Sophie Hucker, 39, from Tauranga, New Zealand shares her incredible real-life story of coming home one day after work and discovering a pole in her driveway.
Pulling into my driveway after a long day at work, I couldn’t wait to get my comfies on and chill.
It has been a long day, I thought.
But my dreams of a relaxed evening were suddenly scuppered when I suddenly noticed a two-metre-high metal pole sticking out of the ground by the side of my home.
“What the hell is that?” I said out loud.
I parked, got out of my car, and went over to the pole to move it out of the way.
But when I grabbed hold of it and tried to pull it up, I realised it was cemented into the ground.
Is this some sort of joke? I thought.
It seemed like a lot of effort for a prank.
I couldn’t believe a pole had been cemented into my driveway… was this a joke?
I looked around me, but there was nobody about.
My neighbours car wasn’t in the driveway so he wasn’t in.
Our houses looked identical, so I thought that maybe he was putting up a carport and whoever he’d employed to do it had got confused.
The next day, I went to speak to him.
“Do you know why that pole is there?” I asked him.
“Nah, I just thought you were putting up a carport,” he responded.
Realising neither of us was responsible, he was as dumbfounded as I was.
I left a note on the pole, asking whoever put it up to call me.
Have you experienced anything strange or unexplainable? If so, get in touch. We pay cash! Contact: Take5@aremedia.com.au
I stuck a note on the pole asking whoever had put it there to call.
Then I uploaded pics of it on my Facebook, hoping we’d get some answers if people shared it.
A teacher colleague, Ali, who lives in the same area, suggested I put it on the community page, so I did.
Suddenly, there were loads of comments.
Have you called the pole-ice, one user said.
I find this post offensive, could you please remove it, said another.
The next day, I was contacted by a journalist from the local paper, The Bay of Plenty Times, who’d seen the post.
The story went in the paper and suddenly it went viral.
People from across the world started messaging me about the pole.
After sharing photos of my pole to Facebook, the post garnered loads of comments and I was also contacted by a journalist from a local newspaper.
Then a camera crew turned up, and suddenly, I was on the TV news.
This is crazy, I thought.
I couldn’t believe there was such a frenzy over a mystery pole.
A week after my random find, I received a message on Facebook from a fencing installation company asking me to call them.
He confirmed the pole had been installed in the wrong place and they’d only realised after seeing it on the news.
“We had a good chuckle, until we realised it was us who had installed it,” he said. “I’m sorry for the mess up.”
“It’s fine, at least you gave the nation a good chuckle,” I replied.
My mystery pole caused a media frenzy.
Arriving home from work later that day, the pole was gone and the hole was patched up.
Two guys from the company were stood waiting for me.
“Sorry again,” they said, handing me a bottle of bubbles.
Curious about what the pole was for, I asked them.
“A gate,” they told me.
A fencing installation company owned up to the mistake and not only did the remove the pole, they gave me a bottle of bubbles for my trouble.
I laughed.
“Why would anyone want to put a gate there?” I asked.
The position made no sense.
I’m just glad the mystery has now be solved and the pole has been removed.
