After spotting a 'stain' on a customer's carpet, cleaner Karen Royle set about trying to get rid of the mark, using special carpet cleaner and plenty of elbow grease to scrub at the floor. The 59-year-old, from Formby, Merseyside, thought she'd managed to get rid of the mark and carried on cleaning the rest of the house. But a little while later she was left baffled when she returned to the same spot on the landing, only to find it had reappeared.
The mum-of-four spent another five minutes trying to remove the blue stain, but was left feeling 'mortified' when the customer caught her and explained why she was making a mistake.
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The homeowner pointed out that the stain was actually a reflection.
Behind Karen, was a stained-glass window and the sun shining through it had caused the six blue marks on the landing. The cleaner's shadow had blocked out the light earlier, making her think the mark was gone.
Karen said: "I cleaned the downstairs like I always do, I went upstairs, made the bed, went to the landing to grab the hoover and I thought 'what are those stains?'.
"I got down on my hands and knees and started scrubbing them with my hands. I sound so stupid. They weren't coming off.
"The gentleman works from home and I didn't want to disturb him so I went to get some foam carpet cleaner and sprayed it, left it for a bit and started scrubbing.
"I was leaning over it and my shadow made it disappear but I got up and thought 's**t, it's still there'.
"I got down and started scrubbing it again. This went on for five minutes."
She continued: "Then the gentleman came out of the bathroom and said 'what are you doing Karen?' I felt like I was on Downton Abbey.
"I told him there was a stain and he was squinting and looking at me all confused and I was pointing.
"His face changed and he said 'are you being serious?' then I was confused. I said 'look, there's six dots' and he looked up at the window and I looked up at the window and it was just as I saw the square of blue triangles and the sun shining through that I realised what was happening.
"He shook his head and left me to my embarrassment because I'm known for doing stupid things.
"I'm like a bull in a China shop something, I'm known for doing stupid things.
"It's five minutes I'll never get back in my life."
Despite cleaning the house once a week for six years, Karen says she's never noticed the window before which is high up on the landing wall.
Karen added: "I've worked there for six years so I am quite familiar with the house, which is bizarre.
"I just thought maybe something had been spilt. It looked like a blue dye or stain.
"I don't know what I thought it was then I thought they might have spilt some bleach.
"I've no idea how I've never noticed it, maybe the sun didn't shine how it was when I saw the stain.
"It sounds really silly, I must have noticed it after six years but I hadn't. It's quite high up and I'm only five foot."
Karen has been running her cleaning business for 19 years and says she's well known among her customers for being clumsy.
Karen joked: "It's a wonder half of them still employ me. One bloke said to me the other day if he deducted everything I'd broken I'd owe him money.
"I can't help it, it's just how I am. When I told people about the stain, they just said 'it's typical Karen'.
"Someone once described me as a female Norman Wisdom."
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