Ghost story leaves power chief in dark.
British power chiefs were investigating spooky claims that a radio-loving ghost ran up a huge electricity bill in a haunted terrace house. The big spending spirit turned on lights and electrical equipment which saddled homeowner Sharon McGrath with a bill of £900. She claims the power-mad spook even pinched her gas and electricity bills before she could pay them. “It was quite frightening. I would go into the kitchen to find all the gas burners switched on,” said Sharon from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight.
Irish Independent, 31st October 1995.
Gas bill’s so spooky.
Power chiefs are investigating spooky claims that a ghost ran up a huge electricity bill in a haunted house. Home owner Sharon McGrath claims the spirit turned on lights and saddled her with a £900 bill. “I would go into the kitchen to find gas burners on,” she said. It got so bad she would leave windows open when out of her terraced Isle of Wight house. She was shocked when a member of a local Spiritualist Church told her a former owner gassed himself in the house.
A Southern Electricity spokesman said today: “This is the first time we have had a high bill blamed on a ghost.”
Birmingham Mail, 31st October 1995.
Bills enter the twilight zone.
Southern Electric officials were spending Halloween today investigating claims that a ghost ran up huge bills at a haunted house. Isle of Wight homeowner Sharon McGrath believes the power-mad poltergeist has cost her £874 in just five months.
Although she has never seen the spook, she claims it has turned the gas cooker on in the kitchen, run the bath taps upstairs and switched on electrical equipement around the house. “It was quite frightening. I would go into the kitchen to find all the gas burners switched on the place full of fumes.”
When she called in the Spiritualist Church to find out what was haunting the house in Arctic Road, Cowes, she leaned that a former owner had gassed himself there 70 years earlier. The ghost also ripped her telephone directories into thousands of pieces. And her post was, she claims, checked by the spook, which removed all the bills before she could open them.
A Southern Electric spokesman today confirmed the company was investigating the somewhat unusual if timely claims, but said he was sceptical about them.
Portsmouth Evening News, 31st October 1995.
Wacky World.
Southern Electricity in Britain faced a claim that a poltergeist was responsible for Sharon McGrath’s £900 electricity bill. It had allegedly turned on the lights and electrical equipment and shredded telephone directories and bills at her Cowes, Isle of Wight, house.
Sunday World (Dublin), 7th April 1996.