The Thing That Texted Them From Disabled Phones

Marianne picked up her ringing telephone and heard a strange robotic voice repeating the word “Hi.”

Her partner, Marc, was sitting nearby with his mobile phone on the table. The call appeared to have come from his number, but he hadn’t touched his phone.

Paranormal investigator Darren Ritson was there too. He watched as more calls arrived, some carrying messages that seemed to be coming from Marc’s phone.

The people in the room decided to collect everyone’s phones and put them where they could see them. That didn’t stop the calls.

Strange Things Had Been Happening for Months

It was the summer of 2006 in South Shields, a coastal town in northeast England. Marianne and Marc lived in a modest house with their three-year-old son, Robert.

Those weren’t their real names. The family wanted to protect their privacy after everything that happened.

The trouble had started the previous December. At first, the couple noticed small things disappearing or turning up in places where nobody remembered putting them.

Then came the noises. Heavy bangs echoed through the house, doors slammed, and taps switched themselves on.

Robert began telling his parents that he could see people inside the house. Marianne became increasingly frightened, especially when objects started flying across rooms.

She contacted Darren Ritson, a local paranormal investigator, who suggested keeping a diary of everything that happened. As the activity grew worse, Ritson brought in another investigator, Michael Hallowell. The two men arranged to spend time at the house and see what they could discover.

A Plastic Toy Flew Across the Bedroom

During their first visit, Ritson and Hallowell spent several hours talking to the family and setting up recording equipment. Nothing unusual happened at first. But after roughly four hours, the investigators were standing in Robert’s bedroom with his parents when something suddenly flew across the room.

It was a yellow plastic nut from the boy’s toy workbench. According to Ritson, it struck a cupboard before bouncing into Marianne, who cried out in surprise. While everyone was discussing what had happened, another toy slid off a chest of drawers and fell into a metal wastebasket.

The investigators said they had been watching the family and hadn’t seen anyone throw either object. More things happened before they left. Another plastic nut moved, a small rubber ball appeared on Robert’s bed, and a night-light was found on the floor after apparently coming out of its wall socket.

The two men returned repeatedly over the following months, sometimes spending entire nights at the house.

Knives Started Flying Through the Rooms

What had begun with toys soon became much more frightening. Coins appeared in unexpected places, ornaments moved around, and the family reported seeing objects flying through rooms. On one occasion, the investigators said a coin travelled through a closed glass door.

Kitchen knives also became involved. Ritson described finding a large knife on Robert’s bedroom floor, even though nobody remembered leaving it there.

During another visit, Hallowell reportedly entered the house just as a carving knife flew across the kitchen. It struck a television before falling to the floor.

The activity was no longer something the family could ignore or laugh about. Marc also began suffering frightening physical attacks.

One night, while he was in bed with Marianne, he felt a burning sensation across his body. When he removed his shirt, he discovered red marks appearing on his skin. According to the couple, the marks developed into scratches and cuts while they watched.

Marianne called Hallowell, who travelled to the house and photographed Marc’s injuries. The investigators later reported witnessing additional attacks, some of which they attempted to record. Meanwhile, something else was happening that neither man had expected.

The Landline Started Delivering Messages

In 2006, some British telephone services could convert a text message into speech so that someone using a landline could hear it. That was the kind of call Marianne began receiving.

Instead of hearing a person speaking normally, she would pick up the telephone and hear a computer-generated voice reading a short message. During one visit, Ritson heard the voice repeatedly saying “Hi.” The call seemed to have come from Marc’s mobile, even though the phone was lying untouched on the table.

The investigators decided to test what was happening. Everyone placed their mobile phones on the table, along with the cordless house phone. Nobody was supposed to touch them.

The landline rang again. This time, the automated voice said “Hello” twice. Another call followed with the word “Sorry.” The investigators were becoming convinced that something inside the house was deliberately communicating with them.

They Removed the Battery and SIM Card

The group decided to go further. They removed the battery and SIM card from Marc’s mobile phone, making it impossible for him to send an ordinary text using that handset. Yet according to Ritson, messages continued arriving. The phone had no battery.

The messages also became much more threatening. Marianne began receiving texts warning that she was going to die and that something was coming to get her.

Ritson tried to reassure her, but she was terrified. The messages appeared to respond to what people were saying inside the room, almost as though someone were listening to their conversations.

The investigators continued collecting recordings, photographs and witness statements. They also reported finding messages on Robert’s magnetic drawing board, including instructions telling them to leave.

Years later, Alan Murdie, a researcher associated with the Society for Psychical Research, examined the investigators’ records. His review was published in the society’s journal in 2010.

Murdie believed the material deserved serious attention, especially because Ritson and Hallowell had spent so much time inside the house while the disturbances were occurring. But Marianne was more concerned about getting through another night than what researchers might eventually think.

Marianne Tried to Get Away

After another frightening day, Marianne decided she couldn’t stay in the house. She arranged to spend some time with her mother, hoping that getting away would give her a break.

She packed her belongings and left. But while travelling to her mother’s home, the threatening texts started arriving again. One message told her not to leave and warned that whatever was sending the messages would come with her.

Marianne immediately called Hallowell to explain what was happening. She was shaking and frightened, wondering whether she would ever be able to get away from the thing that had been tormenting her family.

During their conversation, she admitted that she was now afraid to go to sleep.

Another message arrived, warning that she wouldn’t be safe even when she was sleeping.