The Ghost Who Pinches Toes

Witness: Amethystmyst
Location: Birmingham, England
Date of Encounter: September 2003

I moved into a small 2-up 2-down town house with my 3 young children. Light and airy, it was a nice abode. I had gone through a messy divorce which had affected my babies quite a bit but we had got away and were excited about starting our new lives in a new, little rented house!
 
On the day we moved in, I walked through the house to check for carpet burn and other items on the check sheet from the estate agents. The house was in good check and there were no objects from the previous tenant left in the house except a large glass fruit bowl that was in the kitchen. So I started to bring my bits and bobs in. After the first week of staying there, I began to feel a little uncomfortable in the house at night. And once all the kids were tucked up in bed I felt weird sitting downstairs on my own. I figured it was probably just me being daft!
 
So I went to bed and sat in bed with my curtains open so I could see the street. The kids' bedrooms were adjacent to mine with a staircase between them that was enclosed and led into the kitchen. My little girl was particularly unsettled in the house and woke up a lot saying that someone was pinching her toes. I would go down and top off her drink and pass it to her and tell her to go back off to sleep. This went on for a while. All night long she would wake up, ''Mommy, it's pinching my toes again." I would say, "It's just a cramp, sweetheart," and pat her back off to sleep then walk past the stairs and back to my room.

On a few occasions I had felt uneasy doing this as I had thought I had seen someone on my stairs a few times (though I assumed I was just over tired).

My mom was babysitting for me one night and me and my new fella were off to a wedding over night. My mom later told me that my little daughter was waking her up saying she was being pinched! So My mom had decided to sleep on my bed so she could sort her out if she woke up again.

Something happened that night which I would not learn about until the day I moved out. A couple of months later I decided I didn't want to be in the house any longer as I felt not right there. I moved in with my fella and the kids into his home.

On the day I moved out, my mom took me aside. She looked a little wary and I asked her what was wrong. She said, "Janie, you won't be staying here at night again will you?"

"No," I replied. "Why?"

She continued, "You know that night I looked after the kids?"

"Yes," I replied.

" Well, we had a little problem here, but I didn't want to worry you while you were still living here!"

"What are you on about?" I asked with a smile on my face. (My mom is as straight as they get, so I have to believe her).

"That night I had the kids, I was laying on your bed as Fay had kept waking up and I was having to keep running up and down the stairs. Well, I must have dropped off to sleep. But then I woke up to this really loud noise of what sounded like a lot of people running up the stairs. I sat up to a start to find 3 people: 1 woman and 2 men, standing at the bottom of your bed! I could barely speak and I didn't know what to say. I just managed to ask, 'W…w…what do you want?'" The woman replied to my mom, "We have come to get my glass bowl!"

My mom said, "I'm sorry, you will have to leave. This isn't my house and you shouldn't be here!" At which point they all 3 turned and seemed to drift silently out of the room and down the stairs. My mom was crying and utterly petrified! She waited a while and called my dad on her cell phone to come round. They turned all the lights on and checked around, but there was no forced entry or anything.

My mom was horrified as she knew now that she had seen something not right. She had kept this quiet because she had not wanted to frighten me as she knew I was unsettled there anyway. After hearing this I replied to her, "Mom, did you know that the only thing that was in the house when I moved in was that big old glass bowl in the kitchen?" Well she had not known this and she gasped, "My blood just ran cold!" Needless to say, I moved out gladly and made sure the bowl was kept nice and safe in case our visitors should come back again.
 
After moving out I asked the landlord of the house if the bowl was his. He said, "No, it was here when we bought the property so we just left it here for tenants to use."

"Could I trouble you further and ask you who owned the house before?" I asked.

"Why yes," He replied. "It was owned by a lady who lived here with her two grown-up sons. After she died the sons sold the house, and moved away, and I bought it." 

I replied, "Well, I think she still lives there." I gave him a smile and thanked him for the rent of the house. He looked quite stunned and shouted, "Oh my life, don't tell the estate agents — no one will want to rent it!"

Since I moved out of there my little girl has not once complained of her toes being pinched.