The Barricaded Door

I would hope that home security is one of the high priorities on anyone’s mind, but as they say, if you lost your keys, how would you gain entry to your property. Of course, you would find the weakest point to get in, which is the same way that any would be burglar, would also get in.

Now this may seem as a strange opening paragraph on a paranormal website, but what if there weren’t any signs of a forced entry yet, without a shadow of a doubt, things had been moved around in our absence. The sceptics amongst you of course will immediately rub their hands together and say that we’re getting absent minded in our old age and moved the items ourselves, but read on and judge for yourself if this could possibly be the case:

There had been nothing out of the ordinary on the particular Sunday that the incident took place. We had had a bit of a lie-in in the morning before heading out to do some Christmas shopping. We came back home about six hours later, blissfully unaware that there could possibly be anything wrong. We had something to eat before sitting down for a relaxing evening in front of the television and chatting to friends on the computer. The whole evening remained quiet and peaceful. We squeezed all the time we could out of the day and later than we really should have been, headed off to bed.

As usual, the bedroom door was slightly ajar, but on trying to open it found that it just wouldn’t budge. I pushed a little harder and the top of the door gave slightly, but the bottom refused to move at all. Perhaps the hinges were badly worn and the door had dropped slightly causing it to catch on the floor? I tried pulling the door towards me and it moved with ease. I pushed it once more and after a couple of inches movement, it once again came to a complete stop. There was little more than a three inch gap between the partially open door and the wall beside it. So much so that I was unable to get my hand through let alone my body.

By this time, Eleanor had joined me and asked me what the problem was, which I hastily explained. Being of a slighter build, Eleanor was just able to get her hand through the door to examine the possible obstruction.

Slowly but surely, Eleanor was able to start removing some of the smaller objects that were blocking our entrance to the bedroom. Firstly, there were six folders containing blank sheets of A3 paper. This was followed by two camcorders and tapes that had been removed from their bags. As the operation continued, the landing became cluttered with all the items that were being removed from behind the door. Finally, Eleanor was able to reach the biggest obstruction that was barricading the door from the inside… A suitcase!

Forcing her arm even further through the gap, she was able to push the case a mere couple of inches. Once again Eleanor tried to force the door open and creaking and cracking managed to open it just enough at the top to force herself into the room. Once inside, she was then able to move the rest of the items that were obstructing our access.

With the door now fully open we were then able to start clearing the landing and restoring the room back to its former self. I then checked the other obvious entry point for the room…. The window. However, it was still nailed firmly shut with all the glass perfectly intact, so how had the door become barricaded from the inside?

To try and explain it from a sceptical point of view, the only other way that anything could access the room without removing brickwork is via the chimney. Is Santa suffering from dementia and having turned up almost five weeks early, tried to hide his embarrassment by barricading himself in our bedroom, or have we experienced paranormal activity?

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