Re-reading C-flat's 22 Dec post reminds me of a similar experience when I was the little kid with a head full of story books. A Sikh carpet salesman came down the entry to our row of houses (we were behind and above shops)and knocked on the kitchen door. I went to the door and came running into the shop(my aunt's hairdressers where my mother was working)and told the whole assembly: "There's a cannibal in the garden".
Parent apologised to salesman, salesman apologised for frightening child. Child with over active imagination never allowed to forget it!

RtS