Who ya gonna call when a shuffling spook sets up home in your extension?

Painter and decorator Darryl Simpson had no idea where to turn. But his mates came to the rescue by transforming themselves into a crack team of Ghostbusters to get shot of the ghoulish guest.

Darryl, 32, of Westbury Crescent, Rose Hill, Oxford, had no idea of their plans until the whacky team of exorcists marched up his drive, complete with their own Ghostbuster mobile.

Then they burst into his home and squirted silly string around with the aim of scaring off the unwelcome presence.

His mates had even dressed up in boiler suits and made their own ghost scaring equipment for the occasion.

The high-spirited prank was dreamed up by Darryl's friends, brothers Paul and Martin Smith, of the Rose Hill A Pool team, after they became fed up of hearing about a ghost haunting his new extension. Paul's wife Abigail, who helped mastermind the stunt, said: "He started coming up with stories about the rustling of paper and things being dropped in the bathroom.

"My sister started going through the Yellow Pages looking for somebody to exorcise it and then Paul and Martin dreamed up the idea of becoming Ghostbusters themselves and inviting other members of the pool team to join them.

"Every Thursday night the team has some kind of wind-up so this will keep them going for the rest of the season.

"We've exorcised it now. Well put it this way, I don't think we'll be hearing about it again."

Darryl, who is married to Amanda, 34, told the Oxford Mail he had heard the ghoul on six separate occasions since his new extension was created six months ago. Usually the ghost shuffles across the landing before walking into the bathroom and banging down a glass.

He said: "The first time we were terrified. We heard what was like a shuffling on the carpet. It was only on Monday night when it last happened. It's not done anything to us, but I hope they've scared it away. I was amazed when they turned up but I should have expected something like this."

Previous news story

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.