I don’t believe in eavesdropping, but then again, I have never overheard a conversation quite like this one. If you were to try and fabricate a story like this, I think you would struggle.

The story was being told by a middle-aged, single mother to her friend, and concerned the escapades of her fifteen year old Down Syndrome son - whilst she had popped out one day to shop for groceries.

She had decided to leave him alone in the house, because she felt he was now old and mature enough to be unsupervised and to look after himself.

After lugging a shopping trolley around for an hour or so, she received a phone call. It was from her son who sounded very worked up, but whom she had told to call, if anything was to go wrong.

He informed his mother that he had captured none other than a dwarf in their house (looks up from book). You can imagine her response, or anyone else’s for that matter.

After minutes of her trying to convince him otherwise, he was adamant that she was to rush home as quickly as possible. She spoke to her friend of how her son has a very vivid imagination, and how sometimes, he lets it run wild to the point that it deceives him. The mother, however, had no choice but to dash back, leaving her weekly shop behind.

When she arrived back at the house, she was immediately greeted by her son at the front door, who still seemed very excited about what he believed to be happening. She wasn’t sold.

She entered the house to prove to him that there was nobody else inside. After her thoroughly checking throughout and her finding no one, she was surprised to see that her son still seemed rattled about something.

He pointed out that she had forgotten to look in the closet underneath the stairs, and that that was where he had trapped the dwarf (not even reading my book anymore). She thought he was completely delusional and tried her best to calm him down. She explained how he can get very excited about trivial things.

It was at this point that the mother heard something. What sounded like a muffled cry for help was coming from beneath the stairs. She immediately gave her son a questionable, yet worried look, but he had never looked happier. This was a triumphant day for him. He thought he had captured a dwarf, so nothing else mattered.

She tried her best to comprehend the situation but could not find a clear explanation for what was happening. The noise couldn’t be that of a cat. She had no pets. She must have prayed to God that she had a rat infestation.

But the noise was no longer muffled. It was as clear as day. It was the sound of a hostage situation taking place right under her roof.

When the noise started to escalate and you could hear loud banging on the closet door, she knew she had no option but to open it.

A man crawled out. He was professionally dressed in shirt, tie and trousers; was effing and blinding...and couldn’t have been much more than a mere 4-foot tall. The son was jumping for joy and the mother was flabbergasted.

It turns out that the vertically impaired victim was nothing more than a door-2-door salesman, who was merely trying to flog double glazing in the area that day. It just turned out that his height was his downfall. He had clearly tried to sell to the wrong household.

The mother on the train explained how the salesman was so incredibly furious, that he had threatened to sue the mother for the trauma he had suffered.

Unfortunately, it was at this point in the conversation, that the mother and her friend left the carriage, leaving me to the most mind-numbing of books to continue reading. I’ve never wanted to listen to the end of a story more in my life.

Did he take the mother and her Down Syndrome son to court? Is he still selling double glazing?

I would love to have seen that court case. If anything happened, other than a courtroom full of jurors, clerks and the judge rolling around on the floor in stitches, I would be shocked - because that was certainly my reaction.

I’m going to eavesdrop more often.