The Disappearing Keys

About 20 years ago my husband and I lived in a small town which was situated on State Highway 1 in the central North Island area. My husband ran the local mechanical workshop which was attached to a large service station and we lived in a house about 200 metres from there.

The Disappearing Keys

During our time in this area we had several experiences in the workshop including phantom people being sighted, the sound of someone walking  through the area when no-one could be seen and on several occasions tools were put away while the mechanics were still using them.

My husband was also the town tow truck driver and break down mechanic and offered a 24 hour service so was often called out after hours to tow in accidents or break-downs from around the area.  As a result he always drove his tow truck home at the end of the day and left his keys  in the same place each  night.  This would save a frantic search at some stage through the evening if he was required to go out again on a call-out.   The bunch of keys was huge as it had several keys to various  workshop doors and gates, keys for cars that had been towed in, house keys, tow truck and private car keys, as well as keys for his locked toolbox which was kept in the workshop.  When my husband was at home the keys “lived” on a metal heater and because the bunch was so large it made a very distinct (and loud) sound when put down or picked up. The sound of the keys being collected off the heater , or put back would always wake me as I knew that meant my husband was leaving or entering the house.

This particular evening my hubby locked the back doors to his workshop, locked his toolbox up with both key and padlock, locked the side doors and door between the workshop and service station, went around to the storage yard behind the workshop,  drove his tow truck out of the gates, locked the gate and drove home.  He put his keys on the heater as he always did and continued with his usual routine.  He was not called out that night so in the morning got ready for work.  When he went to get his keys from the heater to get into the tow truck to go back to work the keys were not there!  We searched high and low but could not find them! Eventually he decided that he would have to walk to work and break into the workshop to get a spare key for the tow truck which was in his locked toolbox .  He managed to break into the workshop and then had to pick the lock on his toolbox and cut the strong padlock off in order to get it open.  He was then amazed to find his bunch of keys that had been on our heater at home the night before, were now in his locked toolbox!

He was the only person with keys to the workshop and to his toolbox and the toolbox padlock.  Somehow the keys had moved from our heater (they were definitely there as he had used the keys to drive his tow truck home) from our locked home to 200 meters away through a locked workshop door,  and into a locked and padlocked toolbox!

We never did get to the bottom of this occurrence and did continue from time to time have activity not only in the workshop but from this time on we also experienced occasional activity in our home.

Story Contributed by: Barbara C.

4 Comments

  1. Pingback: The Disappearing Keys | Mysterious Times

  2. OMG i was once haunted we had to move i was 7 when it happend our animals were disapereing and then found dead on the road the next day i felt a hand on my shoulder when i was in the barn i turned then when i looked in front of me i saw a white figour i screamed then when i was taking a shower the water turned cold on me mum isaid i opened the shower door and it slamed on me i cried mum mum mum help me pleas she came running in and then the water turned fully hot when i was in bed 4 night more i saw red eyes and ran to mums bed

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