Couple convert home for Halloween

Take a tour of the Mobbs' wickedly wonderful creation

A couple from Leicestershire have spent £1,500 converting their home into a haunted mansion for Halloween.

This is the tenth year Goff and Babs Mobbs, both 66, have transformed their garage into a ghoulish grotto.

Hundreds of trick or treaters are drawn to the haunted house in on Liberty Road in Glenfield, which for 2009 includes a life-sized creepy butler waiting to greet brave visitors in.

Goff says they have had a very positive response from the local community.

Passing cars regular stop outside the house, and complete strangers knock on the door requesting to look around.

Local busses are known to slow down to give passengers a clear view of the spectacular spooky sight, and Goff says they have even been visited by an ambulance driver.

"I don't think it was actually on an emergency call!

The children love it... they want to press all the things and hear the spooky sounds Goff Mobb has a Halloween house

"He pulled up and he got out of his ambulance and I thought, 'Oh, somebody's sick', but he just came over and said, 'Can I take a picture?'."

The eclectic collection of monsters and ghosts all have their own distinct gruesome actions and sounds, triggered by either pressing buttons or motion detection.

Goff and Babs add to the atmosphere by dressing up, and using a smoke machine to pump an eerie mist over proceedings.

"The children love it. First of all they come in and they're a little bit tentative, but within five minutes they're wanting to press all the things and hear the spooky sounds."

Goff and Babs started the annual tradition 1999 when they bought a couple of spooky delights to entertain their three grandchildren.

Every year they add a couple more features to the collection, and the result has captured the imagination of local youngsters.

The grotto proved so popular last year that the couple had to limit the number of children going in, and the door had to be propped wide open to allow for the steady stream of trick and treaters.