A woman who set up a camera in her grandmother’s kitchen after hearing suspicious “scratching noises” was left horrified after discovering the truth.
Ceylan Hannah Etem, from London, England, had been housesitting for her grandmother while she was in hospital—but she has been staying elsewhere since her grisly discovery and has no plans to return to the house anytime soon.
Etem told Newsweek it started on Saturday night when she was busy preparing to go out. “I was doing my makeup in the hallway which is next to the kitchen and I could hear a bag rustling,” she said. “I didn’t think anything of it, but I kept hearing it and went into the kitchen but couldn’t see anything at all.”
Etem thought little of it until the next day. “I was cooking in the kitchen and thought everything was fine,” she said. “I plated everyone’s dinner and started eating my own but then I could hear the rustling again.”
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Increasingly perturbed by what the source of the noise could be, Etem came up with a solution. “I decided to set up my phone there and see if I could catch anything on video,” she said.
Five minutes later, she came back into the kitchen to see if the camera had picked up anything. What she saw immediately put her off her food.
The footage initially showed a seemingly normal kitchen with a few pans in sight on top of the oven. Seconds later, however, the culprit was revealed as a mouse. A very large mouse, in fact, who can be seen scuttling across the kitchen counter.
The discovery left Etem terrified. “I cannot stand mice at all,” she said. “I think they’re absolutely disgusting, they’re one of my phobias.” She is not alone in that respect. A commonly seen pest in the UK, a 2014 YouGov poll showed mice and rats ranked as the sixth most common phobia.
Only snakes and spiders ranked higher in terms of creatures. That might explain the reaction generated when Etem shared the footage to TikTok under the handle ceylanhannahetem.
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Posted alongside the caption “I feel sick,” the video has been watched 5 million times already, with viewers left similarly horrified at what is revealed. “I would move out instantly,” one viewer wrote with another commenting: “that’s going to haunt me.”
Others saw the funny side, of course. “It’s Ratatouille” one joker said, in reference to the Disney Pixar classic about the mouse who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef. “Let him cook,” another quipped.
Etem, however, was far from amused at the time, particularly after what happened in the aftermath of capturing her new mouse roommate on camera. “When I went back in there to get my phone I watched the video back and then realized the mouse was actually still on the counter,” she said.
“Then I videoed it whilst it was still on the counter and that’s when it started running towards me. At that point I ran out and shut the door and I haven’t been back in since.” Etem has now taken up alternative accommodation. “I’m staying somewhere else and have told my uncle to call the exterminators and deal with it.”
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