November 19, 2025 • 40 mins
Join Madame Strangeways for this true scary paranormal story by DC from Reddit about a harrowing, unexplained experience in her family's home that haunted them to this day. Stick around after the story for some attempts at mundane and naturalistic explanations for what happened at the house.
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Thank you to DC for granting permission to read their story from Reddit. Remember, Strangers & Strangelings & Strangecetera: you can feel afraid and not be in danger.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This is great. We're humans are a blight on the
planet. This is so fun.
Welcome, stranger, to Madam Strange Ways, where I, Madam
Strange Ways, narrate your true strange stories of the
(00:22):
unexplained. Are you a skeptic or a believer
or something in between? You're perfect either way.
Stick around after the story where I share my strange
thoughts and research on strangefolklore, urban legends, and
history, And along the way I'll drag you down a slew of strange
rabbit holes, kicking and screaming if needs must.
(00:46):
Before we get to today's True Strange story, though, the
strangest of Shout outs to my Patreon patrons TJ Hotter of the
Tapes of Trepidation podcast, G Man Music.
Ted, Keith and Tori, thank you so much to my Pharaoh Fiendish 5
for supporting the show. Oh, did you hear that?
(01:06):
I think it's about to rain hellcats and hell hounds
outside, so you know what that means.
On to our True Strange story here on Madam Strangeways.
(01:45):
Terrifying, unexplainable house shaking by DC.
This is one of the strangest andmost unsettling things I've ever
experienced and after over a decade I still don't have an
explanation. I've told friends, family, even
therapists. No one can explain it, but
(02:08):
everyone agrees it's bizarre. About 13 years ago I had just
moved into a new to me house. It was a nice clean two-story
suburban home. Looked totally normal, no red
flags. I thought it would be my forever
home. The house was about 15 years
(02:29):
old. One evening I was giving my
young daughter a bath. She was maybe two or three years
old. And out of nowhere, there was
this massive bang in the house. Not just a noise, it felt like
the entire house shuttered, likean earthquake.
It was so intense I could physically feel it.
(02:53):
It scared me more than anything I've ever experienced.
I didn't think, I just reacted. I grabbed my soaking wet toddler
out of the tub and didn't even dress her, grabbed the dog and
ran out the front door. I threw them in the car and
drove straight to a nearby Walgreens a mile down the road.
(03:13):
That's how scared I was. I called my husband and told him
that he needed to come home fromwork immediately.
Something had happened. I've never done that before or
since. I didn't return until he came
home and checked everything inside and out and found
(03:34):
nothing. No damage, no broken pipes, no
roof debris, no cracked drywall,nothing on the foundation, and
no neighbors mentioned anything.He ended up chalking it up to me
being jumpy and overreacting. I told my therapist about it and
(03:55):
she said maybe a cougar or something jumped on the roof,
but it didn't feel like that. This wasn't an animal sound, it
felt structural, like something hit the entire house.
Years passed, I still thought about it from time to time but
there was never a good explanation.
(04:16):
No follow up issues with the house, nothing weird.
Until five years later when my husband experienced the exact
same thing. I wasn't home.
He said there was a huge bang that shook the whole house so
hard he fell out of his chair. My husband is £250.
(04:40):
He ran outside expecting to see a tree branch or a car crash or
something. Nothing.
Everything was normal. Neighbors were just doing yard
work again. He even asked my next door
neighbors at one point who we were really friendly with.
They said they didn't see or feel anything.
(05:05):
We became scared to talk about it in the house, like maybe
something was listening, but we'd discuss it when we were out
to dinner or etcetera. It actually happened at least
one more time when we were both home.
Same deal, no damage, no explanation, just the most
(05:26):
intense physical jolt you can imagine.
Like something hit the house with full force from the inside
but left no trace. We had the house inspected
before we bought it and it was in great condition.
No foundation issues, no settling, no visible signs of
structural problems ever. No cracks in the walls, no
(05:50):
shifting floors, nothing. We thought maybe it was a
sinkhole or or an underground shift, but we could never find
any evidence. And again, it wasn't ongoing,
just a few very specific identical incidents over 11
years. For context, this home is in an
(06:11):
area with no real known seismic activity.
There had been mines in the cityat some point in the distant
history. So I actually went to the
library and looked up the old mining maps.
This neighborhood did not have any known mines.
Eventually I realized that as much as I wanted that to be my
(06:32):
forever home, I could never fully feel safe there again.
Something deep inside me new. I wouldn't be able to stay
forever. That house scared me so we sold
it about 3 years ago and moved. I've never felt anything like it
(06:53):
in any house before or since, and I still think about it.
Not because I want answers, I'vekind of accepted I'll never get
any, but because I want to know if anyone else has ever
experienced something like this.I've never been afraid like
(07:13):
that. DC, thank you so much for
allowing me to read your story on the show.
No, I have never experienced anything like that, and I am so
(07:36):
grateful that I have never experienced anything like that.
That sounded terrifying. So terrifying.
I'm sorry that you had to experience it.
I'm sorry you had to leave what you had wanted to be your
forever home absolutely sucks. But you know what?
Here's what I couldn't stop thinking about was thank God
your husband experienced, you know, it's like, ah, God, I
(07:58):
mean, it's not like I, I, I wishit had never happened again, But
if it's going to continue to happen, it needed to happen
where he witnessed it, especially like alone to have
that experience that you had. You know, it's like when
something's going wrong on your computer and you're like, hey,
IT, can you come help? And they come over and it's
working totally normal and you look crazy and dumb, but no, no,
(08:20):
no, it happens. It just doesn't happen
constantly. So I am glad at least that you
were vindicated. I mean this at the silver lining
to this story, to this terrifying story.
Thank you so much for allowing me to read it.
And DC also gave me some info inour DMS and so I'm going to read
this first message that she sentme.
(08:41):
She said. For some additional context, I
absolutely consider myself a skeptic.
I am not one to believe anythingout of the ordinary.
I live a normal, mundane life asa suburban mother and have never
experienced anything remotely like this.
The first time it happened I tried to blow it off and
ultimately did over the years, but after my husband experienced
(09:01):
the same thing, there was no explaining.
In a way, the shaking physicallyremoved him from his office
chair onto the floor. We have talked and researched
and explained to friends and family and never had any
reasonable suggestions that we haven't already considered come
up. There's no plausible
explanation. Additionally, there were other
(09:23):
oddities about the home and Thisis why I wanted to share this
with you. So listen up.
This is this is the good part. There were additional where were
we? We were other oddities about the
home. Our dog at the time refused to
go upstairs. We thought it was the physical
stairs, but we would take her upand she would shake and urinate
until we take her back downstairs.
(09:45):
We stopped talking about the house while we were there
because it felt like it would get worse when we would.
When I told my husband about this post, he reiterated that
same feeling. After the shaking, we'd be
scared and uneasy for days. We even stayed elsewhere for a
few days once it didn't feel normal.
I could go on, but truly, the shaking terrified me.
(10:08):
I am not a nervous person or easily shaken.
I'm going to pause because I'm going to tell you right now
you're a little easily shaken because your house was shaking.
Because your house was shaking. You see, you see what I'm OK or
easily shaken, except in the case when my house is shaking is
I'm just, I'm just going to add that for you.
I really did plan on living there forever, but I felt
(10:31):
unsafe. When we sold the home, there was
another inspection completed by the new buyers verifying the
structural integrity of the home.
I'm glad we moved and I've experienced nothing since then.
Unfortunate or fortunately, unfortunately not unfortunately.
But she also went on to say thatwe'd love to understand, you
know, like what happened. So of course I want to talk
(10:52):
about it. I want to, I want to understand
what happened too. I mean, I think we need to be
honest up front. It's unlikely we will ever know
what actually happened, but we're going to talk about it
anyway. We're going to see maybe if we
can come up with some theories, maybe not new theories, but OK,
you'll see. You'll see.
(11:12):
So obviously what I like to do is it's either a paranormal
point of view or a mundane pointof view.
Like, what are some explanationsthrough both of those lenses
from a paranormal point of view?And I'm going to move quickly
through these because I've got alot of mundane explanations that
I really want to talk about. So the paranormal explanations,
I mean, I think if I was Ed or Lorraine Warren, wow, Ed or
(11:35):
Lorraine Warren, or if I was oneof their ilk, I would probably
say it's a demon. I would probably say it's a
poltergeist. I would probably say you need
some holy water and you need a priest and you need an exorcism
and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
OK. I mean, sure.
I, you know, my stance on the show is that I personally don't
(11:58):
believe that demons and poltergeists and etcetera, you
know, if they exist, I don't think they can hurt you.
So I would they be able to shakea house?
I don't know. I don't buy it.
What's the point? That's all they do.
I don't know, you know what I mean.
Say sure, it could be a poltergeist.
There could be some sort of local folklore.
(12:21):
I don't know where the house is exactly.
And I didn't want to potentiallydocks DC and I don't know, it
was 13 years ago. So I don't know where DC lived
13 years ago. Is that my bad for not asking?
Yes, but here we are. So there could be some local
folklore to explain, you know, this is something that's known
in the area or oh, there's a there's a legend of, of a house
(12:43):
that shakes. You know, I don't know, I don't
know. I mean, maybe it's UFO related.
Maybe it's some sort of alien encounter.
Like, you know, I mean, just from my knowledge of The
X-Files, you know, whenever, whenever the aliens show up in
X-Files for Fox Mulder's sister and then eventually Scully,
spoiler alert, whenever that happens, the house always
(13:06):
shakes, but there's always a really bright light.
So I think there are some peoplethat could argue that maybe this
is an alien event, maybe this is, you know, maybe maybe you
were being abducted or I, you know, I don't know, could be, or
like, I don't know, Ley lines, geomagnetic something.
There's something here just, youknow, kind of also just again,
(13:28):
it kind of depends on the location of the house.
But so sure, there's some of those explanations, but I have
found the more mundane explanations to be much more
fascinating than the paranormal ones in this case.
So because DC specifically said we'd love to understand, I am
here. I don't know if this will
actually explain anything, but I'm happy to jump in.
(13:49):
So #1 And I think this was something that somebody in the
thread actually suggested explosive gas build up.
Oh, it was because someone actually linked to another
Reddit post where someone was saying that they had this house
shaking event happened to them when they were a teenager.
And I think they were home aloneand the whole house shook and
(14:09):
they were terrified and they ranoutside panicked, you know, had
their parents come home early from wherever they were.
And then it turns out that therehad been a gas pipe underneath
the house. And so there was like this
level, this huge level of gas buildup that resulted
specifically in their bedroom shaking from the explosion.
(14:34):
Like it didn't even impact the entire house.
It was like directly under theirbedroom.
So I was like, OK, I want to know more.
I want to understand more because I'm like, that sounds,
you know, pretty. That sounds plausible to me and
why it wouldn't affect other houses nearby.
But here, here we go. And now I'm not, I'm not an
explosive gas buildup expert, you know, but we're going to
(14:56):
we're going to try. So exclusive.
OK, OK, great for explosive gas buildup, fires and explosions
associated with anaerobic digesters and methane storage
systems. I'm so in over my head here, I'm
going to start this over. Fires and explosions associated
with anaerobic digesters and methane storage systems are more
(15:20):
common than people realize, mostly because of widespread
underreporting. This is especially true in near
miss situations where there is no human injury or death.
So if we assume that there was an explosive gas buildup beneath
that house, specifically whetherit's like a gas pipe, I don't
know how I don't, I don't know. I'm not a city planner.
(15:43):
I don't know how this works. I'm just saying there's a
possibility that there's some sort of pipe or some sort of
chamber system. I don't know.
But I feel like it's, it's, it'sa possibility that especially
because it didn't happen often, right?
So maybe it happened just often enough that the pressure built
(16:04):
up and then there was an explosion.
I'm kind of picturing it like ifyou've ever seen in person or
just like on a video, obviously a manhole fly off the ground
like into the air and maybe there's like a flame with it.
You know, I feel like that's what's happening because
apparently this some, this is something that happens at
wastewater facilities all the time, all the time because it's
(16:27):
under reported. And when something's under
reported, there's just no telling how often it happens.
So it could be a lot more commonthan we realize.
Probably definitely is. So I feel like I feel like this
is a strong contender, but I don't know what was happening
beneath the house. I also don't know if you could
definitely for sure know everything that's beneath your
(16:47):
house. I don't know.
Can you? Is that something you can do?
e-mail me madamstrangers@gmail.com.
How would you even look into that?
How do I, how would I find out everything that's beneath my
home? And now I'm curious.
Now I want to know what's under my helm.
I hope this doesn't happen to me.
OK, so there's, there's one theory which I I don't hate.
(17:08):
I like it. Actually, I would go so far as
to say I like it. But it's funny because in that
discussion, we were discussing wastewater, right?
Wastewater facilities. So Speaking of wastewater, here
we go. We'll get there.
OK. It's not you'll listen.
Trust me. Trust the process.
(17:29):
So I know that DC said that there is no seismic activity in
the area. There is not known seismic
activity where this house was. OK, I understand that.
I understand. However, even if an area isn't
typically known for seismic activity, like for instance,
Oklahoma, just as an example, fracking.
(17:52):
OK, actually I went into this thinking that fracking was
causing earthquakes, but I actually had to do a little mini
rabbit hole deep dive to understand.
Actually, that's not necessarilythe case, although it kind of
is. It's definitely an indirect
cause of fracking. But OK, let me get there.
So it's not just fracking, but also the whole cause of
(18:14):
earthquakes that are related to fracking is due to wastewater
injection. See, I told you, you just got to
trust me. Wastewater injection as a result
of fracking, but also it's a result of mining or treated
wastewater from cities and factories.
So I guess it's not just fracking that causes earthquakes
(18:34):
anyway. So it's wastewater injection
that's what's causing the earthquake in areas where you
don't usually find them. And apparently, what wastewater
injection is basically OK, I don't want to get into this
here. Here we go.
This is according to the USGS, so the United States Geological
Survey, The fluid that is injected at depth is sometimes
(18:58):
hydro hydraulically. That shouldn't have been that
hard of a word. That's not that difficult of a
word. I'm embarrassed.
Sometimes hydraulically connected to faults.
When this happens, fluid pressures increase within the
fault, counteracting the frictional forces on faults.
This makes earthquakes more likely to occur on them.
(19:21):
And analog to this system is an air hockey table.
So when an air hockey table is off, the puck does not move
readily, but when the table is on, the puck glides more easily.
So raising fluid pressure withina fault is like turning on an
air hockey table. Also, you could look at it as
lubrication to faults that are not typically moving around.
(19:43):
So just the thought. I don't know if there's any
fracking or if there's any wastewater injections that are
going on in the place where thishouse was.
However, according to the Seismological Society of
America, which is just got to bethe most exciting society to
have ever existed. They say wastewater injection
(20:05):
resulting from oil and gas production in Oklahoma caused a
dramatic rise in seismic activity in the state between
2009 and 2015. So just just some food for
thought. I will say, I think that this is
a possibility. I think this is a distinct
possibility that there was not seismic activity in this area,
(20:27):
but now that there is depending on the location of the home.
So this could be a completely moot point, but we're going to
continue because here's the thing you may be saying.
Right? But DC specifically said it was
only them that felt the earthquakes.
Their neighbors didn't notice anything.
OK, don't worry, I got you. So apparently come to find tiny,
(20:48):
shallow earthquakes can exist that are below standard
detection thresholds. And I know we're all familiar
with the Richter scale. Who's Richter?
I feel like I Richter. I hardly know where I I'm
disappointed in myself as well. Anyway, I am not going down a
(21:08):
rabbit hole for who is Richter? Why is it named after Richter?
Richter. I assume Richter is a
seismologist, maybe V prominent seismologist.
You know, that's probably the case.
I think we can move forward withthat anyway.
We all know about the Richter scale, but then there is
apparently a different type of intensity scale and they're
Rome, they're Roman numerals. So, you know, it's fancy and it
(21:30):
starts 12345. It goes down further, but I only
screenshot it down to 5 because you're going to find out that's
relevant anyway. So there's different intensity
scales. And so we're going to get into
it in a second, in a second. But first, according to the
United States Geological Survey,booms have been reported for a
long time and they tend to occurmore in the northeastern US and
(21:54):
along the East Coast. Of course, most booms that
people hear or experience are actually some type of cultural
noise, such as some type of explosion, a large vehicle going
by, or sometimes a Sonic boom. But there have been many reports
of booms that cannot be explained by man made sources,
which that's what really got my attention when I was in my 50th
(22:18):
tab on Chrome reading about this.
I sat up a little bit straighter, like OK, so let me
just read that again for for emphasis.
But there have been many reportsof booms that cannot be
explained by man made sources. No one knows for sure, but
scientists speculate that these booms are probably small,
shallow earthquakes that are toosmall to be recorded, but large
(22:40):
enough to be felt by people nearby.
So right there we have a precedent for small, shallow
earthquakes that are not in any record and that are just large
enough to be felt by people in the Brighton.
You may be saying it says people, maybe not just one
house. OK, hold on, hold on.
Because this is how this is whenwe're getting into the
(23:00):
intensity. So the intensity one level 1,
not felt, people's reaction. Not felt.
It, it, it, it says people's reaction and then it tells you a
little bit more details. So the people's reaction for a
#1 intensity, not felt #2 intensity felt by a few.
OK. And then it says for
furnishings, delicately suspended objects may swing.
(23:23):
Obviously we know it was a little bit stronger than that.
So it's, although we like felt by a few, you know, we don't
like the furnishings just swinging gently.
OK, so #3 felt by several, whichwhat does that mean?
Again, several, like several houses, several people in one
house, TBD felt by several vibration like passing of a
(23:47):
truck. It feels like it was a little
bit more intense than the passing of a truck.
But it does say for furnishings,hanging objects may swing
appreciably appreciably. That's the word I need to use
more in my common vocabulary. So #4 intensity IV because
remember, these are Roman numerals.
(24:08):
I don't want you to get it confused.
People's reaction to a #4 felt by many sensation like heavy
body striking building. I mean, that's what it sounded
like, right? Because even the therapist
suggested, well, maybe it was a cougar that jumped on the House,
which is just such a funny thing.
(24:29):
It's not funny that DC asked hertherapist.
That's not funny. I asked my therapist all manner
of things that are not related to my mental health.
I mean, this is technically related to mental health, but
you get me. I I don't at all blame DC for
asking. It's just funny.
But that's like, well, maybe it was a cougar.
Like that is that gives me no comfort whatsoever.
(24:51):
That's like the negative amount of comfort, not even because I
think that there's a cougar on the House, but like, oh, so
you've got no ideas is what? What?
You could just tell me that. You know what?
Just tell me you don't know. Just tell me you don't know
'cause you don't 'cause it's nota cougar.
We know that. So furnishings for level 4, it
says dishes rattle and then build environment, it says walls
(25:13):
crack, windows rattle. Now we've discussed there was no
destruction of the house. The house was totally fine.
It was fine before, it was fine after.
So obviously the walls weren't weren't cracking.
So you know what I'm feeling, I'm feeling like a 3.5.
I'm feeling like Roman numeral 3.
(25:35):
How do you do that in Roman numerals?
How do you do? It's not like I I dot V that's
not going to be 3 1/2. How do you do halves in home and
Roman numerals? e-mail me
mountofstrangeways@gmail.com. Actually, I got to look this up.
Hold on. OK, I'm back of the Roman
(25:57):
numeral for half. Like 1/2 is semis and it's an
SI. Guess I should have said it the
other way. It's an S, which stands for
semis, which means half I guess.So you do IIIS.
That's what I'm going for, is IIS on the intensity scale
(26:17):
because obviously the walls didn't crack.
However, we did feel like a heavy body striking the
building. It was like pretty, pretty
similar to that I feel. So I don't know.
I tell me what you think. I want to know.
We're not done. We've got more.
But tell me what you think. madamestrangeways@gmail.com How
likely do you find this theory of localized small, shallow
(26:41):
earthquakes potentially caused by wastewater injection?
I don't know. Let me know.
OK. Now, strangely, this next theory
I researched doesn't involve wastewater, but it does involve
waste, which now I'm just going to have to start doing more
research because I did not understand that we were just
pumping contaminated gross waterdirectly into the earth.
(27:04):
Did you know that I didn't know that I at my big age, I had no
clue that that was happening. I don't know where I thought it
was going. It says treated wastewater.
I don't know what I thought treated meant.
I mean, I didn't think it was, you know, come going back into
my Brita. But I definitely didn't think it
was being injected directly intoMother Earth, which is
horrifying. So that's what I'll probably be
(27:27):
looking up after I finish this episode.
Just if you're curious. So anyway, back more waste.
This is great. We're humans are a blight on the
planet. This is so fun.
So waste as in a landfill? So DCI am so curious if there
was a landfill anywhere near thehouse.
I could have totally asked you this before doing the episode.
(27:49):
I didn't. So let me know
madamstrangeways@gmail.com Or you can just slide back into my
DMS on Reddit. I'm really curious to know.
Also, let me know if you think it was anywhere near actually
just tell me where it was. I'll do the research and I can
do a follow up if we find out ananswer if you want to know.
Do you want to hear a follow up madamstrangeways@gmail.com?
All right, so get this, This is from CBS News.
(28:11):
It sounded like a jackhammer. This is the headline.
It sounded like a jackhammer. Twin Cities homeowner finds
violent house shaking linked to landfill.
This is this is promising. I find it promising.
So here's the article. After some digging, Carlson
found out that the. Did my voice just crack?
We're going to. I'm leaving it in.
(28:32):
You know what? I like to be real with you guys.
We're going to leave it in. We're going to start over.
After some digging, Carlson found out that violent shaking
was caused by something that happened at the landfill less
than a mile from her house. Never in a million.
Oh, what character, where? What accent do you have?
If you're from Twin Cities, I actually don't know where that
is. Is that in Minnesota?
I feel like it is. Hold on, let's check.
(28:54):
OK, I'm back. Yes, it's Minneapolis and Saint
Paul, Minneapolis and Saint Pauland Minnesota.
So I am really good at geography, if it's not already
very clear to you, obviously. OK, so here's what I'm going to
do. I'm not going to do an accent
because I don't did I kind of just do one just now?
I don't know what people in Minnesota sound like.
(29:15):
We're just going to, and I'm not.
You know what? I'm not going to insult the fine
people of Minnesota by doing a Fargo accent because that's
North Dakota. See, I know geography.
You might as well call me Madam Geography ways, Madam Strange
geography. There's something there.
Listen, here's I'm just going toread her a quote.
She said. Never in a million years would I
(29:39):
have thought that anything goingon at the landfill would be
causing my home to shake, Carlson said.
The Burnsville Public Works director said Carlson was not
the only one who called the city.
He says the whole thing was caused by a malfunction with the
equipment the landfill uses to burn methane, a required step
that reduces the landfill's impact on the environment.
(30:01):
The company said that the new monitoring and control equipment
has been installed and is functioning correctly, which
should prevent this type of incident in the future.
I'm not sure that it did, but there's not another article
about it, so we'll never know. But what do you think, DC?
Were you near a landfill? Were you near anything that has
to do with methane or waste? Let me know.
(30:24):
I'm so curious to know, but still good to know that there's
a lot of reasons why a house might shake.
However, my pet theory I saved for last.
Best for last. This is definitely the strangest
of the theories and the most up my alley, which is why I've
saved it for dessert. So here is my pet theory from
(30:46):
The Associated Press. The headline is shaking.
House remains. Sorry, let me do my news.
What have I been doing? I haven't been doing my news
article. Reader, reporter, that's the
word. I haven't been doing my news
reporter. Voice from The Associated Press.
Shaking house remains a mystery decades later, 68 years later.
(31:09):
The story sounds like something out of Poltergeist.
I'm not going to do the whole thing like that because there's
a lot. But listen, it says, no cause
could be found for the mysterious phenomenon phenomenon
which affected no other house onthe streets.
I always interrupt myself with the most important sentences.
No 'cause can be found for the mysterious phenomenon of the
(31:31):
house shaking which affected no other house on the street.
That is key that we're on to something here.
Shaking house a mystery and headache to tenants.
Read the headline on the front page.
Story in the Worcestershire. Worcestershire Word Worcester.
Worcester in the Worcester Telegraph.
(31:52):
Where is this? Is this Massachusetts?
Oh, no, it is because I am obviously, as you know, a pro at
geography. OK, Google, How do you pronounce
the city in Massachusetts that is spelled like Worcester?
I know there's like a woo or like a woo.
(32:12):
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Worcester is a city in the US. Worcester.
That's wrong. There's no way that's right.
Worcester. Worcester, No.
OK, we're going to get back to the story that just doesn't
sound right, right? So here we go, Shaking house a
mystery and headache to tenants.Read the headline on the front
page story in the Worcester Worcester Damn Telegram on May
(32:36):
13th, 1950. It's not going to happen.
I'm not going to make Worcester,Worcester happen.
The family of the house's owner in 1950 offers a more mundane,
but head scratching in its own way, explanation.
It's probably not as haunted as you think it is, said Randy
Chavor, a retired Worcester Worcester Fire Department
district chief whose late grandmother, Victoria Chavor,
(32:59):
owned the three family apartmentat 14 Douglas St. at the time of
the disturbances. From what I was told, he said
with a laugh. It's not as exciting as it
sounds. Where university engineers were
unable to find the cause of the shaking, Chavoir family members
say a plumber later did. Behind the medicine cabinet in
the wall of the first floor apartment.
(33:22):
If you're like me, I was like, what do you mean they found
something in the first in the wall behind the medicine cabinet
on the 1st floor. What do you mean it's in the
wall? What's in the wall?
According to my cousin, someone put a washing machine motor
inside the wall, Chief Chavor said.
She's 99% sure, though she doesn't want to get anybody in
(33:43):
trouble, that it was the first floor person who wanted to buy
the house from our grandmother. There was some type of motor.
He evidently put power to it andit was enough to shake the whole
house. It was said among the Chavoir
family that the man on the 1st floor wanted to buy the house
and that perhaps is why he was trying to make the place appear
(34:03):
haunted by making the house shake to get the price down.
I kind of love it. It's clever, it's resourceful,
you know, like you got to do what you got to do to get a
affordable house. Although here's what I'll say.
1950 y'all didn't need y'all didn't need to be doing that.
(34:23):
Housing prices. 1950 girl, we don't need to be doing that.
You don't need to be doing all that.
You don't need to put a you don't need to put a tab washing
machine motor inside the wall and turn it on and scare the
living crap out of people. It's completely unnecessary.
You can afford a house in 1950 on nothing peanuts.
I think that's how much a house cost in 1950 is approximately 3
(34:48):
peanuts, maybe 3 1/2 peanuts IISpeanuts.
That's how much it cost to buy ahouse.
So completely unnecessary, but very clever.
Very clever, very mischievous, you might say.
So I love that theory. I mean, what are the odds that
(35:10):
there was actually a washing machine motor in the wall?
Probably slim, but that would bereally interesting.
Now there wouldn't really be a reason to put it in the wall
unless there was some drama around the house.
DC let me know. Was there drama about the house?
Did someone want to get the house from you?
(35:30):
Maybe. You know what?
Maybe someone put it there for the purpose of making the house
seem haunted and then they didn't come and get it back.
Now that how would it be powered?
I don't know. I don't know.
I'm just an ideas person. I don't know.
You all figure it out. You tell me.
How did they make this work? If someone, if someone put a
motor of some kind in the walls of DC's home that DC wanted to
(35:56):
be her forever home, If someone did that, how would they make it
work? Let me know.
Madam strangewas@gmail.com. So that's my pet theory.
That's my favorite theory. Is it the most likely?
No. Is it my favorite theory?
Yes, I know that you know, there's in the in the Reddit
thread, you hear them talk aboutSonic booms.
You hear them talk about honestly, I can't even remember,
(36:18):
but there's some other theories.But I was like, uh, I feel like
a Sonic boom. Other people around are going to
hear it. However, I specifically only
looked at ideas that could happen and have it where only
the person or people in one house could have experienced the
shaking. Because I mean, think about it,
even one of the earlier theories, if someone's outside
(36:39):
doing their lawn and they're notinside for their house to shake,
would they even notice? If it's not something that can
even be measured on the Richter scale, would they even notice?
Is, you know, I don't know. However, what is it?
What are the odds that your neighbors are never in their
house when something like that happens?
You know, probably slim. So I don't know.
(37:00):
You tell me what theory do you think is the most plausible for
this situation and DC, let me know.
Let me know if any of these situations seem like they're
plausible for your story. And hopefully I've given you
some more food for thought. I know that never not having an
answer for me is the worst thing.
I don't know if you can tell that about me just from the show
(37:22):
that I do. I don't like not having answers.
I love having answers. I love knowing things.
For me personally, the way I wasraised, but not knowing things
is really unsafe from my nervoussystem personally.
So that would drive me nuts never having an answer for that.
So you know, even if, even if this did not give you answers, I
(37:44):
hope one day you do. I hope you do because it would
drive me nuts. I would to my grave.
I would take this mystery to my grave, wondering what happened.
I can't even imagine how scary that would have been.
So DC again, thank you so much for letting me Share your story.
And if anyone listening, if you,yes you listening, has an
(38:05):
unexplained story that you wouldlike to share with me for me to
read on the show and to possiblygo down a few rabbit holes and
research holes, let me know. Let me know. e-mail me at
madamstrangeways@gmail.com. I can't wait to read it.
(38:33):
Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger.
You're safe here with me, probably.
Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the
unexplained. Now I'm running A1 Madam Show
here, so please do me a strange solid and follow the podcast or
leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify and maybe even join the
(38:57):
Patreon at patreon.com/madam Strangeways for bonus content.
Madam Strangeways is produced and narrated by me.
Madam Strangeways theme music isby marina.ryan@marinamakes.co.
Cover art is by Andrea Chisel Rodon at Cult of Teddy.
On Instagram, every strange story is shared with the
(39:20):
permission of the author. You can submit your own true
strange story to madamstrangeways@gmail.com or
check out the website madamstrangeways.com.
See you soon, she said ominously.
(39:51):
So S so you would do 111? Nope.
You would do 333? Nope.
What is wrong with me?
This is great. We're humans are a blight on the
planet. This is so fun.
Welcome, stranger, to Madam Strange Ways, where I, Madam
Strange Ways, narrate your true strange stories of the
(00:22):
unexplained. Are you a skeptic or a believer
or something in between? You're perfect either way.
Stick around after the story where I share my strange
thoughts and research on strangefolklore, urban legends, and
history, And along the way I'll drag you down a slew of strange
rabbit holes, kicking and screaming if needs must.
(00:46):
Before we get to today's True Strange story, though, the
strangest of Shout outs to my Patreon patrons TJ Hotter of the
Tapes of Trepidation podcast, G Man Music.
Ted, Keith and Tori, thank you so much to my Pharaoh Fiendish 5
for supporting the show. Oh, did you hear that?
(01:06):
I think it's about to rain hellcats and hell hounds
outside, so you know what that means.
On to our True Strange story here on Madam Strangeways.
(01:45):
Terrifying, unexplainable house shaking by DC.
This is one of the strangest andmost unsettling things I've ever
experienced and after over a decade I still don't have an
explanation. I've told friends, family, even
therapists. No one can explain it, but
(02:08):
everyone agrees it's bizarre. About 13 years ago I had just
moved into a new to me house. It was a nice clean two-story
suburban home. Looked totally normal, no red
flags. I thought it would be my forever
home. The house was about 15 years
(02:29):
old. One evening I was giving my
young daughter a bath. She was maybe two or three years
old. And out of nowhere, there was
this massive bang in the house. Not just a noise, it felt like
the entire house shuttered, likean earthquake.
It was so intense I could physically feel it.
(02:53):
It scared me more than anything I've ever experienced.
I didn't think, I just reacted. I grabbed my soaking wet toddler
out of the tub and didn't even dress her, grabbed the dog and
ran out the front door. I threw them in the car and
drove straight to a nearby Walgreens a mile down the road.
(03:13):
That's how scared I was. I called my husband and told him
that he needed to come home fromwork immediately.
Something had happened. I've never done that before or
since. I didn't return until he came
home and checked everything inside and out and found
(03:34):
nothing. No damage, no broken pipes, no
roof debris, no cracked drywall,nothing on the foundation, and
no neighbors mentioned anything.He ended up chalking it up to me
being jumpy and overreacting. I told my therapist about it and
(03:55):
she said maybe a cougar or something jumped on the roof,
but it didn't feel like that. This wasn't an animal sound, it
felt structural, like something hit the entire house.
Years passed, I still thought about it from time to time but
there was never a good explanation.
(04:16):
No follow up issues with the house, nothing weird.
Until five years later when my husband experienced the exact
same thing. I wasn't home.
He said there was a huge bang that shook the whole house so
hard he fell out of his chair. My husband is £250.
(04:40):
He ran outside expecting to see a tree branch or a car crash or
something. Nothing.
Everything was normal. Neighbors were just doing yard
work again. He even asked my next door
neighbors at one point who we were really friendly with.
They said they didn't see or feel anything.
(05:05):
We became scared to talk about it in the house, like maybe
something was listening, but we'd discuss it when we were out
to dinner or etcetera. It actually happened at least
one more time when we were both home.
Same deal, no damage, no explanation, just the most
(05:26):
intense physical jolt you can imagine.
Like something hit the house with full force from the inside
but left no trace. We had the house inspected
before we bought it and it was in great condition.
No foundation issues, no settling, no visible signs of
structural problems ever. No cracks in the walls, no
(05:50):
shifting floors, nothing. We thought maybe it was a
sinkhole or or an underground shift, but we could never find
any evidence. And again, it wasn't ongoing,
just a few very specific identical incidents over 11
years. For context, this home is in an
(06:11):
area with no real known seismic activity.
There had been mines in the cityat some point in the distant
history. So I actually went to the
library and looked up the old mining maps.
This neighborhood did not have any known mines.
Eventually I realized that as much as I wanted that to be my
(06:32):
forever home, I could never fully feel safe there again.
Something deep inside me new. I wouldn't be able to stay
forever. That house scared me so we sold
it about 3 years ago and moved. I've never felt anything like it
(06:53):
in any house before or since, and I still think about it.
Not because I want answers, I'vekind of accepted I'll never get
any, but because I want to know if anyone else has ever
experienced something like this.I've never been afraid like
(07:13):
that. DC, thank you so much for
allowing me to read your story on the show.
No, I have never experienced anything like that, and I am so
(07:36):
grateful that I have never experienced anything like that.
That sounded terrifying. So terrifying.
I'm sorry that you had to experience it.
I'm sorry you had to leave what you had wanted to be your
forever home absolutely sucks. But you know what?
Here's what I couldn't stop thinking about was thank God
your husband experienced, you know, it's like, ah, God, I
(07:58):
mean, it's not like I, I, I wishit had never happened again, But
if it's going to continue to happen, it needed to happen
where he witnessed it, especially like alone to have
that experience that you had. You know, it's like when
something's going wrong on your computer and you're like, hey,
IT, can you come help? And they come over and it's
working totally normal and you look crazy and dumb, but no, no,
(08:20):
no, it happens. It just doesn't happen
constantly. So I am glad at least that you
were vindicated. I mean this at the silver lining
to this story, to this terrifying story.
Thank you so much for allowing me to read it.
And DC also gave me some info inour DMS and so I'm going to read
this first message that she sentme.
(08:41):
She said. For some additional context, I
absolutely consider myself a skeptic.
I am not one to believe anythingout of the ordinary.
I live a normal, mundane life asa suburban mother and have never
experienced anything remotely like this.
The first time it happened I tried to blow it off and
ultimately did over the years, but after my husband experienced
(09:01):
the same thing, there was no explaining.
In a way, the shaking physicallyremoved him from his office
chair onto the floor. We have talked and researched
and explained to friends and family and never had any
reasonable suggestions that we haven't already considered come
up. There's no plausible
explanation. Additionally, there were other
(09:23):
oddities about the home and Thisis why I wanted to share this
with you. So listen up.
This is this is the good part. There were additional where were
we? We were other oddities about the
home. Our dog at the time refused to
go upstairs. We thought it was the physical
stairs, but we would take her upand she would shake and urinate
until we take her back downstairs.
(09:45):
We stopped talking about the house while we were there
because it felt like it would get worse when we would.
When I told my husband about this post, he reiterated that
same feeling. After the shaking, we'd be
scared and uneasy for days. We even stayed elsewhere for a
few days once it didn't feel normal.
I could go on, but truly, the shaking terrified me.
(10:08):
I am not a nervous person or easily shaken.
I'm going to pause because I'm going to tell you right now
you're a little easily shaken because your house was shaking.
Because your house was shaking. You see, you see what I'm OK or
easily shaken, except in the case when my house is shaking is
I'm just, I'm just going to add that for you.
I really did plan on living there forever, but I felt
(10:31):
unsafe. When we sold the home, there was
another inspection completed by the new buyers verifying the
structural integrity of the home.
I'm glad we moved and I've experienced nothing since then.
Unfortunate or fortunately, unfortunately not unfortunately.
But she also went on to say thatwe'd love to understand, you
know, like what happened. So of course I want to talk
(10:52):
about it. I want to, I want to understand
what happened too. I mean, I think we need to be
honest up front. It's unlikely we will ever know
what actually happened, but we're going to talk about it
anyway. We're going to see maybe if we
can come up with some theories, maybe not new theories, but OK,
you'll see. You'll see.
(11:12):
So obviously what I like to do is it's either a paranormal
point of view or a mundane pointof view.
Like, what are some explanationsthrough both of those lenses
from a paranormal point of view?And I'm going to move quickly
through these because I've got alot of mundane explanations that
I really want to talk about. So the paranormal explanations,
I mean, I think if I was Ed or Lorraine Warren, wow, Ed or
(11:35):
Lorraine Warren, or if I was oneof their ilk, I would probably
say it's a demon. I would probably say it's a
poltergeist. I would probably say you need
some holy water and you need a priest and you need an exorcism
and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
OK. I mean, sure.
I, you know, my stance on the show is that I personally don't
(11:58):
believe that demons and poltergeists and etcetera, you
know, if they exist, I don't think they can hurt you.
So I would they be able to shakea house?
I don't know. I don't buy it.
What's the point? That's all they do.
I don't know, you know what I mean.
Say sure, it could be a poltergeist.
There could be some sort of local folklore.
(12:21):
I don't know where the house is exactly.
And I didn't want to potentiallydocks DC and I don't know, it
was 13 years ago. So I don't know where DC lived
13 years ago. Is that my bad for not asking?
Yes, but here we are. So there could be some local
folklore to explain, you know, this is something that's known
in the area or oh, there's a there's a legend of, of a house
(12:43):
that shakes. You know, I don't know, I don't
know. I mean, maybe it's UFO related.
Maybe it's some sort of alien encounter.
Like, you know, I mean, just from my knowledge of The
X-Files, you know, whenever, whenever the aliens show up in
X-Files for Fox Mulder's sister and then eventually Scully,
spoiler alert, whenever that happens, the house always
(13:06):
shakes, but there's always a really bright light.
So I think there are some peoplethat could argue that maybe this
is an alien event, maybe this is, you know, maybe maybe you
were being abducted or I, you know, I don't know, could be, or
like, I don't know, Ley lines, geomagnetic something.
There's something here just, youknow, kind of also just again,
(13:28):
it kind of depends on the location of the house.
But so sure, there's some of those explanations, but I have
found the more mundane explanations to be much more
fascinating than the paranormal ones in this case.
So because DC specifically said we'd love to understand, I am
here. I don't know if this will
actually explain anything, but I'm happy to jump in.
(13:49):
So #1 And I think this was something that somebody in the
thread actually suggested explosive gas build up.
Oh, it was because someone actually linked to another
Reddit post where someone was saying that they had this house
shaking event happened to them when they were a teenager.
And I think they were home aloneand the whole house shook and
(14:09):
they were terrified and they ranoutside panicked, you know, had
their parents come home early from wherever they were.
And then it turns out that therehad been a gas pipe underneath
the house. And so there was like this
level, this huge level of gas buildup that resulted
specifically in their bedroom shaking from the explosion.
(14:34):
Like it didn't even impact the entire house.
It was like directly under theirbedroom.
So I was like, OK, I want to know more.
I want to understand more because I'm like, that sounds,
you know, pretty. That sounds plausible to me and
why it wouldn't affect other houses nearby.
But here, here we go. And now I'm not, I'm not an
explosive gas buildup expert, you know, but we're going to
(14:56):
we're going to try. So exclusive.
OK, OK, great for explosive gas buildup, fires and explosions
associated with anaerobic digesters and methane storage
systems. I'm so in over my head here, I'm
going to start this over. Fires and explosions associated
with anaerobic digesters and methane storage systems are more
(15:20):
common than people realize, mostly because of widespread
underreporting. This is especially true in near
miss situations where there is no human injury or death.
So if we assume that there was an explosive gas buildup beneath
that house, specifically whetherit's like a gas pipe, I don't
know how I don't, I don't know. I'm not a city planner.
(15:43):
I don't know how this works. I'm just saying there's a
possibility that there's some sort of pipe or some sort of
chamber system. I don't know.
But I feel like it's, it's, it'sa possibility that especially
because it didn't happen often, right?
So maybe it happened just often enough that the pressure built
(16:04):
up and then there was an explosion.
I'm kind of picturing it like ifyou've ever seen in person or
just like on a video, obviously a manhole fly off the ground
like into the air and maybe there's like a flame with it.
You know, I feel like that's what's happening because
apparently this some, this is something that happens at
wastewater facilities all the time, all the time because it's
(16:27):
under reported. And when something's under
reported, there's just no telling how often it happens.
So it could be a lot more commonthan we realize.
Probably definitely is. So I feel like I feel like this
is a strong contender, but I don't know what was happening
beneath the house. I also don't know if you could
definitely for sure know everything that's beneath your
(16:47):
house. I don't know.
Can you? Is that something you can do?
e-mail me madamstrangers@gmail.com.
How would you even look into that?
How do I, how would I find out everything that's beneath my
home? And now I'm curious.
Now I want to know what's under my helm.
I hope this doesn't happen to me.
OK, so there's, there's one theory which I I don't hate.
(17:08):
I like it. Actually, I would go so far as
to say I like it. But it's funny because in that
discussion, we were discussing wastewater, right?
Wastewater facilities. So Speaking of wastewater, here
we go. We'll get there.
OK. It's not you'll listen.
Trust me. Trust the process.
(17:29):
So I know that DC said that there is no seismic activity in
the area. There is not known seismic
activity where this house was. OK, I understand that.
I understand. However, even if an area isn't
typically known for seismic activity, like for instance,
Oklahoma, just as an example, fracking.
(17:52):
OK, actually I went into this thinking that fracking was
causing earthquakes, but I actually had to do a little mini
rabbit hole deep dive to understand.
Actually, that's not necessarilythe case, although it kind of
is. It's definitely an indirect
cause of fracking. But OK, let me get there.
So it's not just fracking, but also the whole cause of
(18:14):
earthquakes that are related to fracking is due to wastewater
injection. See, I told you, you just got to
trust me. Wastewater injection as a result
of fracking, but also it's a result of mining or treated
wastewater from cities and factories.
So I guess it's not just fracking that causes earthquakes
(18:34):
anyway. So it's wastewater injection
that's what's causing the earthquake in areas where you
don't usually find them. And apparently, what wastewater
injection is basically OK, I don't want to get into this
here. Here we go.
This is according to the USGS, so the United States Geological
Survey, The fluid that is injected at depth is sometimes
(18:58):
hydro hydraulically. That shouldn't have been that
hard of a word. That's not that difficult of a
word. I'm embarrassed.
Sometimes hydraulically connected to faults.
When this happens, fluid pressures increase within the
fault, counteracting the frictional forces on faults.
This makes earthquakes more likely to occur on them.
(19:21):
And analog to this system is an air hockey table.
So when an air hockey table is off, the puck does not move
readily, but when the table is on, the puck glides more easily.
So raising fluid pressure withina fault is like turning on an
air hockey table. Also, you could look at it as
lubrication to faults that are not typically moving around.
(19:43):
So just the thought. I don't know if there's any
fracking or if there's any wastewater injections that are
going on in the place where thishouse was.
However, according to the Seismological Society of
America, which is just got to bethe most exciting society to
have ever existed. They say wastewater injection
(20:05):
resulting from oil and gas production in Oklahoma caused a
dramatic rise in seismic activity in the state between
2009 and 2015. So just just some food for
thought. I will say, I think that this is
a possibility. I think this is a distinct
possibility that there was not seismic activity in this area,
(20:27):
but now that there is depending on the location of the home.
So this could be a completely moot point, but we're going to
continue because here's the thing you may be saying.
Right? But DC specifically said it was
only them that felt the earthquakes.
Their neighbors didn't notice anything.
OK, don't worry, I got you. So apparently come to find tiny,
(20:48):
shallow earthquakes can exist that are below standard
detection thresholds. And I know we're all familiar
with the Richter scale. Who's Richter?
I feel like I Richter. I hardly know where I I'm
disappointed in myself as well. Anyway, I am not going down a
(21:08):
rabbit hole for who is Richter? Why is it named after Richter?
Richter. I assume Richter is a
seismologist, maybe V prominent seismologist.
You know, that's probably the case.
I think we can move forward withthat anyway.
We all know about the Richter scale, but then there is
apparently a different type of intensity scale and they're
Rome, they're Roman numerals. So, you know, it's fancy and it
(21:30):
starts 12345. It goes down further, but I only
screenshot it down to 5 because you're going to find out that's
relevant anyway. So there's different intensity
scales. And so we're going to get into
it in a second, in a second. But first, according to the
United States Geological Survey,booms have been reported for a
long time and they tend to occurmore in the northeastern US and
(21:54):
along the East Coast. Of course, most booms that
people hear or experience are actually some type of cultural
noise, such as some type of explosion, a large vehicle going
by, or sometimes a Sonic boom. But there have been many reports
of booms that cannot be explained by man made sources,
which that's what really got my attention when I was in my 50th
(22:18):
tab on Chrome reading about this.
I sat up a little bit straighter, like OK, so let me
just read that again for for emphasis.
But there have been many reportsof booms that cannot be
explained by man made sources. No one knows for sure, but
scientists speculate that these booms are probably small,
shallow earthquakes that are toosmall to be recorded, but large
(22:40):
enough to be felt by people nearby.
So right there we have a precedent for small, shallow
earthquakes that are not in any record and that are just large
enough to be felt by people in the Brighton.
You may be saying it says people, maybe not just one
house. OK, hold on, hold on.
Because this is how this is whenwe're getting into the
(23:00):
intensity. So the intensity one level 1,
not felt, people's reaction. Not felt.
It, it, it, it says people's reaction and then it tells you a
little bit more details. So the people's reaction for a
#1 intensity, not felt #2 intensity felt by a few.
OK. And then it says for
furnishings, delicately suspended objects may swing.
(23:23):
Obviously we know it was a little bit stronger than that.
So it's, although we like felt by a few, you know, we don't
like the furnishings just swinging gently.
OK, so #3 felt by several, whichwhat does that mean?
Again, several, like several houses, several people in one
house, TBD felt by several vibration like passing of a
(23:47):
truck. It feels like it was a little
bit more intense than the passing of a truck.
But it does say for furnishings,hanging objects may swing
appreciably appreciably. That's the word I need to use
more in my common vocabulary. So #4 intensity IV because
remember, these are Roman numerals.
(24:08):
I don't want you to get it confused.
People's reaction to a #4 felt by many sensation like heavy
body striking building. I mean, that's what it sounded
like, right? Because even the therapist
suggested, well, maybe it was a cougar that jumped on the House,
which is just such a funny thing.
(24:29):
It's not funny that DC asked hertherapist.
That's not funny. I asked my therapist all manner
of things that are not related to my mental health.
I mean, this is technically related to mental health, but
you get me. I I don't at all blame DC for
asking. It's just funny.
But that's like, well, maybe it was a cougar.
Like that is that gives me no comfort whatsoever.
(24:51):
That's like the negative amount of comfort, not even because I
think that there's a cougar on the House, but like, oh, so
you've got no ideas is what? What?
You could just tell me that. You know what?
Just tell me you don't know. Just tell me you don't know
'cause you don't 'cause it's nota cougar.
We know that. So furnishings for level 4, it
says dishes rattle and then build environment, it says walls
(25:13):
crack, windows rattle. Now we've discussed there was no
destruction of the house. The house was totally fine.
It was fine before, it was fine after.
So obviously the walls weren't weren't cracking.
So you know what I'm feeling, I'm feeling like a 3.5.
I'm feeling like Roman numeral 3.
(25:35):
How do you do that in Roman numerals?
How do you do? It's not like I I dot V that's
not going to be 3 1/2. How do you do halves in home and
Roman numerals? e-mail me
mountofstrangeways@gmail.com. Actually, I got to look this up.
Hold on. OK, I'm back of the Roman
(25:57):
numeral for half. Like 1/2 is semis and it's an
SI. Guess I should have said it the
other way. It's an S, which stands for
semis, which means half I guess.So you do IIIS.
That's what I'm going for, is IIS on the intensity scale
(26:17):
because obviously the walls didn't crack.
However, we did feel like a heavy body striking the
building. It was like pretty, pretty
similar to that I feel. So I don't know.
I tell me what you think. I want to know.
We're not done. We've got more.
But tell me what you think. madamestrangeways@gmail.com How
likely do you find this theory of localized small, shallow
(26:41):
earthquakes potentially caused by wastewater injection?
I don't know. Let me know.
OK. Now, strangely, this next theory
I researched doesn't involve wastewater, but it does involve
waste, which now I'm just going to have to start doing more
research because I did not understand that we were just
pumping contaminated gross waterdirectly into the earth.
(27:04):
Did you know that I didn't know that I at my big age, I had no
clue that that was happening. I don't know where I thought it
was going. It says treated wastewater.
I don't know what I thought treated meant.
I mean, I didn't think it was, you know, come going back into
my Brita. But I definitely didn't think it
was being injected directly intoMother Earth, which is
horrifying. So that's what I'll probably be
(27:27):
looking up after I finish this episode.
Just if you're curious. So anyway, back more waste.
This is great. We're humans are a blight on the
planet. This is so fun.
So waste as in a landfill? So DCI am so curious if there
was a landfill anywhere near thehouse.
I could have totally asked you this before doing the episode.
(27:49):
I didn't. So let me know
madamstrangeways@gmail.com Or you can just slide back into my
DMS on Reddit. I'm really curious to know.
Also, let me know if you think it was anywhere near actually
just tell me where it was. I'll do the research and I can
do a follow up if we find out ananswer if you want to know.
Do you want to hear a follow up madamstrangeways@gmail.com?
All right, so get this, This is from CBS News.
(28:11):
It sounded like a jackhammer. This is the headline.
It sounded like a jackhammer. Twin Cities homeowner finds
violent house shaking linked to landfill.
This is this is promising. I find it promising.
So here's the article. After some digging, Carlson
found out that the. Did my voice just crack?
We're going to. I'm leaving it in.
(28:32):
You know what? I like to be real with you guys.
We're going to leave it in. We're going to start over.
After some digging, Carlson found out that violent shaking
was caused by something that happened at the landfill less
than a mile from her house. Never in a million.
Oh, what character, where? What accent do you have?
If you're from Twin Cities, I actually don't know where that
is. Is that in Minnesota?
I feel like it is. Hold on, let's check.
(28:54):
OK, I'm back. Yes, it's Minneapolis and Saint
Paul, Minneapolis and Saint Pauland Minnesota.
So I am really good at geography, if it's not already
very clear to you, obviously. OK, so here's what I'm going to
do. I'm not going to do an accent
because I don't did I kind of just do one just now?
I don't know what people in Minnesota sound like.
(29:15):
We're just going to, and I'm not.
You know what? I'm not going to insult the fine
people of Minnesota by doing a Fargo accent because that's
North Dakota. See, I know geography.
You might as well call me Madam Geography ways, Madam Strange
geography. There's something there.
Listen, here's I'm just going toread her a quote.
She said. Never in a million years would I
(29:39):
have thought that anything goingon at the landfill would be
causing my home to shake, Carlson said.
The Burnsville Public Works director said Carlson was not
the only one who called the city.
He says the whole thing was caused by a malfunction with the
equipment the landfill uses to burn methane, a required step
that reduces the landfill's impact on the environment.
(30:01):
The company said that the new monitoring and control equipment
has been installed and is functioning correctly, which
should prevent this type of incident in the future.
I'm not sure that it did, but there's not another article
about it, so we'll never know. But what do you think, DC?
Were you near a landfill? Were you near anything that has
to do with methane or waste? Let me know.
(30:24):
I'm so curious to know, but still good to know that there's
a lot of reasons why a house might shake.
However, my pet theory I saved for last.
Best for last. This is definitely the strangest
of the theories and the most up my alley, which is why I've
saved it for dessert. So here is my pet theory from
(30:46):
The Associated Press. The headline is shaking.
House remains. Sorry, let me do my news.
What have I been doing? I haven't been doing my news
article. Reader, reporter, that's the
word. I haven't been doing my news
reporter. Voice from The Associated Press.
Shaking house remains a mystery decades later, 68 years later.
(31:09):
The story sounds like something out of Poltergeist.
I'm not going to do the whole thing like that because there's
a lot. But listen, it says, no cause
could be found for the mysterious phenomenon phenomenon
which affected no other house onthe streets.
I always interrupt myself with the most important sentences.
No 'cause can be found for the mysterious phenomenon of the
(31:31):
house shaking which affected no other house on the street.
That is key that we're on to something here.
Shaking house a mystery and headache to tenants.
Read the headline on the front page.
Story in the Worcestershire. Worcestershire Word Worcester.
Worcester in the Worcester Telegraph.
(31:52):
Where is this? Is this Massachusetts?
Oh, no, it is because I am obviously, as you know, a pro at
geography. OK, Google, How do you pronounce
the city in Massachusetts that is spelled like Worcester?
I know there's like a woo or like a woo.
(32:12):
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Worcester is a city in the US. Worcester.
That's wrong. There's no way that's right.
Worcester. Worcester, No.
OK, we're going to get back to the story that just doesn't
sound right, right? So here we go, Shaking house a
mystery and headache to tenants.Read the headline on the front
page story in the Worcester Worcester Damn Telegram on May
(32:36):
13th, 1950. It's not going to happen.
I'm not going to make Worcester,Worcester happen.
The family of the house's owner in 1950 offers a more mundane,
but head scratching in its own way, explanation.
It's probably not as haunted as you think it is, said Randy
Chavor, a retired Worcester Worcester Fire Department
district chief whose late grandmother, Victoria Chavor,
(32:59):
owned the three family apartmentat 14 Douglas St. at the time of
the disturbances. From what I was told, he said
with a laugh. It's not as exciting as it
sounds. Where university engineers were
unable to find the cause of the shaking, Chavoir family members
say a plumber later did. Behind the medicine cabinet in
the wall of the first floor apartment.
(33:22):
If you're like me, I was like, what do you mean they found
something in the first in the wall behind the medicine cabinet
on the 1st floor. What do you mean it's in the
wall? What's in the wall?
According to my cousin, someone put a washing machine motor
inside the wall, Chief Chavor said.
She's 99% sure, though she doesn't want to get anybody in
(33:43):
trouble, that it was the first floor person who wanted to buy
the house from our grandmother. There was some type of motor.
He evidently put power to it andit was enough to shake the whole
house. It was said among the Chavoir
family that the man on the 1st floor wanted to buy the house
and that perhaps is why he was trying to make the place appear
(34:03):
haunted by making the house shake to get the price down.
I kind of love it. It's clever, it's resourceful,
you know, like you got to do what you got to do to get a
affordable house. Although here's what I'll say.
1950 y'all didn't need y'all didn't need to be doing that.
(34:23):
Housing prices. 1950 girl, we don't need to be doing that.
You don't need to be doing all that.
You don't need to put a you don't need to put a tab washing
machine motor inside the wall and turn it on and scare the
living crap out of people. It's completely unnecessary.
You can afford a house in 1950 on nothing peanuts.
I think that's how much a house cost in 1950 is approximately 3
(34:48):
peanuts, maybe 3 1/2 peanuts IISpeanuts.
That's how much it cost to buy ahouse.
So completely unnecessary, but very clever.
Very clever, very mischievous, you might say.
So I love that theory. I mean, what are the odds that
(35:10):
there was actually a washing machine motor in the wall?
Probably slim, but that would bereally interesting.
Now there wouldn't really be a reason to put it in the wall
unless there was some drama around the house.
DC let me know. Was there drama about the house?
Did someone want to get the house from you?
(35:30):
Maybe. You know what?
Maybe someone put it there for the purpose of making the house
seem haunted and then they didn't come and get it back.
Now that how would it be powered?
I don't know. I don't know.
I'm just an ideas person. I don't know.
You all figure it out. You tell me.
How did they make this work? If someone, if someone put a
motor of some kind in the walls of DC's home that DC wanted to
(35:56):
be her forever home, If someone did that, how would they make it
work? Let me know.
Madam strangewas@gmail.com. So that's my pet theory.
That's my favorite theory. Is it the most likely?
No. Is it my favorite theory?
Yes, I know that you know, there's in the in the Reddit
thread, you hear them talk aboutSonic booms.
You hear them talk about honestly, I can't even remember,
(36:18):
but there's some other theories.But I was like, uh, I feel like
a Sonic boom. Other people around are going to
hear it. However, I specifically only
looked at ideas that could happen and have it where only
the person or people in one house could have experienced the
shaking. Because I mean, think about it,
even one of the earlier theories, if someone's outside
(36:39):
doing their lawn and they're notinside for their house to shake,
would they even notice? If it's not something that can
even be measured on the Richter scale, would they even notice?
Is, you know, I don't know. However, what is it?
What are the odds that your neighbors are never in their
house when something like that happens?
You know, probably slim. So I don't know.
(37:00):
You tell me what theory do you think is the most plausible for
this situation and DC, let me know.
Let me know if any of these situations seem like they're
plausible for your story. And hopefully I've given you
some more food for thought. I know that never not having an
answer for me is the worst thing.
I don't know if you can tell that about me just from the show
(37:22):
that I do. I don't like not having answers.
I love having answers. I love knowing things.
For me personally, the way I wasraised, but not knowing things
is really unsafe from my nervoussystem personally.
So that would drive me nuts never having an answer for that.
So you know, even if, even if this did not give you answers, I
(37:44):
hope one day you do. I hope you do because it would
drive me nuts. I would to my grave.
I would take this mystery to my grave, wondering what happened.
I can't even imagine how scary that would have been.
So DC again, thank you so much for letting me Share your story.
And if anyone listening, if you,yes you listening, has an
(38:05):
unexplained story that you wouldlike to share with me for me to
read on the show and to possiblygo down a few rabbit holes and
research holes, let me know. Let me know. e-mail me at
madamstrangeways@gmail.com. I can't wait to read it.
(38:33):
Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger.
You're safe here with me, probably.
Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the
unexplained. Now I'm running A1 Madam Show
here, so please do me a strange solid and follow the podcast or
leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify and maybe even join the
(38:57):
Patreon at patreon.com/madam Strangeways for bonus content.
Madam Strangeways is produced and narrated by me.
Madam Strangeways theme music isby marina.ryan@marinamakes.co.
Cover art is by Andrea Chisel Rodon at Cult of Teddy.
On Instagram, every strange story is shared with the
(39:20):
permission of the author. You can submit your own true
strange story to madamstrangeways@gmail.com or
check out the website madamstrangeways.com.
See you soon, she said ominously.
(39:51):
So S so you would do 111? Nope.
You would do 333? Nope.
What is wrong with me?
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