TAKING A NEW LOOK @ LIFE

IN THE EVENING ARGUS JANUARY 2000

TAKING A NEW LOOK @ LIFE
THE Internet revolution has transformed the world of business and commerce. But, as LAURA ELSTON reports, it has also helped change the life of a man from Sussex.

Internet tradesman Keith Tagliaferro failed to realise when he used the web to transform his business it would let loose an evil force which had been lurking in his garage.
Keith runs a website from his home in Eastbourne where he operates a business buying and selling number plates.

His car may just look like a battered purple Ford Capri to the unsuspecting but the Devil Car with its ARK 666Y number plate is being blamed for a reign of terror.
And when he launched his site for ARK 666Y in April last year, at www.beachyhead.freeserve.co.uk, Beachy Head suffered its biggest cliff fall to date, six bombs were washed ashore and the lighthouse stopped working.
For Keith this was enough to verify the bizarre and spooky events which had plagued him and his friends since the car came into his possession back in 1997 - including being hit by lightning.
He explained how a man first asked him to buy the Capri in 1996 because "his neighbours didn't like it because it was bringing bad luck" but they didn't finalise the £150 deal until early the next year.
He said: "He drove it down from Chatham and there was a huge snowstorm but when I met him he left as quickly as he arrived.
"But then I asked my driver to take it to the garage and he refused, so I drove it to a mechanic and he wouldn't work on it because of the number plate.
"Eventually I got another mechanic to work on it and to this day he swears he heard a woman's voice in it and another friend I have known for 25 years got in the car and swears blind she saw a lady's face in the back of the car and ran off up the road."
He added: "At this point I contacted the high priest of British Witches to explain to me exactly what significance ARK 666Y had. He explained that ARK comes from the bible and 666 comes from the 'beast'."
But from then on things only got worse - Keith and his friend were struck by lightning and the brakes on the car caught fire without explanation.
And when Keith moved the Capri to a different lock-up garage, a shed only 20 yards away burnt to the ground - after setting fire to the roof of the block of garages the car was in.
He said: "At first I didn't believe all the superstition and thought it was a bit silly, but so many things have happened now. People do have bad luck when they come into contact with the car."

His website now has a whole section devoted to the car and its antics, but just to avoid the backlash affecting his business he plans to separate ARK 666Y in its own site - to protect his clients.

Keith's story is soon to be featured in the new series of Meridian's Cyber Cafe.
Presented by Richard Orford and Claire Anderson, it begins on January 24.