Town trying to unlock mystery

Drivers in Windermere have complained that their electronic car fobs refuse to work. Photo / David H. Bolton

One place is known for its olde-worlde teashops, hordes of tourists and picturesque cruises. The other is a mysterious watery graveyard for sailors and aviators that has baffled scientists and enthralled conspiracy theorists for decades.

Yet the Lake District town of Windermere and the Bermuda Triangle share a similar phenomenon.

Shoppers and holidaymakers in the Cumbrian resort are reporting the presence of a "Windermere Triangle" - a small area of the town where electronic car fobs are rendered inexplicably useless.

Dozens of people have been locked out of their vehicles in the affected zone.

Reports have centred around four parking bays outside an off-licence. The manager Anthony Dean has been called out repeatedly to help stranded drivers.

He believes the town's new traffic lights are to blame, but Cumbria Council says such suggestions are unfounded.

Dean is certain there is a link. "One driver was really panicking about it as she couldn't open her car and she was in a rush, so I said 'Don't worry about it, I'll help you'.

"After about 10 minutes of trying, I said, 'Just go and press the crossing button at the traffic lights'," he said.

"When they changed from red to flashing amber the door opened. It seems to pick a car at random and there's no logic to it, no particular type of car or time of day."

Electronic key fobs operate by sending coded short-wave radio signals to a receiver positioned inside the car.

Town centre manager Paul Holdsworth said traffic lights used a technology different from key fobs but admitted that he was "completely stumped" as to the cause of the problem.

"My guess is that it's some piece of cordless technology that's not working properly in one of the buildings around here and that is causing interference, but I just don't know," he said.

"Other theories being put forward are interference from CB radios and even the presence of a malevolent ghost."

A spokesman for the Society of Motor Manufacturers said he was aware of the problems in Windermere. "These short-range radio frequencies are shared with other industries, such as the toy industries, so it could be that these are interfering with the fobs," he said.

But Judith Ainsworth is convinced something more sinister is afoot after she experienced the problem with her car a number of times.

"Either you can't unlock it or you can't lock it in the first place," she said. "The other day I tried to lock the car with the fob and all four windows came down. We're calling it the Windermere Triangle."

- INDEPENDENT