Glass cabinet opens and shatters at auction house – by itself

Below is a video from the security camera footage of Barnsley Auction Centre in south Yorkshire England. The staff assumed that there was a break-in until viewing the footage which shows a glass cabinet door open and shatter by itself -



second vid from another angle -

Staff at the Barnsley Auction Centre in south Yorkshire assumed there had been a break-in when the cabinet was found open with glass all over the floor.
But after owner Danny Parker consulted the security camera footage, he was shocked to find that there was no evidence of anybody being in the building – and he is now considering the prospect that the auction house may be haunted.
‘It’s all a bit spooky really. The electrician had gone out for 10 minutes and locked the building because nobody was in there.
‘When he got back he stepped on the shards of glass and had no idea what had happened.’
‘He went all round the building trying to find someone but couldn’t find anyone. After looking at the CCTV frame by frame I saw the glass shatter.’
Despite checking all 16 of the building’s CCTV camera, Mr Parker still could not explain what happened and says he will be wary locking up on his own from now on.
‘I’ve never believed in ghosts before but this has really spooked me.’

weird eh?

link

So why is the cctv camera hand held ?

a reply to: Lady_Tuatha

The strange thing is the movement of the camera. I would expect a security camera to be on a solid fixed mount, so this footage makes me suspicious.

a reply to: VoidHawk

I think that may be a recording of the screen which shows the footage, like in the second vid I just added, hence the unsteadiness.

This from the auction house who commented later on the youtube page -

just a couple of things regarding the cabinet smashing, we are not an auction, we are an antique centre, where people rent display cabinets and floor space to sell their own antiques and collectables, the cabinet that smashed was not an antique, it was maybe 10 years old and it was going to be rented out to display things in, the cabinet was empty at the time, and the door was also wide open, it didnt swing open like the papers are saying, we have it caught on 2 seperate cctv cameras, the other camera shows an even closer up video of it exploding. since this happened we have also caught a couple more weird things on cctv which are also unexplainable. so if any of the news writers are reading this can you please change the story, thank you.

a reply to: VoidHawk

I'm guessing maybe someone filming the monitor screen?

As for it shattering, perhaps there was stress on the glass and it reached beyond it's limit. Maybe the frame had swelled and dried out in such a small degree the eye wouldn't notice it. It can happen depending on the humidity.

Could have been a tiny crack or imperfection in the glass grew and went pop.

I believe in ghosts (I have seen one from about two feet away) but I can't say it's paranormal because I'm sure it happens with furniture.

S + F

Meh.

The thing is leaning forward, you can see the gap between it and the wall is wider at the top, the unlocked door is held closed by a bit of 'stiction' which eventually releases, then it swings open due to gravity and either hits something or comes to an abrupt stop.

I don't see a whole lot of supernatural going on here.

I've seen a lot of stuff like this happen with no one near it.

Last big one was an 8' 2"x4" bolted to a brick wall with four guitars hanging from it. Four antique, collectable, one of a kind guitars and another four hanging from another 2"x4" below it.

The top one gave way at one end, the 2"x4" swung down dumping the top four guitars onto the bottom four and the whole octet landed on a concrete floor.

I'll never forget the cacophony.

Luckily the episode was witnessed by several people and the person responsible for installing the guitar racks was eventually let go, but not until he had two other equally expensive 'accidents'.

originally posted by: Lady_Tuatha
a reply to: VoidHawk

I think that may be a recording of the screen which shows the footage, like in the second vid I just added, hence the unsteadiness.

That could explain it, but in that case why dont they upload the original footage, it would be much better quality.

My guess is something in the cabinet fell over and hit the glass door.

My first question is why the camera is moving? It is moving in the way they usually do when being held by someone, which would mean it is not a security camera, since they are firmly mounted. That is the first thing that needs to be addressed, because obviously if someone were holding it this would be a hoax. Or it would be the most likely explanation anyway. The only potential explanation is that the person did not upload the security camera footage itself, but instead videotaped off of a screen using another camera. Why they would do this is hard to say, and makes me wonder.

This would be a relatively involved hoax imo. In fact, even setting everything else aside, I don't see how you could rig a cabinet to do this. The only method that comes to mind is using a projectile, perhaps like a BB gun or something, but the glass almost appears to have a force behind it. It does not simply shatter, but appears to jump outward. I'm sure there is some way to accomplish this, but I cannot think of anything aside from using a projectile. Other methods that come to mind seem as if they would leave tell-tale signs, such as small charges or something of that nature.

I do not discount the possibility of this being paranormal in nature. Having had a few paranormal experiences over the years, things that natural explanations do not account for, I have been made into a believer. Experience usually makes believers where things like this are concerned. I had a relative who had a house where all kinds of crazy stuff occurred, and one of those things involved cabinet doors. They would open and close on their own, and one of these was thick and heavy wood, and took a considerable amount of force to move. There were no air currents or anything like that, and the only explanation seems to be paranormal. A one time occurrence, or perhaps multiple occurrences with a single cabinet door, might leave room for natural explanations, but when the doors of cabinets and drawers all over the house exhibited this same behavior, obviously natural explanations are a bit harder to come by.

Thus I believe the video could depict a paranormal event. While I have not personally experienced this exact thing, I am aware that the paranormal literature and eyewitness reports do describe this exact phenomenon. Drinking glasses have exploded in a similar manner, and panes of glass have also burst in a way that seems almost identical to what we see in the video. I am a firm believer that the paranormal explanation is usually only correct when there are many strange things occurring at a location. If this is an isolated incident, and nothing strange occurs there, then I would think this was just a freak occurrence with a natural explanation. This type of thing is not normal, but I suppose it is possible that the temperature was right, and the glass was weak, etc., and thus one in a million times something like this might happen. But if other crazy stuff happens there, I would lean towards the paranormal explanation. So either of those explanations, depending on the circumstances. A hoax needs to be ruled out before going any further.

a reply to: Psynic

you can see in the second vid that the door is wide open and still before it shatters. I am not saying for certain that I think its paranormal it may be what the poster above said about an imperfection in the glass, but still it is strange, and you don't see it happen everyday.

Also we cannot rule out that it may be a hoax to generate interest in the newly opened Auction centre, again, who knows

originally posted by: Lady_Tuatha
This from the auction house who commented later on the youtube page -

just a couple of things regarding the cabinet smashing, we are not an auction, we are an antique centre, where people rent display cabinets and floor space to sell their own antiques and collectables, the cabinet that smashed was not an antique, it was maybe 10 years old and it was going to be rented out to display things in, the cabinet was empty at the time, and the door was also wide open, it didnt swing open like the papers are saying, we have it caught on 2 seperate cctv cameras, the other camera shows an even closer up video of it exploding. since this happened we have also caught a couple more weird things on cctv which are also unexplainable. so if any of the news writers are reading this can you please change the story, thank you.

I see what you're saying now in the second video. You're right, the door is stationery.

Still, the glass breaking is well within the range of normal occurrences.

It is unsupported and under a cantilevered load.

A pre-existing fault has let go.

I still think they're hoaxing it up to get some free press.

If you look at the 2nd video and look between the wall and the case (look at the light between the case and the wall) you will see something black come into the case from the room behind it. A HOAX if you ask me. That was a pole or something used to smash the glass. And the camera movement just finishes it off.

That is one of the reasons I hate moving glass panels. It is heavy with mass and the smallest speck of pressure could break it. Tempered glass will make the eeriest sounds under pressure. I'd rather stack bricks than move glass. I doubt anything supernatural happened except the need for publicity.

Bad DIY job look at the cordless drill on the floor someone's been fixing something ( door maybe ) and it's broke !
And they didn't even put the tools away which is suspicious to me for a start .

a reply to: Denoli

Yeah if it's not a hoax, then the tools on the floor may suggest that someone was working on it, if it's old glass it really doesn't take much for it to break, especially if there is a tension load on it.

When I was a kid I barely touched an old glass pane in a door and it exploded in my face.

originally posted by: AlphaHawk
a reply to: Denoli

Yeah if it's not a hoax, then the tools on the floor may suggest that someone was working on it, if it's old glass it really doesn't take much for it to break, especially if there is a tension load on it.

When I was a kid I barely touched an old glass pane in a door and it exploded in my face.

Yep probably just been put together and judging by the clock it's rush hour and highest chance of vibration on on the foundations which in turn maybe enough to make it destabilise the poor workmanship .

originally posted by: Lady_Tuatha
This from the auction house who commented later on the youtube page -

just a couple of things regarding the cabinet smashing, we are not an auction, we are an antique centre, where people rent display cabinets and floor space to sell their own antiques and collectables, the cabinet that smashed was not an antique, it was maybe 10 years old and it was going to be rented out to display things in, the cabinet was empty at the time, and the door was also wide open, it didnt swing open like the papers are saying, we have it caught on 2 seperate cctv cameras, the other camera shows an even closer up video of it exploding. since this happened we have also caught a couple more weird things on cctv which are also unexplainable. so if any of the news writers are reading this can you please change the story, thank you.

Just figured I'd repeat this post since people are still talking about things that have been explained by the business earlier in the thread. Also, the tools almost certainly belong to the electrician mentioned in the op. Not likely fixing a cabinet door.

Sounds like the door took too much shear stress while hanging open and just exploded. There may have been a fastener head or some point stress inside the frame touching the glass as well.

a reply to: Lady_TuathaThe unsteadiness of the camera is because the video is being taken of the CCTV screen as the video is played.

I can not see any impact of a projectile piercing the glass, but rather, the entire pane of glass turns white uniformly about a second before it breaks. The breakage is uniform throughout the pain.

The only thing I suspect is the glass is hit with a high vibrational sound wave similar to the following explanation.

a reply to: All Seeing Eye

It doesn't need anything so convoluted, besides, you can't really compare a wine glass with what appears to be tempered glass..

All it takes is poor quality glass, a tiny nick in it to start the process, a stress point and it will do what we see..

My guess is one or both of the latter two.