- Alfred Mansbridge is a resolute man unshakeable in his
belief that things do not go bump in the night. Yesterday his faith was
vindicated when ghostbusters got to the bottom of the voice in his bedroom.
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- The voice was not as terrifying as a banshee's wail but
- in its boring way - it was just as disturbing. Every morning for three
months just before 2am, it would say: "I won't take the lift down."
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- It would repeat this in a tinny monotone for 15 seconds,
then cease. At first it woke Mr Mansbridge, 69, a retired milkman who lives
alone at Millbrook, Southampton. Then he had trouble getting back to sleep.
Then he had trouble sleeping at all.
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- Sometimes it seemed to come from the lounge, sometimes
from upstairs. But Mr Mansbridge's daughter Joanne, who visits him most
days, never heard it. Neither did his next door neighbours Roy and Eileen
Gardner, though Mrs Gardner is a light sleeper.
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- So fed up did he get with people thinking it was all
in his mind that he tape-recorded it. Early last month Joanne told the
Southern Daily Echo: "I don't know what to make of it. It gives me
the chills. My seven-year-old son Joshua thinks it's a ghost".
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- The story reached the website Paranormal News, alongside
other items headed Virgin Mary Hits Sydney Beach Again and Does Saddam
Have a Crashed UFO?
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- There was talk of exorcism. But through it all Mr Mansbridge
was obdurate. "All I want is for it to go away," he said. "I
don't believe in ghosts and I'm certainly not going to ask the local vicar
to come around and try to get rid of evil spirits. I'm not going mad. This
is a genuine mystery.
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- "One thing's for sure, I'm not packing my bags and
leaving."
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- The ghostbusters were local environmental health staff.
On a bookcase in Mr Mansbridge's lounge they discovered a children's Spider-Man
watch.
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- Joanne had bought it for Joshua and his sister Katie
at a Millbrook takeaway. Someone had set the alarm, which plays a catchphrase
from the film, by mistake at 1.55am, left it on the bookcase and forgotten
it.
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- "We just looked at each other and laughed,"
Mr Mansbridge said. Joanne said: "It's been a very funny ending to
a weird few months."
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- Last night Mr Mansbridge was preparing to sleep the deep
sleep of the brave and the pragmatic.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,888844,00.html
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