UNSEEN FORCES
Mysterious fires, invisible stone- throwers and phantom poopers
MYSTERY FIRES
Throughout April, the village of Choto Singia Munshipara in Thakurgaon, Bangladesh, was besieged by mysterious fires. Blazes with no obvious source suddenly broke out, destroying furniture, clothes, straw heaps, sacks of grain and sometimes whole rooms at seemingly random locations across the village, despite vigilance from the residents. Fire pumps were set up all round the village and most of the 80 households there kept pots of water within reach in case of a sudden conflagration. Families did not sleep due to their fear of the fires and most have moved their possessions into their courtyards to try and protect them. Investigation by police and firefighters failed to pin down the source of the blazes.
The first fire took place in a house belonging to a villager called Muslim Uddin and was quickly extinguished by firefighters, but almost immediately afterwards another began in a villager’s straw heap. Subsequently, over 50 fires have sprung up in the small village, with the frequency of the blazes increasing by the week throughout April. Villager Amena Begum said they cannot leave clothes on the racks where they are usually kept without them getting burnt, and that they now have to leave their clothes on the ground to save them. Police have been asked to strengthen patrols and have detained 12 people in connection with the fires. However, Delwar Hossain, Station Officer of Baliadangi Fire Service and Civil Defence, said that while “we cannot say the exact reason of the fires on the houses” he had ruled out any supernatural causes. Daily Star (Bangladesh), 4 May 2021.
For other reports of combustion clusters and unexplained fiery outbreaks, see: FT38:32 (Pyrenees); FT44:43-44 (West Virginia); FT55:28 (Italy); FT107:17 (Swaziland); FT183:8-9, 185:5, 231:24 (Spain, Sicily and Italy); FT281:40-44 (Malaysia and Queensland); FT302:42-45 (Turkey); FT308:40-41 (Jamaica); FT328:10 (Thailand).
STONE ME!
Poltergeist-like attacks also put the Surrey village of Stanwell under siege in June. Villagers took to wearing cycle helmets whenever they left their homes because a mystery stone-thrower had been continually pelting houses in the village with large rocks, causing significant damage. On arriving in Russell Drive, which was at the centre of the attacks, police were met with a barrage of rocks with no obvious source; one smashed a police car’s wing mirror, and another landed just a few centimetres away from an officer. Neighbourhood Sergeant Paul Grinter of Surrey Police said: “The residents cannot enjoy their gardens, cannot open their windows and cannot park outside their homes… It is only a matter of time before someone is injured.” Police believed the attacks were the work of an elusive catapult-user hiding in a nature reserve that backs on to houses and later arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of criminal damage and common assault; it’s unclear whether he was caught red handed with a catapult. Sun, 17+18 June 2021.
SUSSEX SHITTER
A Sussex family targeted by someone splattering their property with explosive diarrhoea finally flushed the culprit out by installing CCTV. For over two years, the family from Hove would wake up several times a week to find the alley behind their house had been used as a toilet. “You’ll wake up and there would be poo as you are leaving the house, then you’ll see his token piece of toilet paper – it’s like a calling card,” said the owner, who wished to remain anonymous. “I bought flowers as I thought he would stop if it looked nice in the area. In fact, he just shat on the flowers.” The frequency of the defecations made the family suspect they were being deliberately targeted. After installing the CCTV, they successfully filmed a man defecating in their alley and reported him to police. D.Express, 15 June 2021.
FÆCAL VENDETTA
Matthew Guyette of Greenville, Ohio, finally caught Jerry Detrick, 70, defecating and urinating on his lawn at 3.15 in the morning on 30 May. Detrick, who lived a couple of blocks from Guyette, had been leaving fæces accompanied by restaurant napkins he’d used to wipe himself in Guyette’s garden for more than 10 years. A self-described “Trump man”, Detrick told police, who arrested him for “littering”, that he targeted Guyette and his family because they “are Democrats and support Joe Biden”. Smoking Gun, 3 June 2021.
POO PUZZLE
Police mulled over the possible reasons for someone to steal a dog poo bin from a seaside resort. It was unscrewed from its mounting and taken at Fisherman’s Cove in East Portlemouth, Devon, sometime between 12 and 13 March. Officers were looking for leads to locate the bin, “but not its contents”. BBC News, 17 Mar 2019.