Weird stuff during a powercut last night

We had a power cut last night. It started about 10.40pm. As usual, I checked out of the front and back windows to see who was affected. It was just our road, about 18 houses (9 each side) & four street lights.

As I was looking out of the front window I saw a flashlight in an upstairs window of a house opposite and down from me. I watched it and realised that it was not inside the house, but from someone out on the street shining a light into the window, but my view was blocked so I could not see the person. At this point it all got rather eerie.

The light went off and another came on up the other end of the road where I live. Again searching the house opposite, but specifically the upstairs windows, no where else. The light went off, then it was flashed against the house two or three times, like it was a signal of some kind. After that the light went off and it was dark. This happened a few times (some got the signal and some did not) before a light was pointed into my window. I moved away, but the light stayed. Then it went off and I got the flashing against my house.

The two people on the street could not be seen very easily. They wore dark clothing and were very careful not to shine the lights anywhere but the windows. I could only make out an outline and it was only possible to spot where they were by looking for the source of the lights.

I thought they were the police and had cut the power, were checking and signalling and preparing for a raid or somethin. They had also been looked in a couple of cars, but their main effort was concentrated on windows. But there were no police cars or other people or a police helicopter.

This went on for at least an hour (I checked) and to me seemed utterly pointless (but all the same pretty freaky). Every so often searching a window then signalling, up and down. I stayed in the front room (but away from the window) but could see reflections from their lights. Then eventually a fainter light moved across my window tinged red and when I looked out I could see nothing more. I guess they had driven away. I went back to bed at this point.

About an hour later, I checked out to see if the power was still off and saw two people at the end of the road at a substation just out of view, but I could see the tops of their heads from the bright lights they had. I watched them walk back down the road. They kept their lights on and they carried visors and had white hard hats and wore dayglo jackets and had white boots on. Then the power went back on. They wandered around for a but then came back and drove their van away.

All day I have wondered what this was all about. Does any have any ideas? If you work for the electric board is this usual behaviour during powercuts?

[edit on 28-3-2008 by YarlanZey]

Seems very strange and deliberate, especially considering your street was the only one effected by the powercut.

I wonder what the reason was for looking in everyones windows? Sounds like they were checking to see if anyone was awake or watching for any movement inside the houses. But what would the be the purpose of this?

Did anyone else notice this happening?

Could be undercover police, maybe looking for someone or something.

Next time I have a powercut at night I will be keeping watch!

reply to post by afraidofthedark


It did seem very deliberate. They made no noise (the bathroom window was open) and they were careful not to light anything except for the top windows. That was what made it so freaky.

They were also there for a long time (approx 1 hour). If it was anyone having a joke then they would have gotten fed up and gone away.

Just off the top of my head... Checking for smoke? If the power blew there may of been a surge... Maybe employees for the power company were concerned that appliances may have started fires in houses where the occupants were out / away.

Just a guess - don't know anything about normal practice here, If I were concerned I'd knock on doors personally, especially considering the small number of houses affected.

I haven't had a chance to speak to anyone else yet, but there didn't appear to be many people around at that time (outside). There was someone opposite who had lit a candle. I remember she got a signal and the house on the end did as well, but I don't know if they were awake.

Unfortuantely I did not think to take a note of who did and didnt, but these two struck in my mind as they happened during I was first looking out of the window.

reply to post by Now_Then


Good idea, but it was dark enough to see a fire as all the street lights were out too (hence why I could see the candle opposite).

If there was smoke you would possibly be able to smell it as people have their windows open now at night (a bit premature though as it will probably get colder again).

They were there for such a long time. If they suspected this why be all subtle about it and check only the upstairs windows - why not check all of the house? They remained in the middle of the street. To spot a problem, I would have come closer to the house in question to be able to see it properly i.e. up to the front door as fires start downstairs too. Our fuse boxes are in the garages to the front of each house, but again they were only interested in the top windows. And then there was the signalling on the houses?

From what I saw it was a more random searching (not house by house in order) going back to some houses and missing others out.

[edit on 31-3-2008 by YarlanZey - because it didnt make sense and to add]

[edit on 31-3-2008 by YarlanZey]

my friend works for the national grid, if you send me your location i can ask him to check it out, he works in a dept that deals with power cuts all over the country minor or large.

he says that it does sound strange, and not normal behaviour.
snoopyuk

Because it was just the one street I'd say it was a fault on your local distribution transformer - overload blows the fuses. Maybe the people with flashlights were looking for signs of damaged service mains as the source of the fault or evidence of someone excavating in case of underground mains areas but you make it sound like they got there mighty fast to investigate.

I've had occasional blackouts due to overloads blowing the dropout fuses on the transformer just up the road from me and I'm usually the first one out there checking with a torch so I can report the fault and get a crew on the way. I'd never roam up and down the street checking each house though

reply to post by snoopyuk


Thanks Snoopy. I am going to try a see if anyone else was around and find out what they saw. There were some people working at the substation at the end of the road, but they seemed like different people who were actually from the board.

Originally posted by Pilgrum
the people with flashlights were looking for signs of damaged service mains as the source of the fault or evidence of someone excavating in case of underground mains areas but you make it sound like they got there mighty fast to investigate.

It took me say thirty seconds to get out of bed and walk to the front bedroom so they must have been there when the cut started. I could tell there was a cut because we have cordless phones and they all beep when the power goes. Then when it comes back on again they beep again.

I don't get why they would look in the windows though. As I said before our fusebox is in the garage, at the front and comes into the house straight from there. Oh, and they didn't look around the back of the houses or ground level.

Originally posted by Pilgrum
I'm usually the first one out there checking with a torch so I can report the fault and get a crew on the way. I'd never roam up and down the street checking each house though

That behavoiur freaked me (not the powercut). It was like some stakeout. I called my partner to come and see and he agreed.

I have a couple very powerful LED flashlights. If that happens to me, I'm going outside and flashing them back.

Believe me, you do NOT want to be hit up by these babies.

They're so strong you can't use them in the house, because if you shine them on anything the glare is so strong you can't see what you're illuminating.

So, there, burglar-wanna-bes.

I too have a multi led tactical light. It is incredibly strong and would indeed blind someone for a while. I also have a red laser light. I would be way too tempted to shine that at them from a window. I don't know about the UK, but here, if you got a red dot on you, you quickly forget everything else you were doing.

If these were bad guys, you would soon know about it.

OP what part of the UK are you from?

Ive been having sporadic power cuts and black helicopters flying overhead with search beams a couple of times.

It sounds eerie and feels incredibly creepy at the time, but the men checking were probably just trying to see which transducers had shorted or whatever.

Maybe they worked for the board and were doing a routine outage of power?

reply to post by 44soulslayer


No helicopters in the sky, in fact it was a quiet night. We have police helicopters flying around quite often as we are fairly near a motorway. We sometimes get woken by them hovering around. They can appear very quickly and are very loud. We also had the searchlight a couple of times a few years ago.

I first thought it was the police preparing for a raid or something, but as there was no helicopter and nothing happened (i.e. no raid and I am sure we would have heard) then I just dont know. We have had a few powercuts before and I have never seen this weird stuff happen before.

[edit on 31-3-2008 by YarlanZey]

reply to post by YarlanZey



i have heard back from my friend at the national grid.

the only thing that was listed for last night was a outage near Northampton,that was aused by a small sub blowing.

Do you know who supplies electricity to your area ? ie. what board it is? for example Southern, Swalec, Npower, E-on...etc.

thanks

snoopyuk

Originally posted by YarlanZey
There were some people working at the substation at he end of the road, but they seemed like different people who were actually from the board.

That would explain them checking so soon after the failure - if they were already working at the sub when it blacked out. They could have been looking for evidence of smoke or anything else to indicate where the failure occurred as such convenient opportunities are rare indeed.

It is possible that the persons who looked into the windows were from the company who owned the substation. It is also possible that the person's who were looking in the windows and then flashing their flashlight's were from the police department. Those are the two likeliest reasons for the flashlight's being shined into the houses. But there is also another possibility for thos. Maybe the people doing this were casing the houses so that if the lights stayed off long enough, they could get into the houses where nobody was home so that they could break in and take whatever valuables were in the house. It's just a possibility.