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Recurring detail · Objects and devices

Strange phone call

Stories
34
Broadcast years
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013
Average believability
59
Average evidence strength
14
Average creepiness
43
2005·Caller's story·8 min

Tucson house after a 1977 murder-suicide: Alarm, child voices, cold room

A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], of Rochester, New York, describes living in a Tucson, Arizona, house connected to their husband’s first wife. The caller says the woman killed her two children and herself in 1977. [name withheld] reports a burglar alarm sounding at exactly 2 a.m. on nights their husband was away, children’s whispering, moved objects, and a living room that stayed cold in summer. The caller says a responding policeman advised them to leave, and they did. The caller says they later concluded the dead woman had been trying to drive them and their children away from their husband.

Haunted homes
1997·Caller's story·7 min

Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut

A caller who says only that they are calling from Texas tells Art Bell that at nineteen they rented a furnished apartment. The previous tenant, an elderly woman, had died with nobody to inherit her belongings. The caller reports that cleaning supplies and dirty dishes vanished whenever the phone rang, their cat went berserk, and windows and the front door were found open despite the bolts. Finally, a door would not open against two people until they spoke a phrase they had been using. They say they packed up their cat and left.

Haunted homes
2000·Caller's story·10 min

Family house in Syracuse: man on the telephone, bed presence, and deceased parents

[name withheld], from Syracuse, New York, tells Art Bell that their family home, owned by the family since 1950, has been the setting for a series of strange events. Both their parents died there. The caller reports a 1989 ghost of a young man talking on their telephone and walking through a wall. The caller also describes a presence that got into bed with them, a phone call in which a doctor’s office said it had spoken to a man named [name withheld], a green film, a smell of spaghetti sauce, and a later vision of their mother. The call ends with the host closing the segment after the mother’s reported insurance detail.

Haunted homes
2006·Caller's story·5 min

A key in the door and a solid figure in a Reno apartment

A caller the host addresses as [name withheld] tells Art Bell that they had rented a small apartment in Reno for three months when a noise woke them on their couch. They say someone entered with a key, made a phone call about a deal, packed clothes, and took a banana from their refrigerator. They then saw that he had no hands or feet. Police found no one. The next morning the chain lock was on, the windows were locked, and a banana peel was in their trash. The previous tenant's mail stopped arriving. They say the apartment manager identified the man they described as the tenant who had lived there before them.

Human figures
2013·Caller's story·2 min

Recorded EVP at a party and a friend’s coma at 11 p.m.

A caller tells Art Bell about filming a house party with night vision. They say a demonic-sounding voice was captured on the tape when they greeted their friend [name withheld]. Years later, while driving with their girlfriend at 11 p.m., they suddenly remembered the story and told it to her. The next day they learned that a friend, named [name withheld] in the transcript, was in a coma. The friend died three days later. They say a friend, [name withheld], reported the coma began around 11 that Saturday night, close to when they were telling the story. They are unsure whether there was a connection.

Voices on recordings
2006·Caller's story·6 min

Teenage blood-curse ritual and a warning phone call from “[name withheld]”

A caller the host identifies as [name withheld] in Wisconsin tells of an episode from their teens in Racine, Wisconsin. They and two friends tried to perform a ritual they believed was a blood curse, using instructions said to come from a manual “written in blood.” [name withheld] describes losing about an hour in a haze, later misfortunes among people involved, and a phone call from a man calling himself “[name withheld],” who told them to destroy what they had made. The host cuts the call short for time and warns listeners not to attempt such things.

Séances, rituals, and blessings
1996·Caller's story·3 min

Lights, ringing phones, and footsteps at a southern Idaho radio station

A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], in Seattle, says they worked weekend overnight shifts alone at a radio station in southern Idaho about seven years before the broadcast. The station was said to be haunted. They report lights switching on and off, phones ringing with a dial tone when answered, and footsteps crossing the floor above them while they were in the basement at about 3:30 a.m. They blame a ghost that they say was attached to one of the station’s DJs and had earlier been at that man’s house until a priest blessed it. They do not say how the activity at the station ended.

Lights and appliances acting up
2000·Caller's story·6 min

A child's late-night phone call reporting their father's death

A caller who gives the name [name withheld], calling from Redmond, Washington, says their father was murdered in 1976, when they were nine. The caller reports that at about 11 p.m. on the night of his death they woke at their aunt's house, walked through the dark house, and answered a ringing telephone. A voice the caller did not recognize told them their father had been shot, and then the line went dead. The caller’s aunt, who had not heard the phone ring, called it a bad dream. The caller says the call came around the time he died, and that their mother, fifteen miles away, woke with a start at the same moment. The caller says their uncle can confirm the caller telephoned him, but no one can confirm the incoming call. Asked what they think it was, the caller says they do not know.

Phones, radio, and TV
2010·Caller's story·3 min

A lost ringtone plays, then a dark figure leaves the bedroom

A caller the host introduces as [quote withheld] describes events beginning about two and a half years after a friend’s suicide. The caller reports that a ringtone they had lost from their cell phone sounded from the bathroom one night. The next morning they woke unable to move, heard a toilet flush with no one else in their apartment, and saw a dark unclothed figure apparently leaving their bedroom. The caller says they do not know whether it was their friend reassuring them. The host offers association or coincidence, and the call ends there.

Paralysis and pressure
2001·Caller's story·6 min

Twin's grandfather reportedly announces brother alive and trapped in Vietnam

A caller who says they are a twin, on holiday in Western Canada, tells Art Bell that their brother was believed killed in Vietnam and their grandfather then died. The caller says the grandfather appeared to them twice, in their bedroom and in the den, and said their brother was alive and trapped. They say they later got a phone call from the grandfather saying the brother was alive. They found him in a Greek Orthodox mission hospital in Vietnam and brought him home. Years later, the caller says, a realtor reported that every door in the house had sealed shut.

Visits
2003·Caller's story·2 min

Repeated 4 a.m. phone calls with a strange voice and a reported hag

An unidentified caller on the “first-time caller” line says their household telephone rang at 4 a.m. It rang three times that night. An unintelligible voice came through the speakerphone and sounded like “go to sleep.” The phone was later found in the bathroom, with no matching caller ID record. The caller also relays that their friend’s girlfriend, who lives there, said she had seen the ghost before and described it as [quote withheld] The host treats it lightly, saying such calls are usually nuisance calls, and jokes that the caller should have gone to sleep.

Phones, radio, and TV
2006·Caller's story·3 min

Ouija board reportedly asks for caller on night their father died

A caller the host identifies as [name withheld], in Miami, Florida, describes going to a Halloween party at a fraternity house on a college campus. They say a Ouija board repeatedly asked for the caller. The next day, they say, their mother told them their father had died the night before, around the same time. The caller and the host later take the board’s contact to be their father.

Ouija boards and automatic writing

22 more stories

1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
2001
2006
2007
2010
2013