Dozens of shoppers at a Lidl supermarket in Gloucestershire, UK, recently reported mysterious anomalies with their car alarms and central locking systems which left them unable to leave the parking lot.
There’s something fishy going on in the parking lot of a Lidl supermarket in Kingswood, a suburb on the eastern side of Bristol City, but nobody knows what’s causing it. Last month several articles in the media reported cases of shoppers being unable to lock and unlock their cars or disable their alarm systems, and dozens of other people shared similar experiences in the comments section and on social media. At first, most of the “victims” of this bizarre phenomenon though the batteries of their car alarm keys had died, but the symptoms persisted even after changing the batteries. Some think it might have something to do with the Internet-based traffic cameras installed in the car park, which may be blocking systems, but the supermarket chain claims that’s very unlikely.
A Lidl spokesperson told The Mirror that the internet-based cameras don’t transmit a signal that could interfere with that of an alarm key, but admitted that they have no idea what’s causing so many of them to malfunction in this particular location.
Lidl supermarket¬ Photo: Radosław Drożdżewski/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
“We were concerned to learn of this occurrence, and are currently looking into the matter to help identify the cause, and resolve the situation for our customers,” the spokesperson said.
“It’s like the Bermuda Triangle,” one shopper reported. “It’s bizarre. I assumed the batteries were flat as you would in that situation. My son brought a spare and that didn’t work either.”
A pregnant woman who visited the supermarket with her toddler said she had to get into the passenger’s seat of her car to start the ignition and use he lock on the dashboard to unlock the other doors and get her baby in its seat. “It’s hardly a safe experience,” she added.
News of these malfunctions prompted others to share similar experiences on Facebook:
“Glad it’s not just me! Myself and a lady next to me looked at each baffled yesterday literally had to stand right next to the front of car,” one woman wrote. “It’s been happening a while and when I had hubby’s car thought battery dead.”
“That happened to me the other day and I bought new batteries only for it to work when i got home,” another person said.
Some shoppers have complained to Lidl’s head-office about the phenomenon, but they have yet to hear back from the company. I guess Lidl is just as clueless about what’s going on as everybody else.
