slightly wooded area in complete darkness.

It’s easy to understand that before the invention of electric street lighting, battery operated torch’s etc. how people’s imaginations ran amok in the colder months of the year.

Once I was convinced I was being watched in the wooded area by a very tall man, it was only when a neighbour turned into the garage area and shone his headlights into the wood, that I could see it just another tree :)
 
As a boy I used to explore with my jack russell an old landlord house in Co. Galway in the west of Ireland. Its long abandoned but fully roofed, only some bits of floor missing etc. I would go through the fields to it and wander about but one day as we headed down there I decided to go in the front door which was opened by just pushing it in so I headed up the stone steps to the entrance and just as I reached the door the dog stopped dead , dug his paws into the ground and the hair stood on his back. I got such a fright by my faithful old pals actions I immediately got a feeling of dread and took flight. I ran the whole way home across the fields. I still wonder to this day what the dog sensed. It was a place that attracted plenty of local ghost stories I remember the old blacksmith telling me and my father of the white lady seen in the field in front of the house and a previous owner had fled the house at night never returning for his belongings which were then appropriated by the locals. He claimed that the death coach pulled into the yard one dark night. There were no bad things done there as far as im aware compared to some other old landlord houses in the area but its a day I will never forget. A few years later I rode my bike down there to meet a mate and I cycled into the back of the house where the old stables and outbuildings were and again when I realised my pal wasnt coming I got the frighteners looking up at the house dead quiet and no one within miles a feeling of being watched hit me. Again I took flight like the wind on my bike. The mind certainly can play tricks on you but I can still picture the hair standing on the dogs back all those years ago.
 
Halloween is just around the bend. Though this type of thread has probably been done before, let's get it rolling again. What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you-fortean-wise, that is?

Me? In 1976 I experienced a phone call that was similar to those explained in John Keel's book, The Mothman Prophecies TWO HOURS before I actually bought the book. Before I went to the place I bought the book, my parents and I were talking and the phone rang. I picked it up and heard what sounded like an open line where someone was banging on a big oil drum. I hung up, then picked up the phone again. I let my parents hear it. After checking three or four times, the regular dial tone was there. I read the book that weekend, realized what had happened, and went major paranoid. Was that weird phone call connected? Don't know. I've thought about it and it still makes me wonder.

What about you? What stories do you have in your background that still scare the bejeesus out of you?

Whhaaaat? I have never heard of these calls.
 
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