Households alerted after doorbell goes off repeatedly late at night and culprit stuns locals

Residents of a block of flats in Germanywere left baffled when their doorbells kept ringing in the early hours, with the eventual culprit leaving people stunned.

Initially, they suspected they were victims of a 'klingelstreich' - a prank popular among German youths where they ring a doorbell and run away, similar to the British prank game 'knock knock ginger'.

However, the mystery was solved when police discovered that a slug had been sliding up and down the bell plate, triggering the sensors and causing the doorbells to ring repeatedly.

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Lisa, 30, a resident of the building, spoke to German publication Bild about the bizarre incident. She said: "We'd gone to bed...but we don't tend to answer the door after 10pm, so when the bell rang, I tried to ignore it."

She added: "I thought it might be the kids from over the road. But then my sister-in-law, who lives upstairs, called and asked if our bell was ringing, as hers wouldn't stop."

After identifying the slug as the culprit, a police spokesperson revealed that it had been "taught about its territory boundaries and placed on a nearby stretch of grass", reports the Manchester Evening News.

Meanwhile, Lisa noted that upon closer inspection she could "see the slime trail" the slug had made "as it crawled over the sensors".

This isn't the first time householdershave been cautioned about the interaction of animals with doorbells. Often it can be doorbell affecting an animal rather than the other way around.

One such example is a dogbeing triggered by the ringing of a doorbell, a sound that can sometimes trigger barking.

Animal charity Blue Cross has given some advice to owners to help desensitise their hounds to the everyday sound, reports the Express.

The charity said: "To tackle the problem of barking, you must understand what is causing your dog to bark. From there it will be much easier to come up with a training plan.

"Record sounds that trigger the barking, like the doorbell, and play these back to your dog.

"Start very quietly at first, and gradually increase the volume while rewarding them with food if they don't bark. This is a process known as desensitising or counter conditioning."