Things that go bump in the night...

Nadstar

Using the central locking on my car periodically sets off my mum's door bell, whether you park on the drive or the street!

Spendless

We had a very similar experience with my 80+ grandmother 2 years ago. It turned out she was sufferring from auditory hallucinations caused by her having hearing problem herself. I don't want this thread to get pulled for offerring medical advice so I'm just going to say try googling 'musical ear syndrome'

Money_maker

luxor4t wrote: »

Something like this happened with an elderly neighbour.
She kept complaining that the (also elderly) couple next door kept her up all night playing 'Roll out the barrel' on a wind-up gramaphone. It was very difficult as she was so credible that most of us imagined that the couple concerned had either gone batty or were harrassing her.
It was quite some time before her mental decline was recognised - her allegations were far more extreme by then.

She really did believe that she could hear the tune, although the relative that spent a few nights with her did not & could not as it didn't exist iyswim.

This is very similar to a client I used to visit. She claimed the neighbours kept ringing her doorbell at unsocial hours. She had CCTV installed, tapes were watched... nothing showed even though the CCTV tapes covered all of the path up to the doorstep.

But she did have a bee in her bonnet about the neighbours wanting her out so their daughter could buy her house...

Went really weird a year or so later then died.

pennyfarthing1971

This actually happened to us a couple of years ago - the door bell would ring, we would go to the door and boone would be there - it turns out that our neighbour a few doors away had the same wireless door bell and when someone pressed their bell, it would activate ours too - maybe this is a similar situation?

mackemdave

If its a wireless door bell then I agree...these can be set off anytime day/night without anyone being at the door

tandraig

McKneff wrote: »

Tell her to unhook the batteries/electricity before she goes to bed each night.

dont do that! if there was an emergency and she needed to be evacuated they would have to break her door down!

ask the warden to check the batteries/wiring, if it isnt that it could be someone playing silly beggars - perhaps a security camera is needed here? actually, why isn't there one? surely its standard these days?
or she could indeed be on a mental decline - but all other options should be investigated first!
or she could have a form of tinnitus! my old cookery did and we regularly got detention for whistling in class - which we didnt!
and she had to apologise to us later when the doc diagnosed tinnitus!

Savvy_Sue

Are all the door bells accessible from the street, or is there a security door to get past first, IYSWIM? If the latter, I'd say it was most likely some kind of hallucination, which sounds quite common!

TeetersOnHeels

Some interesting thoughts have been posted - thanks!
Everyone's front door is accessable from the street. Not sure if the doorbells are wireless (I'll investigate when I go in the week).
She's not deaf, my mum says she has the telly on low and can hear every word, nor does she struggle to hear if she's not facing you.
It's not happening with any great frequency, maybe a couple of times over the last 3mths, so I wonder if she is dreaming it and waking up startled, or someone is messing about - though 2am does seem a little late for kids to be out messing about.

Spendless

auditory hallucinations are not always caused by hearing problems -just my grandmother's was. There can be other causes too. But when someone put it up I then remembered that the same nan had had a similar problem years earlier and that was caused by a neighbour having the same wireless door bell, so I'd def rule that one out first (though it seems to be a strange time for anyone to be calling).

meames_2

Have just googled this and am now scared!

On a another note, my mum was convinced she had titinitus cos she could hear bagpipes playing. She was going to the hospita for tests. I came home and told her tha I had heard this bagpipe player years ago and so had half the street! He did exit but had stopped playing for a few years. On clear nights the sound travelled...