Music box sounds at close range and a smashed attic door in a house-sitting stay
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Temecula, California, tells Art Bell that they and their wife were house-sitting for her parents, in the house she grew up in. Twice, late at night, they heard music-box-like chiming that seemed to come [quote withheld] from their faces. They took their baby and went home. When they returned the next morning, the caller says, the attic door, which was latched to the wall, was lying in pieces on the stairs. The caller says it had to have come from the inside. The caller offers a resident ghost as the only explanation the couple could imagine.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 2001-2.mp3”, starting at 1:54:06). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller gives their first name as [name withheld] and says they are calling from Temecula, California. The caller says that a couple of years before the broadcast, they and their wife were house-sitting for her parents in the house she grew up in. Late at night, around midnight as they recall, they were in the back office using the computer and the internet when they began to hear what sounded to them like a music box, a “ding ding ding” that seemed to come from about a foot away from their faces. The caller notes there were music boxes around the house, though not in that room, and says they first dismissed it. A few minutes later the same sound came again, so they decided to move to another room to watch television. While they were watching TV, the caller says, the chiming happened again: [quote withheld] The caller says there had been several other occasions in that house when strange, unexplainable things happened. The couple decided it was too strange for that night, collected their baby, and went home. When they came back the next morning, the caller says, the attic door, which they describe as mounted on the wall with a latch, was gone from its place and lying all over the stairs in about a hundred pieces, as if kicked out or something. The caller says it had to have come from the inside because all the wood was scattered over the stairs. The caller says they have no clue what it was. The only thing they could imagine was [quote withheld] Art responds that whatever it was, you would not want it angry at you. The caller agrees, and the host moves to the next caller.
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
The caller gives their name as [name withheld], calling from Temecula, California, and says that a couple of years earlier they and their wife were house-sitting for her parents in the house she grew up in.
- 0:19
Around midnight, while they were in the back office on the computer and the internet, they began hearing what sounded like a music box, seemingly about a foot from their faces. They dismissed it because music boxes were around the house.
- 0:48
A few minutes later the same chiming came again, so they decided to go to another room and watch television.
- 0:55
While watching TV, they reportedly heard the chiming again, right in front of their faces.
- 1:05
The caller mentions several other earlier occasions of strange, unexplainable things in that house.
- 1:12
They decided it was too strange that night, got their baby, and went home.
- 1:21
Returning the next morning, they found the wall-latched attic door gone and lying over the stairs in about 100 pieces, which the caller says had to have come from the inside.
- 1:51
The caller says they have no clue what it was and that the only thing they could imagine was an angry resident ghost.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:19
The caller says they and their wife heard what sounded like a music box late at night while in the back office.
- observation· 0:35
The sound seemed to come from about a foot away from their faces.
- observation· 0:40
The caller says there were music boxes in the house, though not in that room.
- observation· 0:55
The chiming reportedly came again while they were watching television in another room.
- observation· 1:05
The caller says there had been several other occasions of strange, unexplainable things in the house.
- observation· 1:38
The attic door was found the next morning lying over the stairs in about 100 pieces.
- interpretation· 1:43
The caller concludes the door damage had to have come from the inside.
- interpretation· 1:53
The caller says the only thing they could imagine was an angry resident ghost.
- host statement· 1:59
Art Bell says that whatever it was, you would not want it angry at you.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a brief but coherent firsthand story with a few concrete details (house-sitting for in-laws, midnight, back office, attic hatch). But it has no checkable names or dates, and the caller raises an obvious ordinary source for the sound.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand word: the caller says they and their wife were present and describes what they heard in sequence.
- Concrete setting and sequence: house-sitting at her parents’ house, [quote withheld] the back office, then the TV room.
- The caller separates what they observed from what they conclude, saying [quote withheld] before offering a ghost explanation.
- The caller notes music boxes were in the house, an available ordinary source for the sound.
- No names, dates, address, or verifiable specifics beyond a first name and city.
- The claimed link between the chiming and the broken attic door is an inference, not something observed. The door damage is explained only as [quote withheld]
- The labels showing who is speaking are inconsistent in this part of the broadcast (some of the caller’s lines are labeled as the host), so the exact wording attributed to the caller is uncertain.
- The phrase [quote withheld] does not fix the year of the events.
- 0:11
- 1:51
- 0:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): The points for closeness to the source and for calibration come from the caller’s clear first-person framing and stated uncertainty. The deductions for specificity and alternative explanations are my judgment of how much of the story could be checked in principle.
There is only the caller’s word plus a claimed second witness who does not speak on the air. The damaged attic door is a claimed physical trace that was not documented, preserved, or examined in this part of the broadcast.
Evidence for and against
- A specific named city (Temecula, California) and a specific house are mentioned, though the house is not identified.
- A physical consequence is claimed: the attic door [quote withheld]
- A second person (their wife) is claimed to have been present.
- No photograph, recording, written record, or repair report is mentioned or examined.
- The wife does not appear on the air to confirm anything.
- No details that would locate the house (street, in-laws’ name, exact date) are given.
- It is unstated whether the door damage still existed or was repaired, which would affect whether any check were possible.
- The transcript is garbled in places, so the precise claim about how the door was built is partly unclear.
- 1:38
- 1:43
What the model inferred (not said on air): I treat the broken door as an unexamined claimed trace rather than evidence examined on the air, so the score stays in the low range. No outside check was done.
The chiming apparently inches from the couple’s faces late at night spreads across rooms. The next-morning discovery of an attic hatch reduced to a hundred pieces adds an intrusive, mildly menacing physical element.
Evidence for and against
- The sound is described as coming [quote withheld] while they were awake and at a computer.
- The experience repeats in a second room, defeating their attempt to move away from it.
- The couple felt moved to leave the house with their baby, and returned to find the attic door destroyed.
- Nothing unseen is actually seen, and no one is reported touched or harmed.
- The caller’s tone is puzzled rather than panicked, and Art’s closing remarks are rhetorical rather than alarmed.
- The transcript does not show how the caller delivered the story, and delivery is not used here.
- Some lines around the door description are fragmentary.
- 0:35
- 0:55
- 1:53
What the model inferred (not said on air): My score weights how close the sound was, how it escalated, and the destroyed door. It is a judgment about the story’s effect, not about whether anything happened.
Phantom music and a haunted house are stock elements. But the pairing of close-range chiming with a wall-mounted attic door broken outward from within gives the story a moderately distinctive detail.
Evidence for and against
- A nonstandard detail: the sound is repeatedly placed extremely close to the listeners’ faces rather than elsewhere in the house.
- The physical aftermath is unusual: an attic hatch door [quote withheld] found in pieces on the stairs.
- Phantom music boxes and haunted family homes are common motifs in this genre.
- No unusual figure, type of place, or missing documentation is involved.
- Originality compared with the rest of the archive depends on comparison with other archived stories, which is not available here. This value is provisional.
- 1:31
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score reflects a familiar setup (music box, resident ghost) plus one distinctive detail (a door burst outward from the attic side).
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand word (live call, approximately 2.4 minutes); A claimed second witness (their wife) who does not speak on the air; A claimed physical trace (broken attic door) that is not documented or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (50) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The chiming came from an actual music box or similar mechanical or toy source elsewhere in the house, made to seem close by nearness or by the couple’s own movement between rooms. · The caller says [quote withheld] so such objects were on the property.
- The attic door was already loose or poorly latched, or gave way on its own (an old wall-mounted hatch with a latch), and fell, leaving debris on the stairs. · The caller describes it as [quote withheld] a setup in which a door could fall if the latch failed or the mounting aged.
What stands out
The story pairs an intimate, close-range sound (chiming seemingly inches from the couple’s faces) with next-morning damage to a wall-mounted attic door that the caller says was broken outward from inside. What sets it apart is the specific claim that the door damage began on the attic side, rather than the two events being separate incidents.
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