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Paranormal? Hearing ice cream van music at night

130 replies

Thisisscarystuff · 02/08/2023 19:40

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?

OP posts:
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Andante57 · 02/08/2023 21:59

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 wondered that. Anyway, back on topic, op I hope you find the source of the music - I would be terrified if I heard that.

Rolypolyup · 02/08/2023 22:02

Do you have a fan on by any chance?

Mademetoxic · 02/08/2023 22:38

EnthENd · 02/08/2023 19:56

It's the ice cream van. Only he's selling more 'interesting' merchandise. Didn't Vice City teach you anything? :-D

I love that game 😅

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Thisisscarystuff · 03/08/2023 00:03

So my DH has just said he heard the ice cream van music again, this time in the lounge. It’s totally freaked him out.

We do have a Samsung washing machine that plays a tune when it’s finished but this definitely wasn’t what I heard yesterday (I wish it was). Not sure what to think now.

OP posts:
Thisisscarystuff · 03/08/2023 00:05

DDs bedroom is above the utility room where the washing machine lives so I was really hoping it was this (thanks for the suggestion it could be the washing machine) but DH adamant it wasn’t the same noise.

Guess I need to hear it again myself to be sure.

OP posts:
AtomicBlondeRose · 03/08/2023 07:52

Could you get hold of a camera/baby monitor/ring doorbell type thing and set it up somewhere to record, then you’ve got a record of the sound?

Someone mentioned a fan above - I will say that fans or extractors can sometimes produce auditory weirdness. I can hear people talking when ours is on, but it’s just the weird pattern of the vibrations.

Thisisscarystuff · 03/08/2023 08:06

No fans!

OP posts:
PenisFlyTrap · 03/08/2023 08:18

I'm really invested in this now. Hope you manage to find out what's causing it!

ThatFraggle · 03/08/2023 08:19

Auditory hallucinations

liondreams · 03/08/2023 08:21

Try to record it, get your app ready and learn how to use it to record the sound. Also maybe a camera that can record sound to listen back in the morning!

PenisFlyTrap · 03/08/2023 08:27

ThatFraggle · 03/08/2023 08:19

Auditory hallucinations

Can two people hear the same auditory hallucination at the same time?

ThatFraggle · 03/08/2023 08:48

PenisFlyTrap · 03/08/2023 08:27

Can two people hear the same auditory hallucination at the same time?

One person does hear something.

The other(s) gets caught up in the excitement and claims to hear something too. Either they know they haven't, or think 'maybe, they might have, sort of' hears something.

TheInterceptor · 03/08/2023 10:27

PenisFlyTrap · 03/08/2023 08:27

Can two people hear the same auditory hallucination at the same time?

Have a look at folie à deux - it's fascinating!

WunWun · 03/08/2023 11:14

ThatFraggle · 03/08/2023 08:48

One person does hear something.

The other(s) gets caught up in the excitement and claims to hear something too. Either they know they haven't, or think 'maybe, they might have, sort of' hears something.

That is really quite an insulting suggestion to the OP.

Thisisscarystuff · 03/08/2023 11:38

All 3 of us definitely heard it. I was making a cup of tea at the time, DH and Dd just chatting to each other then all of a sudden a loud burst of music playing the ice cream van tune. DDs face turned white and DH and I were like “what the hell was that”?

OP posts:
sickofteenagers · 03/08/2023 19:41

I'm invested in this. How old is your dd now? I would be so scared, sorry!

dogsweetdog · 03/08/2023 19:42

Set up a noise recording app on your phone/iPad.

SisterWedge · 03/08/2023 19:47

What's the tune? Pop goes the weasel?

sheworemellowyellow · 03/08/2023 19:52

Totally vested, totally place-marking. I had thought drug dealing too and tbh I wonder if it is still something like this with a van in a neighbouring street and some combination of chimney flues and winds directing the noise loudly into your house.

Have you spoken to your neighbours about it at all?

InWalksBarbarella · 03/08/2023 20:02

This happened to my parents, turns out it was the neighbour's doorbell. It wasn't anything fancy, not Ring, a basic one but you could choose which tune it played from a dozen or so.

If someone pushed the neighbour's doorbell then my parent's own doorbell transmitted the tune, but it wasn't my parent's usual tune if that makes sense. So they knew it wasn't someone actually pushing theirs, but must have both been on the same frequency or something.

OooohAhhhh · 03/08/2023 20:14

Creepy yes. But of course it's least likely to be something paranormal, so I'd assume it's other things. So strange tho! Does the sound change rooms? Has it happened today again? 👀🤔

MillWood85 · 03/08/2023 20:16

I used to have awful nightmares about a child catcher driving round in an ice cream van. The music they'd play was "In the summertime" by Mungo Jerry. It was so bad that I'd scream and hide behind the sofa if one came round .....

I still go cold if that song comes on the radio.

This thread has brought that right back.....

EbiRaisukaree · 03/08/2023 20:21

How old is your house, OP? Ours was built in the early 1970s, and was originally heated by a hot air system, which ran through ducts in the walls and emerged through venues. The vents have all since been covered over, but the ducts are still there. We find that sounds travels really easily through these, and we can, for instance, hear sounds in the hall (beside the former vent there) which originate miles away in the house. We could hear the squirrel that got into one area of the loft in the room diagonally opposite and down a floor.

All this is to say that sounds can emerge some way from the source. Is it possible that it really is the ice cream van, but you’re hearing the sound arrive from another direction than the one you would expect?

Could it be an alarm your neighbours are using?

Or is your daughter having you on, and it’s something she’s set up on an old phone or similar?

Irridescantshimmmer · 03/08/2023 20:35

? A musical box maybe?
They were very popular during times gone by.

Especially as you both heard it indoors as opposed to outdoors.

VenusClapTrap · 03/08/2023 20:39

I agree about heating/ventilation ducts. Same goes for chimneys. Years ago I lived in a top floor flat and could sometimes hear snippets of conversations/radio/clattering coming from the ground floor flat, as clear as if it was in an adjacent room with the door open.

Their flat was four floors below mine. Weirdly, I couldn’t hear anything from any of the other flats in between. Nothing could be heard in the stairwell either. It was either coming through the old ducts or up the chimney - never worked out which.

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