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Some put it down to interference from a set of traffic lights, others suspect an unwitting radio ham may be responsible. The local baker even blames a mischievous ghost named Albert. Whatever the explanation, something is playing havoc with the electronic key fobs of cars in the Lake District town of Windermere.
Hundreds of visitors to the popular tourist destination have found their cars won't lock or, worse still, won't unlock after they return with their shopping. The phenomenon - or rather the spot where it occurs - has been nicknamed the Windermere Triangle.
Local stores have seen a steady stream of baffled motorists asking for help, while a motor dealer has been inundated with requests for replacement batteries foe key fobs. The local council sent in engineers to check whether the traffic lights at a new pedestrian crossing were playing up, but they found no evidence of a link.
Residents have nicknamed the goings-on after the mysterious Bermuda Triangle because they only affect a triangular area of parking opposite the bakery. Four bays form the epicentre of the blackspot, but several times a day a visiting motorist is caught out.
Yesterday teacher Paul Revell, 48, tried to lock his Subaru Forester. 'I just stopped off to pick up some groceries, but the doors just wouldn't lock,' he said. Anthony Dean, whose shop, AD Wines, is closest to the bays, said: 'It doesn't matter what sort of car it is or what time of day.
'People are always coming in and saying they can't get their car locked or unlocked. Some of us think it's the traffic lights, because it didn't happen before they were installed a couple of years ago.
Some of the theories behind the Windermere Triangle include:
An amateur radio enthusiast in a nearby house could be using the same frequency used by remote locking systems, drowning out their relatively weak signal.
Other types of wireless equipment could also be to blame, such as hand-held chip and PIN machines or wireless mains switches that are used to turn off lights remotely.
Traffic lights at a nearby pedestrian crossing seem to make the problem come and go, but no explanation for a link has so far been put forward.
Has Albert, the ghost who haunts the bakery over the road, been up to mischief? The owners of bakery certainly think so.
'Recently a lady couldn't get into her Lexus, so I suggested she tried pressing the crossing button, and the moment the lights changed to amber, the lock worked.'
It's not just visitors who are caught out. Resident Judith Ainsworth's Renault has been struck repeatedly. 'Either you can't unlock it, or you can't lock it in the first place,' she said. Phil and Ruth
Eastwood, who have run the Oak Street Bakery for ten years, have their own theory.
'We have a ghost we call Albert,' said Mr Eastwood, 55. 'The bakery's next door to the undertakers, and they used to make the coffins here. Sometimes you'll hear footsteps, or the lights will come on for no reason. Maybe he's responsible.'
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