CREEPY goings on at an Otley charity shop have left workers believing a mischievous spirit is at large.

Staff at the British Heart Foundation shop have reported the unexplained shattering of glass picture frames, odd sounds, smells and shop dummies shifting position overnight.

And even burly workmen have emerged from the shop cellars shaken by strange goings on and the feeling of not being alone.

Angela Harrison, manager of the shop at the corner of Kirkgate and Market Place, said customers had not noticed anything strange but plenty of the people who worked there had.

And she added she would not like to stay in the shop alone overnight.

"It is not unpleasant, it just plays tricks on you, but I wouldn't stay in there on my own overnight.

"I went in this particular morning and I knew everything was alright the night before, then all of a sudden I saw this picture with the glass broken into pieces.

"The picture was propped up in the window with all the glass in front of it in a heap. There is no way it could have fallen like that. We have had about three pictures break since the shop opened."

She added there was definitely a feeling that something unexplained was present in the shop.

"I can't get away from that incident with the picture because it shocked me. It wasn't right, as the shop had been closed all night," said Mrs Harrison.

She added that workmen at the shop to do some work in the cellar had told her they were unhappy about being down there alone.

She said: " They say there is something not right down there. They just said they have a strange feeling if they are there on their own. They said they feel as if somebody is with them."

And dummies in the shop window have mysteriously shifted position overnight.

Mrs Harrison said: "You will look in the window as you go at night. One can turn around overnight, not fully round, just to the side"

She added that there had also been the unexplained but unmistakeable smell of a pipe being smoked when there was no one to be seen and strange noises when there was noone on the premises.

"Sometimes you can be downstairs in the shop and it sounds as if there is someone upstairs, but there isn't," said Mrs Harrison.

Linda Harrison, of the British Heart Foundation marketing department, said: "We have 383 charity shops nationwide, but this is the first I've heard of one being haunted.

"It would be great if the ghosts could help Angela out in some way like preparing all the stock ready to go out on the shop floor the next morning."

lNearly £10m was raised through BHF shops last year, providing essential funds to help fight heart and circulatory disease, the single largest cause of death in the UK.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.