Ghost hoovering in the wee small hours

Last night at midnight, I was awakened by the sound of my hoover on. I called to my husband a couple of times to wake him up and at the same time I opened our door to our bedroom. It was clearly my Hoover running in my office upstairs. I turned on the hall light and with in 2 seconds the machine turned off. This is when my husband jumped out of bed and grabbed a weapon. My heart was jumping out of my body. I quickly ran up the stairs behind my husband to give him some backup, as there are three rooms up there. My weapons in hand, (2 iron candle holders) I was ready to hit someone. I felt like we were in some cop show, as he turn every corner I had the other side. We did this dance for a least 10 minutes and found NOTHING. We proceeded to check the entire house. Everything was closed and locked. Needless to say my husband and I were still in shock. I thank God that my husband was here, because I don't know if I would have been able to go up stairs by myself.

Does anyone have a logical explanation for this?

Do you have kids?

Who ya gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

Maybe it was the neighbours?

Yes, however they are small 4 and 6 and sleep on the same floor as us. I checked on them after we checked the 3rd floor and they were asleep. Also my children never go up to the 3rd floor because they say it is dark.

I wouldn't rule it out, I started prowling the house in the wee hours before I turned 5.

Other than that, was the hoover left plugged in?

It is God trying to tell you to clean your house - I think you better comply as we don't know how soon we might meet him and there are a lot more fun ways to disobey him and go to hell for.

Be better off calling Dustbusters.

Ooooh...creepy.

If your Hoover is plugged in, it's possible there was some kind of trip/surge in the electrical circuit which caused it to turn on. Other than that, methinks you have a visitor...

Do you have a nanny or an au-pair girl? they have been known to use this as a vibrator you know.

If it was plugged on, I'd say it is posssible to switch itself on and off by itself, due to faulty on-off switch contacts.

Ditto if you have a male au-pair, but using the suction function.
Our smoke detector went off at 5:08am, I checked the whole house but all was serene.

Quite obviously the hellion Hoover fiend come to suck you away in your sleep.

That came out a little differently to that which was intended. But what the hell, it's Monday and whatawaytogo.

Did you respond to the "stealth cleaning lady" ad in the Munich classifieds?

There is no way it was my children. the hoover turned off when I was standing in the hall and their rooms are on the floor I was on.

Yes it was plugged in and I could see possibly some kind of power surge to turn it on, however would there have to be another surge to turn it off? I don't know, all I know is that I'm still tense.

Not very good - I just tried it - my foreskin made a funny flapping sound in the slipstream. Maybe the setting was too high.

Do you ever use this vacuum cleaner? Or is it just left up in your attic collecting dust?

Is it the kind where a mouse could have jumped on it...and switched it on?
If that is the case...I'd rather have the ghost than a mouse in the house

Mrs Tom34

Sounds like you have a case of the Haunted Hoover...

Time to call the dustbuster and get it trapped...

Otherwise, I'd recommend just unplugging the thing and seeing if it happens again.

On a side note - you're sure it's the Hoover and not an airplane or chopper or something low flying overhead?

There is no way it could be a German ghost as German ghosts would know it's not allowed to run a hoover at midnight.

Call up a priest, so he can come over and exorcise your vacuum cleaner.

Bob, I have 2 children, I use my Hoover everyday.

Light white candles, burn sage and fan the smoke through the house then put dried beans in the corners of every room. If it comes back, it's a friendly ghost

Turning on you light may have been enough of a power surge?

(I have two kids and I certainly don't vacuum every day! )

It is a faulty switch.
I bet you it will turn on and off again at any time...

You need a young priest, and an old priest...

It would be a very unsafe switch that would switch itself on, then off again a few seconds later. Is it a mechanical switch, or an electronic one? I guess a surge or dip in voltage could possibly cause an electronic switch to trip.

Could it be that you left the vacuum turned on, and the plug is loose in the socket?

Also, your story reminded be of this: What causes "ghost rings" on the telephone? (straightdope.com)

I have 3 kids and don't hoover every day!

I don't have any kids and neither do I hoover everyday!

Sounds loik it gets enuff exorcise already!

I wish someone would come and hoover our place ,hell they can do the washing too as far as Im concerend

Thread of the week.

Xena!!! I am becoming very curious about this case - please open that cleaner bag and check the contents.

i've seen a ghost. ghosts are cool. it was sort of crouching on the floor in an old ecclesiastical library in truro, looking like it was picking up little scraps of paper or something. come to think of it, it could probably have done with a hoover!
(ps this story is true)

I wouldn't worry about this one. It was most likely a power surge. I hate to kill the ghost story (love a good ghost story!) but we have a living room light affected by these that turns itself on so often it's become expected. We laughingly call it our resident ghost and say "thank you!" when it chooses to go on at dusk or in the early morning when the light is dim. It's a pain in the patoot when it goes on at 3:00am, though. Just keep your Hoover unhooked from the wall at night (which I suspect you've already done) and that oughta do the trick.

Now... if it starts turning itself on without being plugged in, I'd do the following: 1.) junk it ASAP, 2.) Call a priest. If that doesn't stop the Hoover noises in the night I'd consider moving. ;)

why dont u try selling the haunter Hoover??

If it happens again, wait until it finishes doing the room before confronting it!

I'd be interested! For cleaning purposes only, don't care about the ghost stuff. A ghost that cleans is a good household appliance.

Only problem being it would only clean after midnight being a ghost and all that..and this wouldnt go well with the neighbours

Why don't we split up? You and Scoobie go that way. Me, Daphne and Velma will go this way!

My mother has a radio alarm clock that switches itself on and off spontaneously. Nothing to do with the alarm setting. It's quite spooky. Either it's a ghost, or a faulty switch that doesn't stay switched off.

Anyway, if you do decide to get the vacuum cleaner exorcised, please tell the priest to send the ghost over my way. I'd love to have an invisible helper for household chores!


I don't normally believe in ghosts, but what is it about the south-west of England, especially Cornwall? Somehow I can perfectly well imagine ghosts there, and I'm sure that story is true.

Thank YOU!!! (one other non-Brit reading I guess...)

What's spooky is all this talk of hoovering... and at our post-Ultimate beer just yesterday, we discussed at length the difference of these words. And how you *can* have a hoover that isn't made by Hoover... jeeebus! Maybe your non-Hoover hoover is angry you're calling it by some other brand name?

No, sorry. Just a Brit who's been in Germany too long and has forgotten her cultural heritage.

Maybe if I start calling my vacuum cleaner a Hoover, I will call up the spirits, and the ghost will come and do my cleaning for me?

I call it a vacuum cleaner... and I am a non-Brit.

But I guess they can call it hoover just like you call a kleenex kleenex (or tempo in German) regardless of brand, and scotch tape... (tesa in German)

My tip for the op is, unplug the vacuum cleaner. If it still turns on by itself, then I'd really be worried.

What's spooky is all this talk of hoovering... and at our post-Ultimate beer just yesterday, we discussed at length the difference of these words. And how you *can* have a hoover that isn't made by Hoover... jeeebus! Maybe your non-Hoover hoover is angry you're calling it by some other brand name?
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Well actually my Hoover is a Dirt Devil and I am not British, but lived in London for several years. Thank you for all your responses, I have laughed my way through this creepy ordeal. And I have given my Dirt Devil 24 hours off.

I'm just going to Siemens the carpet darling!

It doesn't really roll off the tongue so well!

xena, I'm afraid your problem has been explained: