Who can unlock the mystery of the Windermere triangle? (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Who can unlock the mystery of the Windermere triangle?

3:28pm Tuesday 9th February 2010 in

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A strange phenomenon is leaving baffled motorists locked out of their cars in an area being dubbed The Windermere Triangle.

Motorists who park in bays outside Threshers, Crescent Road, Windermere, are returning to their vehicles to find that their key fobs will not open the doors.

People are being helped to get into their vehicles by shopkeepers, who believe that new traffic lights are to blame.

“One driver was really panicking,” said Anthony Dean, owner of Threshers, who is leading a campaign to find a solution.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll help’, and after about ten minutes of trying I said, ‘Go and press the crossing button at the traffic lights. When they changed back from red to amber, the door opened.

“There’s no logic to it, no particular type of car or time of day.”

But traffic light interference is just one theory. Others blame CB radio signals. Staff at Oak Street Bakery think it may be a mischievous ghost.

Resident Judith Ainsworth says she has been locked out of her Renault Megane Scenic many 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 after the Bermuda Triangle.”

Stephen Meeson, former Motor World manager, who has just set up Car Mania in Bowness, said drivers often asked for new batteries for their fobs, but soon discovered that wasn’t the problem.

Town centre manager Paul Holdsworth said traffic lights and said key fobs used different technology.

He said: “I’m completely stumped. My guess is that it’s a piece of cordless technology that is not working properly in one of the buildings here, causing interference.

“It is not a reason to stop coming here. People like Anthony will always be there to help.”

A Cumbria County Council spokesman said: “Electronics experts at the traffic light signal maintenance company assured us that the traffic lights were not to blame.

“They are the same as other sets of street lights installed in the county and elsewhere in the UK, so if they were confusing car remotes then it would be happening at far more sites.”