Tell me about a random unsolved mystery in your life....

[RevoltingPeasant]

....inspired by the intriguing threads thread!

Does anyone have a mini-mystery, or a story they want to know the end to? We can all supply improbable answers

Here's mine....

DH and I go for a walk around the block most nights before bed . Almost every night, at a particular point in the neighbouring street, there is an 'offering' of baked goods in the road.

Sometimes it is bread rolls. Sometimes, baguette. Once, about 8-9 Mr Kipling's Bakewell tarts. Just lying there in the road.

At first we thought it was for hedgehogs, but then the cakes? And in the road??

What's your unsolved mystery?

I am so sad I have finally got to the end of this thread... it's been keeping me company the past few nights (along with a glass of wine!)

Here's my mystery: who was the ar-gee man?

When I was around 4-5, one night I woke up and heard a man at the foot of my bed saying, "Ar-gee" (with a hard "g").

Ar-gee. Ar-gee. Ar-gee.

It was pitch dark and I could tell it was the wee hours of the night, like two or three. He was saying it in a playful tone of voice, the way a man would talk to a child.

Ar-gee. Ar-gee.

I covered my ears. I was too scared to get out of bed. The next thing I knew it was morning.

At breakfast I told my mother and she said I must have heard ice falling off the roof.

WTF?

That's the first time I've ever typed it out. Applying Occam's razor, I'm wondering whether someone broke in. Jesus.

That's utterly creepy!...

matilda you've just scared the crap out of me! "Ar-gee" omg that sounds so scary!

Don't say it out loud anyone. You may unintentionally call whatever it was, back to you.....
Eeeek!!

LettertoH, I think you said, upthread, that you're in the US? It looks as though those buttons might be related to the War Of Independence?

Noooo! Oh god I've got all the children in bed with me tonight. What if it only says it to children?

Sorry to scare you!

Whenever I've thought of it before I thought it was a hallucination/dream but in fact I was old enough to know the difference between a dream and something I actually heard, in my room. The only other options would be maybe my dad sleepwalking (?) or someone breaking in.

Or something else....!

manderin I obviously don't want to cast aspersions on your family, and that is NOT what I'm doing in this post but.....I was reading this thread with a friend and she said her grandmother was sent to a "mental institution" in her 20s in the 50s. Whole family knew she went to a mental institution but no one knew why. Turned out it was an illicit image pregnancy as a result of rape, and she obviously didn't want to bring "shame" on her husband by going public with this news so went away for a "rest" :-( such a sad story.

Any chance there could have been anything similar in your family??

When I was a student nurse, many years ago, the accommodation was in the grounds of a very old mental health institution, and there were patients there that had been there for over 50 years as the result of an illegal abortion.

Nice name,

"I keep finding weird things on the floor at home.
They look like a copper coloured nib of a pen (but not hollow) so a teensy, long cone shape with flat ends. They are about 3-4mm in length, and look like they have a 'screw thread' on it. I have no idea what they are or what they are for."

These are from inside the door handles.
handleswww.doorhandlesdirect.co.uk/20/section.aspx/6839/metric_grub_screws_cone_point_in_pack_of_5

"I was old enough to know the difference between a dream and something I actually heard"

Nobody's ever old enough for that, the brain is too tricky a thing. The most likely (and Occam-friendly) explanation is that you weren't awake. Or at least not as awake as you thought you were - there are various states of partial waking in which the brain and body sleep cycles get slightly out of synch and hallucinating very real-seeming figures on or near the bed is common when that happens.

Nice try. The ar-gee man is coming for you next.

Has anyone tried googling the "floating downstairs as a child" thing? The www is full of it! Although mostly talking on forums. I wanted to find some facts!

I can remember doing it so vividly as not just downstairs either...

i have a very old fashioned plate in my cupboard. it has a gilted scalloped edge and pictures of yellow roses in the middle. i found it in the cupboard and assumed it was one of my mum's old ones and she had brought a cake over on it or something. mum says she has never seen it. neither has mil.
plate still there-no idea where on earth it has come from.

My son, now 21, swam competitively as a teenager and so spent a large part of his childhood training in the pool. When he was about 14 he told me that something was worrying him.. He said that quite often, not all the time, when he was in the pool alone, he'd be swimming along, giving it his all, when he would be see "himself" swim past him. He said for a long time he was too afraid to look at the other boy's face as he knew there was no actual swimmer in the pool with him, but on the occasion he plucked up the courage, he met the boy's eyes as the boy overtook him. It was him! Without a doubt.

This happened for a few years...

jesse, that is creepy! Was he frightened?

Yes Murmur and the poor little sod had taken his time telling ME about it as he said it seemed more "real" to discuss it! It gradually stopped happening though. And we got out heads round it by rationalising that although it was alarming for him, he never felt like the boy was in any way dangerous. It was HIM after all! I tried to tell him it was probably his subconscious giving him someone to pace himself against but he was adamant that it was a living breathing swimmer who splashed him and puffed as he swam past.. Only problem was the pool was empty apart from DS and the small issue of the swimmer being his "identical twin".. Same jammers (trunks) and everything.

He was never scared enough to stop training though (fortunately as he has CF and it kept his lungs clear for years). And he used to avoid it a lot by not staying late that often as it only happened when he was training late alone.

Interestingly, I would have always been on the (admittedly) far distant poolside with my head in a book when these occurrences happened. I never saw any DS doppelgängers

14 yo DD overheard me talking to DP about this thread and when I mentioned the flying downstairs as a child thing she was "OMG I did that!!" and went into great detail about it.

TBH I think she was quite relieved to hear that other people have experienced it!

Gym any chance of a photo/s (front & back) of your plate please.?

Cor! this is like a spooky Antiques Roadshow

yes-if i can work out how to put a picture on here!

I used to fly downstairs too! I could jump from the top step, fly head-first and would land perfectly. I'm only 90% convinced it was a series of dreams

Then as I got older, it got harder and harder to fly, until I was just standing in the middle of the living-room flapping my arms in vain only to hover a few inches off the ground. Now I don't even dream of hovering :(

I think that's EXCELLENT symbolism about losing the idealism of youth. My imagination can no longer soar dizzy heights.

Before my my grandas funeral my nana gave me a necklace with princess wrote on which was my grandas pet name for me as I was his only grandaughter. I wore it all the time and never took it off. One night in bed I woke up feeling like I was choking I turned the light on and found the necklace on my bed split down the middle through the word princess. I dunno if this was a sign he wasnt happy with the way I was living as the family had fallen apart after he died.
Another one was when I first moved to were im living now my brother would stay over and I would sleep in the living room. I would hear a grandfather clock chiming through the night which has happened more than once ive asked the neighbours and they dont own a clock that chimes.
Final one was when I split from my ex and had to move back in with my mam was stuck in the spare room with dd who was only one at the time. I spent most of the night crying and feeling like shit and my blanket started to give off these glowing lights which freaked the hell out off me like a glow in the dark duvet was really scary I dunno why this all happens at night.