Phantom phone calls?

Firewalk

Before I begin I'd just like to point out that I have never felt the need to post to any forum like this before, even though I have had a few supernatural experiences and am not easily freaked out, but for some reason what happened to me today really got to me. So, anyway...

I work in an office that belongs to my father. We are open between the hours of 10 am and 5.30 pm, however we stop answering the phones at 5 o'clock to allow us time to get the days post sorted and sent away in time for the post office, which also closes at 5.30.

The phones had been busy all day, as per usual, but when 5 came we duly began to ignore them and go about our other necessary business. As everyone else had gone home at that stage, myself and one of the secretaries were left to close up. One of the lines rang a number of times, and each time rang out. All that showed up on caller ID was a withheld number. Nothing unusual there, and even though it was slightly irritating that someone kept ringing persisitently, we continued about our business and did not pick it up.

Our office is on the second floor and has quite a steep staircase leading up to it. As such we had a chairlift installed many years ago for the use of disabled or elderly clients that were not fit to use the stairs. Because of this feature there is a phone at the bottom of the stairs, used to call for the lift, and one behind reception used to answer. They are not connected to any active phone lines, simply directly to each other. They do not have numbers or anything, they are, more or less, like an intercom system.

Anyway, at about 5.25 we were getting ready to leave for the day. The secretary was at the top of the stairs setting the alarm and I had made my way halfway down the stairs when suddenly I heard an unfamiliar ringing sound. I asked her could she hear it and as we stopped to listen she confirmed that she could. After a couple of seconds I noticed that it was coming from the chairlift phone at the bottom of the stairs and that a red light was flashing on it. This immediately made us tense as the only way this could be ringing is if there was someone on the other end upstairs. So I made my way downstairs and picked it up. All I could hear was varying levels of static.

While this unnerved me somewhat, the secretary was becoming mildly hysterical and she would not go back in to reception to check the other phone. So, I made my way back up the stairs and into the office once more to check the other phone. When I did so I discovered the other phone was unplugged completely. Bearing in mind that these phones can only contact each other and one was without power made me a little more anxious I must admit. I reconnected the phone in reception and after a couple of seconds the one downstairs stopped ringing and the one in front of me began. I picked it up and put it to my ear. Again, varying levels of static were all I could make out.

With that, I replaced it on the receiver and decided it was time we were elsewhere. I unplugged it and had no sooner walked across the floor than the one at the bottom of the stairs began again. By this time the poor girl with me was completely freaked out and so I didn't even acknowledge it this time, simply set the alarm, unplugged the ringing phone, locked up and went home.

When I got home I mentioned the occurence to my wife and half jokingly she said "it's like that film White Noise." The similarity hadn't crossed my mind at the time so I went straight online and looked it up to see if anyone else had similar experiences. Surprisingly there wasn't really that much information, the general consensus being that it is the dead or someone in another dimension trying to make contact. To be honest what freaks me out more than that is the thought that perhaps it could be a forewarning of someone close to me that is going to die or that it is a forewarning of my own death.

I'd really appreciate if anyone could shed any light on this matter for me because it is kind of bugging me now.

*I should mention that before anyone says anything about a fault in the phones or something, they have been there for over 15 years, are in perfect working order and are not on a public line so therefore cannot be accessed from a normal telephone, only from each other.*

Nerin

"it's like that film White Noise."

just what i was going to say
that is pretty freaky, cant blame the secretary for freaking out.

google turns up stuff like
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa040102a.htm
http://paranormal.about.com/cs/trueghoststories/a/aa090103.htm

the whole white noise thing, i dunno,the jury is still out on that one in my mind...
my mother told me a creepy story about when was just a baby.
it was just myself and her when i was a babby,living in an old rural cottage.
she had a baby moitor and one night when she was elsewhere in the house it started picking up a strange voice singing me a lullaby.
she freaked and went running to the room i was in, but no one was there.
yet the secong she left the room and came back to the one she was in the lullaby started again.
she didnt leave me alone that night. of course she looks back now and says she could have been picking up another monitor. perhaps.

had a tv in my room when i was 14 and i was convinced i was picking up something weird.
the untuned channel was all static but sometime it would pick up faint voices talking to eachother. freaked me out,especially when i checked the channels in the sitting room and there was nothing on em like the voices i had (only the bog channels back then )
turns out the tv was picking up radio signal.

i dunno what to say OP,google is all i can think of now,i'll pop back to see how the story ufolds. and dont worry,i highly doubt it was a bansidhe phoning you.

yayamark

dunno wierd all right.

My friend has a family trait that when someone dies in the family another family member gets woken up by a knocking on the window, usually that means that someone will die before morning.

Firewalk

nerin wrote: »

and dont worry,i highly doubt it was a bansidhe phoning you.

Thats pretty damn funny, and strangely it's actually calmed me down a bit! Cheers for that.

Sephiroth_dude

jesus thats freaky ****,keep us posted on what happens anyway.

jprender

Would have been cool if your mobile started doing the same thing on your drive home !!

monkeyfudge

Firewalk wrote: »

*I should mention that before anyone says anything about a fault in the phones or something, they have been there for over 15 years, are in perfect working order and are not on a public line so therefore cannot be accessed from a normal telephone, only from each other.*[/LEFT]

Why was the one upstairs unplugged? Could someone have noticed the fault beforehand and unplugged that one.

If it's a fault it will probably act the same way today.

My brother has a very old house in the south of Spain and one evening a phone that wasn't plugged in jumped off the table and strange barely audible voices came out of the receiver. I'd put it more down to the phone picking up an errant radio signal though.

Firewalk

Well, here I am just after coming into the office again, having the joyous task of opening up on my own after yesterdays events. As soon as I got here I reconnected the offending phones again, just to satisfy my morbid curiosity. They've been plugged in for about ten minutes now and not a sound from them. When I pick them up they operate completely as normal, no static, no ringing themselves.

Whereas this is a good thing at the moment (I honestly don't know how long I'd have stuck around if they'd started that again, especially since I'm here on my own for a while:D) it's actually more unsettling overall. At least if they had rang again I could've put it down to a problem with them or something. As it stands I still cannot explain just exactly what happened yesterday afternoon.

On a related note (and this is going to sound ridiculous, but I swear to you it's the truth, I wouldn't lie about stuff like this) while I'm typing this, one of the laser printers has taken it upon itself to start printing blank sheets, fine you say, except for the fact that the computer it's connected to isn't even switched on at the moment. I'm really starting to think 'somebody' is trying to get a message to me.

littlebug

jebus you've got me glued to this board now... wtf is going to happen next :eek::eek::eek:

iamhunted

whip out a tape recorder and start asking questions (thats what I'd do anyway)

Firewalk

iamhunted wrote: »

whip out a tape recorder and start asking questions (thats what I'd do anyway)

Thats actually not a bad idea, it crossed my mind. Even though I am pretty sceptical as a rule I never rule anything out. Mind you, I think if I started talking to spirits in my office the rest of the staff might not be quite as enthusiastic, especially the girl that was with me when it happened! She's still spooked.

monkeyfudge

Hey don't knock it.

If you can get the ghost trained up it might be able to take the calls while you're all getting the post ready after 5.

Where abouts are you based? If you're interested the paranormal group I'm involved in could pop out and take some readings and do some tests.

Dave!

holy crap OP, LOOK BEHIND YOU!!!!!! AGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GET OUTA THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahem

Strange hap'nings alright.

iamhunted

Firewalk wrote: »

Thats actually not a bad idea, it crossed my mind. Even though I am pretty sceptical as a rule I never rule anything out. Mind you, I think if I started talking to spirits in my office the rest of the staff might not be quite as enthusiastic, especially the girl that was with me when it happened! She's still spooked.

you could always tell them you're dictating questions to yourself (ok, strange questions ..)

Firewalk

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Hey don't knock it.

If you can get the ghost trained up it might be able to take the calls while you're all getting the post ready after 5.

Where abouts are you based? If you're interested the paranormal group I'm involved in could pop out and take some readings and do some tests.

First of all if I could get the ghost trained up I'd have it doing all my work and I could just stay at home. Any psychics out there wanna do some ghost training?

Regarding the investigation offer, I'd love to do that but I'd say the chances of getting authorisation from the boss (my father) to do it would be next to impossible, mainly due to the sensitive nature of the business but also because he'd probably try to have me locked up in the funny farm! He's not the ghost type. It's a pity though because now I'm intrigued.

I might try and have a look into the history of where the building is situated, the building itself is only about 19 or 20 years old but it is built on the site of what used to be very old houses. If only that had been the site of an ancient indian burial ground...always wanted to say that, but I have a funny feeling there probably aren't too many of them around Ireland.

Stoner

hey Firewalk, monkeyfudge and i are in the same group !,

However the particle side of my Brian is thinking that this is more likely an electronic problem,

Sounds like what you have is a primitive disabled refuge system, these things can and do go wonky TBH, we've been installing them in the job for years, it should be cabled in special fire rated cabling, something might have broken down over the years in the phone cabling, but the rest of the phones are cabled in ordinary cable or have been replace with a cat 5-or cat 6 cable since.

if i was looking into it I'd attempt to switch out the phones, I'd also run a test on the phone lines, I'm not saying that the system is broken , I'm just saying it might be and it would be easy to find out.

And much easier for me to establish over and above there being a ghost!!
Monkeyfudge might see one though, he is tuned in.

faceman

I dont want to sound like a party pooper with my comments but..

have you logged a call/ticket with your IT department? Surely they would be your first port of call for faults like this?

start a tape recorder at 5pm and leave it record even at 5:30 when you leave the office. Would be interesting to hear it the next day!

On a final tongue in cheek note, lets hope the similiarities are White Noise as opposed to One Missed Call..... :eek:

Firewalk

Ok, I had pretty much accepted Stoner's explanation of things, not being the type of person who's easily given to flights of fancy it's easier for me to accept a logical explanation than a supernatural one. However that was last night...

I came into work early again this morning, we don't start until 10 but I'm usually here from about half 9 onwards. Anyway, I came in as usual and as I passed the phone I sort of laughed to myself thinking wouldn't it be hilarious(!) if it started to ring again (I have a strange sense of humour). I made my way up the stairs and went straight into the 'kitchen' type area to boil the kettle for my 'wake up' tea.

While the kettle boiled I went back out to switch on my computer. As I passed the upstairs phone on my way to do this I froze in my tracks. The damn thing was ringing again. I had left them on all day yesterday to satisfy my own curiosity about a fault or something and all day there wasn't a sound from them. Anyway after turning around and standing staring at it for what seemed like forever(although was probably actually a couple of seconds) I thought fcuk it and picked it up.

Again there was varying levels of static, but this time, even though my initial reaction was to hang up and switch off, I listened for a while. Through the static it sounded to me like digitised or modulated moans or screams. Pretty much the best way I can describe the noise is by comparing it to the song 'Come to Daddy' by Aphex Twin, which if you've heard you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I must've stood there transfixed for a good 1 to 2 minutes, the noise was almost hypnotic. Then all of a sudden I came round and hung up. As soon as I hung up the ringing started again so I plugged the phone out, and as before the downstairs one started. I went down to plug it out also but then couldn't resist picking it up. The same noise was coming from this so after a couple of moments listening I unplugged it too and promptly went for a smoke to calm my now frayed nerves.

For the life of me I don't know why but when I came back in I plugged the upstairs phone in again (I really don't know why)! As soon as I did the exact same thing happened so it was quickly disconnected and I spent the remaining time thinking why the hell I kept repeating the same actions, like a kid standing sticking his finger in an electrical socket!:D

When the rest of the staff got here at ten I plugged the phones back in, convinced that they would ring and it would be just my paranoia playing tricks on me but, as before they have not made a sound and at this stage that is almost an hour ago.

Guys, I know I'm starting to sound ridiculous, and if I was reading this I would have a hard time believing it because I'm one of those people who analyse and try and find an explanation for things, but this has got me stumped. I'd really like to accept the logical explanations for this stuff but it's getting harder to do so and I'm wondering just exactly what the hell is going on and why it's directed at me?

kshiel

sounds pretty freaky alright. Not knowing anything about phone lines and how they work my first thought would be to get someone in who does to check the lines out as one of the first things that I noticed was how old you said they were and maybe they just need replacing.

If all checks out and there isn't a phone line problem well then start documenting the happenings in the office. I have had the electical equipment go nuts here in my house and it wasn't due to electrical faults but it was due to energy levels in the house (mainly mine) but in saying that also it might be a good idea to see what could caused an interference close by as in is there construction work going on in the area, which may cause such interference........

I would set the recorder on as well I couldn't resist doing that, or maybe do it after 5 or 5.30 where no one can see you asking the questions and leading them to think your nuts :eek:

Or you could also ask yourself whats going on in your own life at the moment you may need advice on or is unsettling your normal way of thinking or energy.

keep us informed and try stay calm, after all its a phone call you can always hang up.

iamhunted

if i were you i would seriously do some recording - especially if theres a gap in the morning before the business opens up and the rest of the staff gets there. Not saying theres a haunting of any kind going on though - you never know with devices such as phones, they could still be faulty, but at least if someone is trying to communicate with you (i admit thats far fetched) then tape recording might be one way of finding out.

Firewalk

to get someone in who does to check the lines out as one of the first things that I noticed was how old you said they were and maybe they just need replacing.

The lines have been there for a long while right enough but everything here is regularly serviced and maintained so I genuinely don't think it's that. Also, the phones have been plugged in all day yesterday and today and thus far have not made any noise whatsoever. Believe me, I want it to be an electrical fault!:D

I would set the recorder on as well I couldn't resist doing that, or maybe do it after 5 or 5.30 where no one can see you asking the questions and leading them to think your nuts :eek:

I am seriously considering this action and may actually set up a video camera or two if I can get away with it. Have to be motion capture of course, mind you I'm not entirely sure I'd want to see what it picks up.:p

Or you could also ask yourself whats going on in your own life at the moment you may need advice on or is unsettling your normal way of thinking or energy.

You may be on to something there, I'm not gonna go into it here but there have been a few events recently that could be described in that way. I actually wondered about that myself and was actually going to ask did anyone know much about the subject of energy etc...

faceman

Have you told your facilities/It department that the phones are playing up?

Has any of your colleagues been with you today when it happened? Why not show someone?

Firewalk

faceman wrote: »

Have you told your facilities/It department that the phones are playing up?

Has any of your colleagues been with you today when it happened? Why not show someone?

Well normally, on top of my actual job, I deal with all the It based problems as I am also a qualified computer technician and programmer, it's just that I chose a different career path as I didn't really fancy working with computers forever more. However all the phone type stuff is dealt with by outside companies. I must reiterate that these aren't actual phones in the traditional sense, they are connected solely to one another and thus can only communicate between themselves, which is what makes it so weird that they ring when ones off.

The only time it happened today was the event I described in my first post of the day, the phones still have not made a noise today at all and have been plugged in all day. The only time someone else was around when it happened was the very first time, and that girl is still feelin pretty freaked about it. I haven't mentioned it to many people here at all yet, the office crazy is not a tag I want. Just yet anyway...:D

Firewalk

Ok, nothing to report on the office phone front but there was a strange occurence this morning which may or may not be related.

My grandmother is looking after my son for me today as myself and my wife are at work. I left my house at the usual time, just after 9, leaving my grandmother and son at my home. I had just got into work when my mobile rang, it was my grandmother calling and she was in a very flustered state.

After calming her down a bit I managed to ascertain that just after I left, my house phone had rang and, thinking it was me, she picked it up. All she could hear on the other end was someone sobbing uncontrollably. She tried to find out who it was but the person just kept making the same noise. She said it sounded like it was a woman and that they were having trouble breathing. Anyway, the line went dead and she hung up the phone. Less than a minute later the phone rang and once again it was the sound of someone sobbing like they were in great pain or something. After a minute or so the line went dead again.

At this stage she was getting panicky and rang my mother, then my aunty (her two daughters), who were both fine. Then she rang me to try and find out if I had any idea who it could be. I told her how to check the last calls and when she did, of course it was from a withheld number. I'll check the phone this evening when I get home in case she got it wrong but by the sounds of it she was right enough.

Anyway, like I say, may be completely unrelated but it is a bit of a strange thing to happen given the past cupla days events...

Dancor

This is starting to sound like one of them Japanese movies, Very creepy.

javaboy

Whoever taught ghosts how to use #31# has a lot to answer for!

If you don't find a reasonable explanation for this, try contacting your phone company/the Gardai about nuisance phone calls saying you are concerned that someone may be hurt or something. Witheld numbers can be traced if deemed necessary.

Is there a chance that a friend of yours in real life read your post about the phones in work and decided to give you a scare?

Firewalk

javaboy wrote: »

Whoever taught ghosts how to use #31# has a lot to answer for!

If you don't find a reasonable explanation for this, try contacting your phone company/the Gardai about nuisance phone calls saying you are concerned that someone may be hurt or something. Witheld numbers can be traced if deemed necessary.

Is there a chance that a friend of yours in real life read your post about the phones in work and decided to give you a scare?

There's definitely no way any of my friends (or enemies for that matter) would know about this for a number of reasons, the first being that I haven't given that many details here for anyone to make the connection to me. Also, very, very few people( maybe 3 or 4) have my home number and it's also ex directory. Not for any particular reason it's just that everyone contacts me on my mobile because I can be hard to get hold of at times.

As for the gardai and phone provider, it's a good suggestion but I know from dealing with a matter concerning nuisance calls for someone else that it's very hard to get either of them to do anything for you without an extremely solid reason. I think if I started prattling to them about spirits and white noise I might find myself spending an extended holiday in the nearest psych unit!:D

I guess this stuff could just all be coincidence but it's just that it's kind of getting a bit weird at this stage. My grandmother is still pretty distressed about it, I had to leave work early today because she started to feel very unwell. It seems that everyone else thats been involved thus far is getting the distress and I'm at the middle of it. I'm not really freaked about it at all anymore, just want to get to the bottom of it if I can.

*Edit: Just had a phone call from my office there, a telecoms engineer (or whatever the proper title is) is just after leaving, he told them that there as far as he could see there were no obvious faults with our lines. Pity I missed him, I would've liked to have been there to describe things to him, although obviously I wouldn't have mentioned any ghostly going ons.

javaboy

Fair enough if you're sure that nobody who knows you would prank you like that. Although I think it might be easier than you think for someone who knows you and has been in your premises to guess who you were from reading this thread. But by the sounds of it, there's a very small circle of people who have your home ph. number and you probably trust them not to do something like this.


As for the Gardai tracing the number, yes it can be a very long drawn out process but if it happens again, you could say you believe someone is being hurt at the other end of the line. Might speed things up a bit. Obviously don't mention spirits etc.

mattfender

Maybe record the call like with a dictaphone that can pick up every noise or something if it happens again? Could use that as evidence for the guards!

Nerin

this one keeps getting more interesting.
OP i'd say record it as mattfender says

mattfender

Anymore news?

humanji

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the set up, but is the phone upstairs a normal phone anyone can ring into and the one downstairs can only ring the one upstairs (like an intercom)?

From the sound of it, it's like something that happened to me. It was a computer automatically dialing my number and trying to send a fax through. But it didn't have a fax to send and all you could hear was static. After a lot of hassle, the phone company (with a lot of pushing from the gards) found out it was a local company with a dodgy system. Apparently it's not that unusual an occurance.

If it's the same for you, it could be some sort of cock up with the connections. The upstairs phone is being dialed, but when it's unplugged, the call gets forwarded to the phone downstairs.

gillyfromlyre

It could be a strong signal from a radio mast, I've heard of and witnessed some very odd behaviour from fridges, toasters (singing buddy holly songs) etc when their is a radio mast nearby.

phaze

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat reading this! Keep us posted please about any further strangeness. I'd love to know what the story is. Weird, weird, weird!

faceman

humanji wrote: »

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the set up, but is the phone upstairs a normal phone anyone can ring into and the one downstairs can only ring the one upstairs (like an intercom)?

From the sound of it, it's like something that happened to me. It was a computer automatically dialing my number and trying to send a fax through. But it didn't have a fax to send and all you could hear was static. After a lot of hassle, the phone company (with a lot of pushing from the gards) found out it was a local company with a dodgy system. Apparently it's not that unusual an occurance.

If it's the same for you, it could be some sort of cock up with the connections. The upstairs phone is being dialed, but when it's unplugged, the call gets forwarded to the phone downstairs.

Yeah i was wondering that too. The first post mentions that they are taking external calls but subsequently the OP has said its an internal phone system?

javaboy

faceman wrote: »

Yeah i was wondering that too. The first post mentions that they are taking external calls but subsequently the OP has said its an internal phone system?

I think if you reread the first post, there are two phone systems involved. One is the regular one connected to the outside world. The other is simply two phones connected to each other. An internal system like an intercom, and an external 'normal' phone line. And ne'er the twain shall meet.

faceman

^ oopsie, you're right thanks, i misread the OP.

mattfender

we'll just have to wait and see....:)

abrr1000

so anything new happenin in that office

Heather78

Woah, I found this forum by accident and after reading this thread I registered lol.
Very exciting read, any updates?

monkeyfudge

Are you not familiar with Japanese horror films?

It's exactly 7 days since he received the first phone call. The curse has probably caught up with him.

Stoner

HI Firewalk, how are you and everyone?

Any updates, it's been more then 7 days now, did you try to record anything , or even better film it in progress

Zillah

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Are you not familiar with Japanese horror films?

It's exactly 7 days since he received the first phone call. The curse has probably caught up with him.

Imagine my disappointment reading this whole thread and finding out he died at the end of it without giving one last post.