‘HOW DOES SOMEONE HACK A MICROWAVE’: Couple flips a breaker only to transform their microwave into a walkie-talkie

A TikTok has gone viral, appearing to show an ordinary microwave either haunted or transformed into a walkie-talkie after its owners flipped the breaker switch in their home.

For anyone not in the know, a breaker switch is an electrical switch designed to protect any given electrical circuit from damage caused by overloads or short circuits. It interrupts current flow after protective relays detect a fault. It’s essentially a safety feature and may reset electrical appliances to their default settings when flipped. What it’s not supposed to do is completely transform electrical appliances into something else.

But that’s precisely what seems to happen in the 27-second clip posted by “Cecil” (username dieselhill), which is accompanied by on-screen text saying, “HELP Every time we flip the breaker for the kitchen we hear someone talking SO CLEARLY THROUGH our microwave. We have heard really creepy sounds.”

As it turns out, the explanation for the microwave becoming a walkie-talkie is fairly simple. However, it was still pretty creepy, and TikTok had plenty to say about the situation.

How did TikTok react?

The video’s caption explains what’s happening.

“MY MICROWAVE IS TALKING BC OF OLD DELETED MESSAGES PLAYING/ITS MALFUNCTIONING.”

In a nutshell, the microwave has a feature that allows the owner to record voice messages on it — perhaps to remind themselves to put something in the microwave, for example — which several TikTok users pointed out.

One said, “That microwave has a voice memo feature. He’s singing Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo AND I’m The Man by Aloe Blacc. Both songs are from ten years ago, so I’m guessing he recorded this around a decade ago,” while another spoke in jets and mockingly suggested them to “take out the microwave and there should a little door in the back-open it and tell the miniature man to turn down his mic & it’ll go away.”

One told a funny story about something that happened with their inherited microwave with the same feature, writing, “I have the same microwave!! This happens with ours too, only the message is the lady who used to own our house saying, “oooh I’m coming to get you”.”

Another user told a sad story about their experience with a similar microwave, commenting, “Our old microwave had a recording feature on it. One day a message of our son got saved in it and we have no idea how. After he passed due to cancer, I would play it at bawl my eyes out.”

Despite the rational explanation, other users were still categorically creeped out or confused by the situation. One wrote, “HOW DOES SOMEONE HACK A MICROWAVE IM SO CONFUSED,” another commented, “Someone bring me back here when someone knows what the hell is going on here,” and one spooked beyond belief made a quick exit as “BYEEE THIS IS SO SCARY???”

Meanwhile, despite the explanation, some people still made their own incorrect assertions about what was happening. While one suggested that the microwave was “picking up a gamers wireless headset. Think Call of Duty lol,” another was sure that the appliance was “possessed by a really friendly, goofy ghost.” According to another Hermione-Granger-style know-it-all, “it’s picking up radio frequency from maybe a trucker.”

But despite the very colorful and chaotic explanations above, logic prevails. In October 2023, the United Kingdom’s leading charity on electrical safety, Electrical Safety First, revealed that most creepy household incidents are likely caused by electrical items (possibly with dangerous faults). The information was revealed just before Halloween after analyzing search trends and finding that searches for “Is my house haunted” had soared 113%. In the case of this kitchen-based incident, a faulty appliance simply glitching is indeed the explanation (minus the danger).