Live on my own - someone has switched oven on - all doors locked

[Seeingadistance]

Ok - I never thought I'd be posting one of these threads, but there you go! I also don't know what I'm posting for, tbh.

I live on my own in a large bungalow. I have two cats.

Was out this morning.

Spent afternoon sitting in bed, where it's warm - watching Youtube videos, writing Christmas cards, procrastinating ...

About 20 minutes ago went through to kitchen to feed cats, and immediately noticed light on in oven. No heat, just the light and fan on. Knob was in 7 o'clock position so very definitely turned deliberately - so seems very unlikely that it was caused by cat jumping around, and even when I had cats who could open doors and turn handles - which these ones don't - I've never had a cat turn the oven on. Cats have either been with me or out all afternoon.

Front and back doors both locked and keys in both locks. Both doors are fairly new - I've lost the spare key for back door but it's in the house somewhere. The spare key for front door is in key safe in garage and the number is known only to my son who's not here, and a trusted friend.

The loft hatch is bolted on this side, but there is another loft hatch in an extension I rarely use, and I've never actually looked into that loft or touched that hatch. However, anyone who was in that part of the house would need to come through a door which is closed and makes a noise when opened and closed, then walk past my bedroom to get to the kitchen.

I'm trying not to be freaked out.

The only other strange thing was maybe a couple of weeks ago, late evening. I was in bed, cats were both sitting on bed, and I heard a noise somewhere in the house. Just one noise - like something fairly light had fallen - so not a loud crash or thump. The cats heard it too - they both lifted their heads and looked towards the bedroom door which was ajar. It was the kind of noise which I would have blamed the cats for making, but they were both with me.

Fuck!

Give me reasonable explanations for how my oven could have turned itself on!

And, no I didn't turn it on myself and forget. I hardly ever used my oven before and pretty much never now as I have an air fryer.

Ooops!

It'll be the guy who took the car keys.

Maybe last time you had it on you meant to turn it off but didn’t turn it all the way. Perhaps you didn’t notice the light on because of tea-towel in the way / bright sunlight in the kitchen.

Or maybe you have been sleepwalking?

@Zone2NorthLondon tbf it was something special - the cats. Plus it did come to the op mind later on that it was the cats. ….

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime. which book is that? I've read a lot of hers but it doesn't ring a bell.

I have an "anything but" flat. Who am I kidding? I have an "anything but" life.

@Seeingadistance, perhaps it's a hint that you should provide freshly roasted chicken to your feline overlords?

that's the worst place to leave a key as the lock is engaged, and all it would take someone on the other side to do is find something to turn it

Thank you, I didn't know that.

My big fear is not being able to escape in a hurry if need be, so I keep the key in the lock. I did ask the guy who put in the new door about a lock with a thumb turn, I think that's what it's called, so I could open the door easily and quickly from the inside. But he never got back to me. I'll give the local locksmith a call next week.

Ooooh, yes!

Cue music from the Twilight Zone ...

There's a crossword clue today that seems written just for you OP

Out-of-this-world sighting, evidence of poltergeist in kitchen? (6,6)

Out-of-this-world sighting, evidence of poltergeist in kitchen? (6,6)

@MajesticWhine flying saucer? I like that clue!

re "the drawer of crap" @Seeingadistance @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime this sketch of Michael McIntyre is v funny about the drawer of crap

Cats. As others said not a spooky unknown related to numerology or spirituality. Not woohoo in the least. Random.yes. Woohoo spirits from beyond?no

SequentialAnalyst
which book is that? I've read a lot of hers but it doesn't ring a bell.
I have an "anything but" flat. Who am I kidding? I have an "anything but" life.

Not from a book, though I think she may have mentioned it in an article or interview. It was the drawer next to the cutlery drawer in the large dresser/crockery cupboard in her dining-room, just by the dining-table, and everyone in the family had got into the habit of dumping small might-be-useful things into it. When it became impossible to shut it, the whole drawer was turned out onto the table and there were cries of "So that's where that got to!" and "Good heavens, an elephant!" and "All right, what is it?" from the assembled throng (usually Diana and a couple of assorted children who enjoyed the chore). Obviously useless things were thrown away, tangles of string ruthlessly untangled, rolled into balls and put into the string-box, small rolls of sellotape returned to her study, and a semblance of order temporarily induced. Then the process started again.

The clockwork false teeth were real, and so was the red golf-tee and the small flathead screwdriver. Pipe-cleaners in a house in which nobody had smoked a pipe for probably twenty years since her husband quit smoking. Vast numbers of paperclips – who nowadays actually uses paperclips? – sifted to the bottom with the novelty pencil-sharpener in the shape of a hamburger which didn't sharpen pencils very well, and a door-lock for no known door and without handles, and the three crumpled foreign stamps, and many, many perished elastic bands. All the household mundungus, really. (And yes, she and John absolutely did know mundungus is what is left after someone has been chewing a dottle, or else a particularly vile sort of tobacco, but calling the residue in the anything-but-drawer mundungus lent it a spurious air of respectability, she said.)

Curses. I forgot to mention the three keys fitting no current lock, the small padlock without a key, and the two AA batteries.

I am in the last stages of moving. Replace "drawer" with "flat", and @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime description is exactly what I'm going through. The spare car key I know I must have put somewhere safe is yet to reappear

Tell the flat you are not looking for it! It might even work.

@amitoooldforthisshit Today 01:06

@Seeingadistance · Yesterday 18:30

I wondered about that - but I always leave the key in the lock on the inside of that door. And used the front door when going out.
Show quote history
that's the worst place to leave a key as the lock is engaged, and all it would take someone on the other side to do is find something to turn it

@amitoooldforthisshit is totally correct here. You shouldn't leave a key in the locks unless you have other internal closing mechanisms on the door - heavy bolts or deadlocks that you dont have the key in.

If you have a letter box or catflap in the door, it can be possible to reach in with a tool or sometimes even a hand depending on where lock/key is in relation to the letter box.

If you have a glass panel in the door, someone can smash it and be in the house in seconds.

Sadly, it no longer works for the car. I couldn't find it when I needed it (lost handbag), so had to get new keys with different code. And then I found my handbag

My cat managed to take a selfie and set it as my Skype profile picture a few years ago sitting on laptop. Clever fuckers. 😂

Oven accidentally on delay start?

Two things

1. I have seen my cat accidentally turn on my gas stovetop. How she avoided being burned I do not know.

2. my house has an have an electric fireplace that we had to have disconnected. Every time the power went off from a storm and came back on, it turned itself on. We would come home and there would be a fire going unsupervised. So I wonder if your oven has a fault and there was a power blip.

I was thinking power cut too . My oven and washing machine switch on when power is restored but doesn't turn knobs though.

Get a ring doorbell or security cameras and a reliable friend to come and check out your bungalow with you. There’s sure to be an explanation.

I’d say it was the cat. Just because they didn’t ever do it before doesn’t mean a paw slipped whilst dancing across the cooker 🐈

Sounds like a job for Danny Robbins & the Uncanny team.

If you read the thread, you will see that OP (yesterday, 21.45) has already concluded it was the cats, accidentally working as a team.