Paranormal? Hearing ice cream van music at night

[Thisisscarystuff]

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this, it’s very very strange and quite unusual and I don’t know what to make of it.

A couple of years ago my then 14 year old DD told me she would be lying in bed at night and would hear ice cream van music which would last a few seconds. She said it scared her a lot. I kind of dismissed it putting it down to any one of many rational explanations ie maybe someone was walking down the street and it was their phone, maybe it was our next door neighbours (we live in a semi).

Over the years she would tell me about this music which would play at random times but always at night. She said she would be crying under the covers she was so scared as the music was loud and came out of nowhere. Again I kind of dismissed it.

Until I heard it myself. DH, DD and I got home late last night about 1 am and we’re standing in the kitchen talking and all of a sudden this scary ice cream van music starts playing. DD is kind of paralysed with fear and starts screaming “did you hear it, that was the music I’ve been hearing in my room for years”.

Cant really think of a logical reason as to where this music was coming from. The neighbours are away on holiday so not them, we were in the kitchen so no one walking past with a phone etc.

Has anyone experienced this?

I live in Scotland, not in Glasgow, actually very rural and have heard ice cream vans at all hours. Always just assumed drugs. Why the hell would the paranormal play ice cream bells?

I had something similar and it was a Vtech Kiddiconcert randomly going off for a few seconds in the middle of the night due to a wonky timer. I thought I was having auditory hallucinations for a while first!

Did you not watch Happy Valley , I thought it was common knowledge that ice cream sellers have a second occupation!

That sounds so creepy op!

I've never heard an ice cream van song, but I hear a bus 'dinging' like it does when you press the stop button all the time from inside my house, except there are no buses around and we don't have a doorbell.
It's so weird, dh has only heard it once and he hates the paranormal woo stuff but even he couldn't find an explanation.

Hope you figure it out and it's something simple

That's interesting, @Limitedisall. While shopping for doorbells, I learned that some respond to frequencies from nearby ones - they include a blocker to reduce the likelihood of this happening, but can't make it watertight (or radio-tight, I guess!)

I've just remembered the night I scrambled over the back fence during a thunderstorm. The source of the very loud, irritating tune that woke me up was next door's DD's flashing, musical scooter! They were away so I acted all burglar-like, got soaking wet, then had to figure out how to turn the damn thing off.

Pretty sure it wasn’t coming from an ice cream van driving around selling drugs. The sound came from inside our kitchen - definitely not from outside our house.

We live in a semi and our neighbours have big standard basic doorbell. DD is 16 and no old toys or noisy board games in the house, kept trying to convince myself it was an old toy but they got donated/chucked years ago. We don’t have a lift but do have a garage but again the music literally burst out randomly inside our kitchen so odd.

Those reddit threads are interesting, seem to focus on the ice cream van noise coming from inside woods but we definitely do not live near any woods!

loft not lift. Wish my house was big enough for a lift 🤣

I have read the full thread.

I screamed.

What tune is it? I've been haunted by a tinkly ice cream tune in the middle of the night for years, possibly decades. I think it's playing Moscow Nights. My bonkers theory is that it's coming over shortwave radio from a numbers station.

Surely it’s a bit of a giveaway to the police if you are driving an Ice cream van around in the middle of the night? I’ve no doubt that some sell extras in normal hours but not at 0100. Surly that’s more the realm of a kebab van?

Do you know what the tune is OP?

How long was the bit of music - 1 or 2 seconds or longer?

Did it seem to all of you that it was coming from the same place? Or did it seem all around you?

Did you smell anything unusual?

Sorry for all the questions 😊

I did experience this once. Except it was like olde carnival music, like from a carousel with an organ playing. It freaked me out and honestly, I thought I was losing my mind. It only happened when I was home, often at night but not always, and I lived alone but in a block of flats.

I did a lot of reading about it because I thought I was hallucinating or having a breakdown. It is a phenomenon that can happen when you are stressed and overtired. It’s a very specific type of auditory hallucination that isn’t related to mental illness or a long term issue. That, however, doesn’t sound like what you experienced, as you all heard it (so not just in anyone’s head.

Is there any chance you or a neighbour might have something hidden away in a storage box that periodically makes noise? I once had a box in my grandparents creepy cellar that used to make weird noises. It turns out I had a furby in there that had come alive after several years 😳 and would start talking and playing music whenever someone walked past or rattled the box. Similarly, Dh threw an old smoke detector with a dead battery in a box in the shed. We spent a month wandering around the garden trying to figure out where this horrible low buzzing noise was coming from. Thought it was the Hum! Turns out the battery had just enough juice to make the alarm vibrate but not actually go off. But it was enough that we could hear it anywhere within 50+ ft of the shed.

Could it be some sort of appliance or device in the kitchen that makes noise when it resets/check it's working? Maybe the burglar alarm?

Oof, @mindutopia, an unexpectedly reactivated Furby's quite spooky enough by itself!

I’m terrified 🤯 your poor daughter

Interesting…

Neighbours washing machine? My Samsung one plays the most annoying tune when it finishes a cycle, it's worse than the Ryanair landed tune

Any bluetooth speaker in your house that a neighbour is connecting to and playing tricks?

Our visiting kebab van and mobile library both play the ice cream van tune.

Yes could it be this OP? My machine makes a noise that could sound like an ice cream van.

I third this! I have the LG smart washing machine and put a load on before going to bed, and hear it going off when im not in a deep enough sleep, will see if I can link a video to what it sounds like to see if it sounds familiar!

hope that works!

Where is DD’s room in relation to the kitchen? If she’s the only one who heard it before then it must be coming from somewhere close to her room. Check the drawers and cupboards closest to where her room is. She only heard it at night and you heard it at night - that tells me there’s definitely a logical explanation, such as an old toy - you may think they’re all gone, but lots of things make music. Birthday cards that play a tune when you open them, novelty biscuit tins, handheld games, key rings…so many things. We had a box of biscuits once that played the start of “We wish you a Merry Christmas” when you opened it. We took the sound bit out and put it in a rarely opened drawer and it still makes us jump the two times a year someone forgets and opens it!

We had this in our last house, it turned out that we'd managed to leave the batteries in one of the old baby toys in the loft and they were starting to go, which was triggering the toy at random times. Never in the day, or so we thought until I heard it upstairs one afternoon. The rest of the family didn't hear it because the tv was on, so it was pure luck that it seemed to be only at night. I'd put money on it being something like this.

Is it massive spiders setting off a security system?

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21358903.listen---mums-nursery-rhyme-nightmares-solved-late-night-crack-team/