GHOSTS, ghouls and things that go bump in the night are disturbing the peace in the quiet town of Waterfoot.

Greengrocer Steve Taylor received his first macabre message three weeks' ago and someone ... somewhere ... is determined to frighten him out of his wits.

The calls, all at 12.05am, are recorded on Steve's shop answering machine and each morning he has come in to find the message waiting light flashing.

When he checks to see if the price of spuds has soared, or a customer wants a delivery a day early, he hears a spine-chilling voice screeching and screaming down the phone line.

One call threatened to "rip his soul out, rip out his heart and eat it before his eyes" and most contain a liberal splattering of bad language and sickening threats.

Steve, whose shop in on Newchurch Road, said: "I think I must have sold someone a bad apple!

"I am taking the whole thing as a bit of a joke, because I can't see anything serious in what they have to say I think they're a bit mad or have been watching too many cult movies.

"I'm not going to report it to the police or British Telecom, but whoever is doing this ought to think about who is going to listen to the call. It might not bother me, but some people would be quite frightened by the messages.

"After listening to their vocal range, I think they ought to get in touch with Hollywood and apply for a job on the next Exorcist film!"

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.