Tonight I was at my girlfriend's house, playing board games with her sister and her boyfriend. We were just getting ready to leave, around 10:30, and I stepped into the bathroom. As I was doing my business, I heard the two dogs that they own barking, which means either they've heard someone come in the house or are getting excited to leave.
I exit the bathroom to exclamations of, "I don't know! It's weird!" I ask what's up, and everyone quickly fills me in on what I missed: the doorbell outside rang while everyone was inside, and when people checked to see who it could be calling so late at night, it was found that no one was outside.
But the even creepier part of this, the one that seems to indicate that the ringing of the doorbell was not a prank, is that the doorbell tone that played was not the normal tone! The normal tone is "Charge!," but the tone that played could not be identified. It probably is within the doorbell tone system, but it is not one that has ever been programmed to play.
Everyone swears they did not touch it, and I believe them, because we are all believers in the supernatural to some degree and I trust wholeheartedly that none are playing a practical joke. My girlfriend's boyfriend has lived in several haunted houses, and just today had the TV turn on in his own house. He also claims that the doorbell tone we heard tonight was his doorbell tone for a house he lived in that was purported to be haunted.
I simply cannot explain the event. I've researched doorbells, and though I've found that doorbells can be affected by certain external factors like wind, car remotes, and batteries, I can almost guarantee none of these are the case. There was no wind tonight. The car remotes only affect wireless doorbells, or so I assume, and this doorbell is wired. There are no batteries. The only thing I can think of is a short circuit, but it seems very unlikely.
Can anyone offer any suggestions to this mysterious case? Rather than jump to conclusions, I'd like to rule out hypotheses scientifically.
4 COMMENTS:
I had to take the batteries out of our doorbell because it would ring in the middle of the night. Sometimes it would ring the back door ring, and other time, the front door. While I do believe in the supernatural, I think the doorbell is fucked up. However, the woman that lived in my house before me actually died here, so who knows. Good luck!
Electronic items can do some crazy things. I had a clock radio that would continue to play for about 4 minutes after the plug was taken out of the wall beacuase electricity was still running through it. If the doorbell is able to play different tones then it could well be a fault. But if it only has one tone I would be freaking a little right now if I were you! Keep us posted!
"It probably is within the doorbell tone system, but it is not one that has ever been programmed to play."
Is there any way you can test this? Can you see what other tones the bell produces and try to watch what everybody heard? I think the first step is ruling out whether or not the tone actually came from the doorbell.
Thanks for the responses!
Matt - Let me know if you have any ghostly stories. I'd love to have a special feature up on the blog about ghost encounters involving bloggers.
Sarah - It does have other tones, so I think it might have been a fault. Weird coincidence, though, considering there have been other occurrences in the house.
CRwM - I can test it, it's just a matter of when. I'm at college now, so I won't be home to do it for a while. Another problem is that the dogs go crazy when they hear the doorbell. But we're definitely going to try to figure out as much of it as we can.
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