To think that there is either a serial killer or a ghost in my house?

[toryalane]

My DP went to work this morning via the front door. He locked it from the outside as he left. I was fast asleep. When I woke up several hours later I went to leave by the front door and it was bolted from the inside! I checked the back door and this too was locked from the inside!

I am MAJORLY freaking out and have just made DP tape up the attic door.

Please tell me I ABU and that there is a logical explanation!

out through a window?

It is either of two things:

1. As your DP left the house he slammed the door and the bolt went across with the vibration / momentum of the door.

or

1. You have a serial killer hiding in your house. Check behind the sofa and under the standard lamp.

HTH!

I wish NicknameIncomplete. I ask every night but am constantly disappointed!

I'd be freaked out! Perhaps DP never went to work and hid in the airing cupboard until you went out,forgetting that he needed to unbolt the door so it would look like he had left for work lol

Nickname - it's a sliding bolt. I am going to experiment with slamming the door to see if it really can propel the bolt shut.

Biscuit - my DM thought that too, however, I waited for him outside the house and he came home in the car.

Anne - Nooooooooooo. I REALLY don't like serial killers. scared

Orr is it possible you got up sortly after your dp did..but didn't see or hear him so you thought he was out all ready? You said you went out and waited till he got home?

Very weird then! Think the slamming door could well be the answer,although surely you would of heard dp slam the door or perhaps it would of happened a few times before now? Even if slamming the door could propel the bolt,is it even possible that it would produce enough force to tightly bolt? I'd of thought it would of only lossely bolted or perhaps just caught enough to prevent the door opening

How did the door slamming experiment go OP?

He definitely left at 7.30; I heard him go. I am on school holidays, had a few drinks last night and am genreally a lazy article, so I didn't wake up until 12. I didn't try to leave the house until 3 which is when I made this horrendous discovery. I left the house at 3.05 and sat on wall outside until he arrived home at 3.45 in the car.

Have performed bolt experiment. The "self propelling bolt" theory is out. No chance it's that.

OP...??

Phew you returned! DH is out so this is making me jumpy enough without a missing OP!

Mmmm any chance you could have bolted it after him? In a hazy sleepwalking way?

but do you have any windows that could shut and the catch drop down so it seems to be shut from inside? So dh could have gone out window after bolting doors?

Oohdaddypig - I really, really don't think so, but it is the only logical explanation. (grasps at straws).

Maddening - it's nothing to do with him. He isn't malicious; this kind of thing is not his style.

sorry was thinking along lines of baroness' post at 20.27 and your reply at 20.32 - not suggesting malicious behaviour but maybe a joke. Sorry again.

Erggh, this has made the hair on the back of my neck stand up... how long have you lived there and has anything else odd ever happened?

Is bolting the door part of your bedtime routine? Did you leave your bed at all (eg to get a drink of water or go to the loo)? If you left bed and then went back you could easily have done your bedtime routine without noticing, just because you were on your way to bed.

I think terrible tantrums is spot on. Done in such a way it's a non advent so wouldn't nesscerally register that you did it.

had a few drinks last night

I would guess this forms quite a large part of the explanation . I bet you got up and bolted it after him and have forgotten. I've done things like this before when half asleep.

Hey Maddening, no offence taken at all. No need to apologise.

Unrequited - Have lived here 18 happy months. Nothing unusual before.

Terrible - I AM keen on security and do like to check the windows and doors before I go to bed. BUT, DP posted his bankcard through the letter box for me as he left for work. I think I would have picked that up off the floor had I walked past it.

You've probably absent mindedly bolted it when passing and forgotten.

Ok that is a bit freaky. I totally weirded myself out the other day and heard beeping from upstairs and concluded that a Luther -style bastard was upstairs in my house. But the beeping was from the wind whistling through the smoke alarm and making it beep oddly.

I didn't really sit on the stairs with a knife until DH came home

See what happens tonight?

OP being practical, it's cant be a serial killer as I guess you would know already

Which leaves the ghost theory. I do believe in ghosts but this doesn't sound like ghost behaviour to me - not if you have lived there 18 happy months.

If you are security conscious you probably heard DH leave, stumbled downstairs to lock door (bank card n all) and gone back to bed without remembering.

I think I would put it down to that and not panic....

I reckon you saw the bank card. Went to pick it up but by the time you got to the door you were back on automatic pilot and did the bolt without picking up the card.

Years and years ago my mum called me home from the pub because she'd just watched a program about a pair of serial killers in america who crept into people's houses and hid, only to creep out at night to select their victim and then disappear leaving the remaining occupants as the prime suspects...