Speaker 1: Have you ever had a moment that made your skin crawl,
Speaker 1: a shadow where there shouldn't be one, a whisper in
Speaker 1: an empty room, or something you simply can't explain. If so,
Speaker 1: we want to hear from you here at the Haunted
Speaker 1: UK Podcast. We're always on the lookout for spine tingling
Speaker 1: stories to feature in our end of season listener episodes
Speaker 1: and our short Haunts series. Whether it's a chilling encounter,
Speaker 1: a mysterious experience, or something that's haunted you for years,
Speaker 1: we want your tale. Send your story to contact us
Speaker 1: at Haunted UK podcast dot com, and don't forget to
Speaker 1: follow us on social media Facebook, x at Haunted Ukpod,
Speaker 1: TikTok and Instagram at Haunted UK podcast, or visit our
Speaker 1: website www dot hauntedukpodcast dot com. Now, if you love
Speaker 1: what we do and what even more haunted goodies, then
Speaker 1: you can support the show on Patreon and Coffee. We've
Speaker 1: got two brilliant tears, Possessed and Spooked, both packed with
Speaker 1: bonus content, exclusive episodes and extra material that'll keep you
Speaker 1: up all night. But that's not all. We've launched a
Speaker 1: brand new sister podcast, Haunted UK Fiction, and we're calling
Speaker 1: all storytellers, whether you're a published author, an aspiring writer,
Speaker 1: or someone with a natural gift for spinning ear retails.
Speaker 1: We're looking for original fictional short stories and novellas with
Speaker 1: strong paranormal or supernatural themes. Think suspenseful, mysterious, atmospheric, terrifying,
Speaker 1: thought provoking, even darkly magical. If your story is selected,
Speaker 1: we'll professionally narrate, record, mix and master it into an
Speaker 1: audiobook style format, then feature it on the show. You'll
Speaker 1: get a copy of the finished production to use however
Speaker 1: you like, and you'll retain full ownership of your work.
Speaker 1: Admit your story to Haunted UK Fiction at hotmail dot
Speaker 1: com and follow us on Instagram at Haunted UK fiction. So,
Speaker 1: whether it's truth or fiction, if it's haunted we wanted.
Speaker 1: Now sit back and enjoy the episode. This is the
Speaker 1: Haunted UK Podcasts Short Haunts. Welcome dear listeners to our
Speaker 1: series of short haunts. A shot of scary just for you.
Speaker 1: So grab a hot chocolate, maybe a tea, maybe something stronger,
Speaker 1: because this is Haunted UK Podcasts Short Haunts. A life
Speaker 1: of haunting experiences. So many times on this show we've
Speaker 1: heard accounts of people who seem to experience the paranormal
Speaker 1: or supernatural on multiple occasions. Many others go through life
Speaker 1: never having any type of encounter at all. So what
Speaker 1: makes these types of people so different to the rest
Speaker 1: of us. Could it have something to do with the
Speaker 1: effects that their body and mind have on the atmosphere
Speaker 1: around them. Are they somehow able to influence these strange
Speaker 1: phenomena to occur. Whatever exists beyond the veil of the
Speaker 1: world of the living, if anything exists at all, is
Speaker 1: it somehow attracted to the energy of these types of people.
Speaker 1: The thing is, how would you know if you have
Speaker 1: any influence on the paranormal or supernatural. It's not something
Speaker 1: that simply shows itself to you, or does it. Perhaps
Speaker 1: people who have numerous encounters somehow feel different to others,
Speaker 1: feel that they are in touch with something that not
Speaker 1: everyone understands, and maybe they don't fully understand it either.
Speaker 1: Whatever the case, this short haunt seems to revolve around
Speaker 1: one of these people, a person who has had experience
Speaker 1: after experience after experience. This listener wishes to remain anonymous
Speaker 1: due to his past and current careers, and we will
Speaker 1: respect that wish, so it just remains for me to
Speaker 1: hand this short haunt over to our listener. Hi to
Speaker 1: all of you in the Haunted UK podcast team. Keeping
Speaker 1: myself anonymous, I wanted to let you know that I
Speaker 1: accidentally stumbled over your podcast and have been enjoying it
Speaker 1: so far. I'm at this moment listening to some listener
Speaker 1: stories and thought it would be the right time to
Speaker 1: submit some of mine. Before I go any further, I'd
Speaker 1: like to give you a little background about myself. For
Speaker 1: the past eighteen years, I've been a medic in a
Speaker 1: large ambulance service, and previously to that, I'd served in
Speaker 1: the Royal Army Medical Corps as a combat medic. I
Speaker 1: can honestly say that ghost stories have been a part
Speaker 1: of my life since I was a very young child.
Speaker 1: My parents lived in a police house which was on
Speaker 1: an estate built in the late nightnineteen seventies, and my
Speaker 1: mother always told me that when I was a baby,
Speaker 1: I would stare at certain places in the house. As
Speaker 1: I got older, this went further and I would talk
Speaker 1: to a stranger who obviously wasn't there, at least not
Speaker 1: to anyone but me. One particular incident which frightened my
Speaker 1: mother was when she came home to find the contents
Speaker 1: of the kitchen all over the floor. At the time,
Speaker 1: my father was a serving police officer, so my mum
Speaker 1: immediately contacted him, which resulted in a number of officers
Speaker 1: being sent to the house to ensure everything was okay.
Speaker 1: Upon their arrival and after a thorough search, they didn't
Speaker 1: find any sign of a break in. Unfortunately, this wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the only time this happened. On two other occasions,
Speaker 1: my mother would be out shopping or visiting family and
Speaker 1: would return to find something thrown out of the kitchen cupboards.
Speaker 1: The last time something occurred in my old family home
Speaker 1: was a few months after my grandmother had passed away.
Speaker 1: By now I was married and had set up home
Speaker 1: with my wife. During the process of sorting out my
Speaker 1: grandmother's effects, some furniture had been moved into the family home.
Speaker 1: One of these pieces was kept in my old room,
Speaker 1: and one evening, while myself and my wife were visiting,
Speaker 1: we both had a very strange encounter. It was a
Speaker 1: Friday night and I woke to feel something sitting on
Speaker 1: the end of the bed. At first I thought it
Speaker 1: was the cat, but remembered that we had shut the
Speaker 1: door to stop the grumpy thing from getting into the room.
Speaker 1: I looked at the door, which was still closed, and
Speaker 1: then to the end of the bed, and there, as
Speaker 1: clear as day, was an indentation on the douvet, as
Speaker 1: if someone or something had sat down on it, but
Speaker 1: there was nothing in the room which could have caused it.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel scared or feel anything bad in the room.
Speaker 1: I simply went back to sleep. I told my wife
Speaker 1: the next morning about this strange incident, and her reply
Speaker 1: surprised me. She told me that she had also been
Speaker 1: woken up that same night to the same feeling of
Speaker 1: something sitting on the end of the bed. Again, as
Speaker 1: with my experience, she also initially thought it was the cat,
Speaker 1: so she sat up to take a look, but was
Speaker 1: shocked to see something that definitely wasn't the cat. It
Speaker 1: was a woman who was sat on the end of
Speaker 1: my side of the bed. My wife said she was
Speaker 1: dressed in a white night dress, she had long hair,
Speaker 1: and sat with her back towards us. My wife also
Speaker 1: didn't feel scared or experience any type of unpleasant feeling.
Speaker 1: According to her, it was as if someone was checking
Speaker 1: in on us. Now, whether this was my grandmother or
Speaker 1: the person I interacted with as a small child, I
Speaker 1: could not say I know. The house was a nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies build and it was constructed on old farmland. There
Speaker 1: were stories dating from Victorian times which still circulated around
Speaker 1: the area that told of a young woman who drowned
Speaker 1: in the nearby pond. Her ghost is said to visit
Speaker 1: the estate. When I left home and joined the Army,
Speaker 1: my ghost encounters continued. My first home was an old
Speaker 1: RAF base which had been used during World War II,
Speaker 1: then handed to the Army after one of the post
Speaker 1: Cold War restructuring programs. This led to various changes in
Speaker 1: military strengths and capabilities. We shared the base with a
Speaker 1: cavalry regiment who had all the nice, shiny accommodations and
Speaker 1: working spaces, but my unit were initially given the old
Speaker 1: Nissan huts, which had been condemned for habitation until they
Speaker 1: sorted something more appropriate. Think of ans hut as a
Speaker 1: sort of half tube like structure and you'll get the picture. Luckily,
Speaker 1: I joined the unit just after they were given what
Speaker 1: was essentially a new version of Nissen huts. The guys
Speaker 1: who were in the old accommodation would joke about strange
Speaker 1: noises and rooms suddenly becoming cold, and they would tell
Speaker 1: me of the tower being haunted as well. Now as
Speaker 1: a new guy, I was listening to these stories, but
Speaker 1: felt they were simply tall tales being fed to the
Speaker 1: newbies to set them up for some sort of prank,
Speaker 1: as is universal in all military service. The tower in
Speaker 1: question was the old control tower next to an old airfield,
Speaker 1: and we used the top part as offices for the
Speaker 1: unit sergeants and the two lieutenants. The bottom part of
Speaker 1: the tower was used as storage for medical equipment and
Speaker 1: we were constantly in and out of the storage space
Speaker 1: to check the equipment. As anyone who has been in
Speaker 1: the mid will attest, if there is nothing constructive to do,
Speaker 1: the seniors would get you to check all the equipment
Speaker 1: and vehicles, even if they had been checked the day before.
Speaker 1: I recall one of the rooms used as storage always
Speaker 1: being ice cold, and I would get a horrible creepy
Speaker 1: feeling of being watched. At night, the tower was always
Speaker 1: locked and the keys were left in the guardroom. Most nights,
Speaker 1: the guard commander would have to send the quick reaction
Speaker 1: force to the tower as the lights would mysteriously be
Speaker 1: switched back on Luckily for me, the QRF were normally
Speaker 1: guys from the married quarters, and they would always report
Speaker 1: that same icy feeling in the tower, but worse, much worse.
Speaker 1: They would also quite often hear bangs and creeks as
Speaker 1: they were doing a search of the building to make
Speaker 1: sure no one was in there. Now long departed from
Speaker 1: the armed forces and in the ambulance Service, my encounters
Speaker 1: with the paranormal continued post army. My wife and I
Speaker 1: first set up home in a nineteen thirties ex council house.
Speaker 1: We began to experience strange phenomena from the off, like
Speaker 1: drawers being opened and a strange smell that would follow
Speaker 1: us throughout the house. I always thought it smelt like
Speaker 1: burnt hair, while my wife described it as smelling like
Speaker 1: roast chicken. We mainly noticed this smell in the back
Speaker 1: bedroom or on the stairs, but I had also noticed
Speaker 1: it whilst sat in the dining room or in the
Speaker 1: living room right after it had been noticed upstairs. At
Speaker 1: the time, we had a very grumpy tabby cat which
Speaker 1: seemed to be tormented by whatever was in that old house.
Speaker 1: The cat would be asleep on the small landing of
Speaker 1: the stairs and would often wake up suddenly and bolt
Speaker 1: down the stairs as if he'd been kicked. Often I
Speaker 1: would also see from the corner of my eye a
Speaker 1: blurred figure s shoot across from one side of a
Speaker 1: room to the other. My first time noticing this was
Speaker 1: on the day that we moved in. I can remember
Speaker 1: being in the kitchen emptying boxes and placing the contents
Speaker 1: into the cupboard. The entrance to the dining room was
Speaker 1: missing a door, as the previous owner had tried to
Speaker 1: turn the space into an open plan type of affair.
Speaker 1: This was to my right, and I initially thought that
Speaker 1: the cat was moving past in the dining room, but
Speaker 1: was heading towards the wall, which I thought was odd.
Speaker 1: I stucked my head in the room, but found no
Speaker 1: cat until he came in from outside using the cat
Speaker 1: flap in the kitchen, which was now behind me. To
Speaker 1: this day, I have no idea what this thing was,
Speaker 1: but I saw it a number of times. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was the spirit of a previous inhabitant of the house,
Speaker 1: or possibly someone or something that was tied to the
Speaker 1: land before it was developed. We ended up leaving this
Speaker 1: house to our growing family. So back to my job
Speaker 1: in the ambulance service, I've had two strange encounters which
Speaker 1: really stand at The first front took place when I
Speaker 1: was part of a fast response unit. This is basically
Speaker 1: a car which is used to get to the most
Speaker 1: life threatening cause before the ambulance does. I was on
Speaker 1: a night shift and sat at the station by myself.
Speaker 1: The station I was based at was a small satellite
Speaker 1: station with two ambulances and the response car. On this
Speaker 1: particular night, I was truly alone, as the ambulances were
Speaker 1: being utilized a lot more than the car. I was
Speaker 1: sitting in the mess room at around two thirty am,
Speaker 1: watching a police reality TV show as there was little
Speaker 1: else to watch at the time. Next to the mess
Speaker 1: room was the garage where the trucks were parked at
Speaker 1: the end of a shift for energy saving reasons. The
Speaker 1: lights in the garage were motion activated and it was
Speaker 1: as dark as can be. While I was sitting there,
Speaker 1: I suddenly heard a scraping noise coming from the garage,
Speaker 1: so I went to check it out. I opened the
Speaker 1: connecting door and popped my head in and the lights
Speaker 1: came on, but there was no one there and no
Speaker 1: obvious cause for the noise. I returned to the mess
Speaker 1: room and sat back down. The lights went off, but
Speaker 1: soon after the noise started again. I got up and looked,
Speaker 1: but again nothing as before. I sat back in the
Speaker 1: mess room and tried to ignore it. A short while later,
Speaker 1: the radio went off to indicate that a job had
Speaker 1: been sent to me, so to save time, I went
Speaker 1: out through the fire exit and into the car. I
Speaker 1: rolled out and onto the street and had gone just
Speaker 1: a meter or so when the call was downgraded. With
Speaker 1: no call to run on, I reversed back into the
Speaker 1: station and went through to the garage, which can only
Speaker 1: be accessed via a keypad system. As expected, the lights
Speaker 1: pinged on, but instead of the usual sights of the garage,
Speaker 1: I was instead confronted by a large clinical waistbin which
Speaker 1: had been dragged across the entrance to the female changing room,
Speaker 1: its locking brakes still firmly on the atmosphere of the garage.
Speaker 1: Didn't feel good at all. In fact, it was like
Speaker 1: stepping into a walk in freezer. And this was August.
Speaker 1: It had been a scorcher of a day, so the
Speaker 1: night was worn too, and I'd been off station for
Speaker 1: a minute. If that. I immediately turned around and spent
Speaker 1: the rest of the shift sitting in the car instead
Speaker 1: until my relief arrived in the morning. When my relief
Speaker 1: did turn up, a conversation immediately started with why the
Speaker 1: bin had been moved. I relate to them the events
Speaker 1: of the previous evening, the noises, and they told me
Speaker 1: that on their last night shift they'd had a very
Speaker 1: chilling experience. They'd been on a rest break and had
Speaker 1: nodded off, but was suddenly woken up when they felt
Speaker 1: the sensation of someone blowing breath into their face. They
Speaker 1: also now preferred not to sit in the station by themselves.
Speaker 1: My last strange encounter happened during COVID and the first lockdown. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it was a strange time for everyone and nobody really
Speaker 1: knew what was going on, and the general public felt
Speaker 1: a real fear of going into hospital for the first
Speaker 1: time in a long time. The call raid had dropped
Speaker 1: off drastically, and we were rarely sent out after midnight.
Speaker 1: During this period, I was on an ambulance and on
Speaker 1: this particular night shift, I was taking the opportunity for
Speaker 1: a little quiet time. As all X forces will know,
Speaker 1: eat when you can and get some sleep if you can.
Speaker 1: I was in the back of the ambulance, laying on
Speaker 1: the trolley and probably snoring like a walrus at the time.
Speaker 1: If anyone has been in the back of an ambulance,
Speaker 1: you'll know that they're quite top heavy, and the type
Speaker 1: of suspension means they rock quite easily. I woke up
Speaker 1: to the feeling that something had shifted in the ambulance
Speaker 1: and I was no longer alone on the trolley bed.
Speaker 1: Something very heavy was now sat on the edge of
Speaker 1: the bed. There was an oppressive atmosphere in the truck,
Speaker 1: and I felt as strong urge to get out of
Speaker 1: there as quickly as possible. Once outside, the oppressive feeling
Speaker 1: quickly faded away. My crewmate asked if we had a
Speaker 1: call when he saw me walk into the busy mess room.
Speaker 1: I replied no, but that I'd had a strange feeling
Speaker 1: when I was in the truck. Another crew member in
Speaker 1: the mess room overheard my conversation with my colleague and
Speaker 1: asked what fleet we were on. I told them what
Speaker 1: the fleet number was, and they said they'd had a
Speaker 1: similar experience not too long before. This started a conversation
Speaker 1: about various ghost stories the crews had experienced over the years.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the background noise as I
Speaker 1: do my housework or when I'm on my commute to work.
Speaker 1: Best regards anonymous, and that is where we bring this
Speaker 1: shorthorn to a close. But what an amazing and chilling
Speaker 1: set of experiences. We must ask the obvious question first,
Speaker 1: which is how can one person have such a high
Speaker 1: number of varied experiences throughout their life so far? It's
Speaker 1: not as though their career has been spent in one place,
Speaker 1: or even in one profession. The different environments, the different settings,
Speaker 1: the different phenomena, all experienced by the same individual. We've
Speaker 1: mentioned several times on this show how some people seem
Speaker 1: to be a type of psychic beacon for the paranormal
Speaker 1: and supernatural, but we're no closer to discovering why this
Speaker 1: is the case for such a few choice souls. What
Speaker 1: do they possess that we don't an understanding, a sympathetic subconscious,
Speaker 1: a gift, or is it something else Entirely? These questions
Speaker 1: and many more remain unanswered for now. But if you
Speaker 1: feel that you are one of these extremely sensitive people,
Speaker 1: then why not reach out to the show, tell your
Speaker 1: story and maybe, just maybe the next person whose experiences
Speaker 1: could be put in the spotlight of a short haunt
Speaker 1: could be you.