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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be amused rather than freaked out? (Woo!!)

383 replies

Elphame · 30/08/2023 15:10

Ok to get the mundane stuff out of the way

No one but DP and me have been in the house since Friday

We’ve lived here 20 years and are the only ones with keys. All spares are where they should be

We have 2 burglars alarms which we set when we go out. They have not been activated.

We have cctv camera front and rear covering all entrances to the house and garden. The only comings and goings recorded are DP and me.

We have 2 dogs

DP never plays practical jokes.

Now the mystery. My lovely heirloom grandfather clock stopped sometime since Monday night. I can’t say exactly when but I noticed this afternoon and asked DP to wind it.

5 minutes later he came into the kitchen looking rather pale and told me that the clock has stopped as the winding chains are missing. Both of them. They are some 8ft long with heavy weights on the ends and to remove them requires some dismantling of the clock as well as knowing how they are fixed.

They are not on the floor of the clock case. They have quite simply vanished.

We’ve gone from WTAF to freaked out, annoyed and now somewhat amused. Clearly something doesn’t like my clock!

I am totalling unable to come up with a rational explanation for this. There just isn’t one that either of us can come up with

OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
Catpuss66 · 03/10/2023 22:00

Inkpotlover · 31/08/2023 10:47

Is the bottom of the clock hollow? Could the chains have fallen down in there?

Wondered if the weight of them has gone through the floorboards, (bottom of old clocks are usually open from my experience)have you moved the actual clock?

Catsmere · 03/10/2023 22:43

Catpuss66 · 03/10/2023 22:00

Wondered if the weight of them has gone through the floorboards, (bottom of old clocks are usually open from my experience)have you moved the actual clock?

Doubt it - have you read all OP's posts? She included a photo of the clock early on.

Catpuss66 · 04/10/2023 00:05

Catsmere · 03/10/2023 22:43

Doubt it - have you read all OP's posts? She included a photo of the clock early on.

Yes I have read all the other posts , just a suggestion. The picture only shows the backboard of the clock not the bottom.

Catsmere · 04/10/2023 00:25

Catpuss66 · 04/10/2023 00:05

Yes I have read all the other posts , just a suggestion. The picture only shows the backboard of the clock not the bottom.

No worries, also just a suggestion. :)

TheCentreSlide · 04/10/2023 00:56

It really can only be the DP. He hates the chiming (as would I!).

Elphame · 04/10/2023 10:14

@Catpuss66 The clock has no base to the case. The chains (both of them simultaneously) can only drop on to the floor which is flagstone under Karndean. There is nowhere for them to hide in the case.

To all those blaming DP - if that helps you rationalise this then fine. I would stake my life and that of my children on his innocence in this matter. We've been together over 40 years and I know him very well.

OP posts:
pollymere · 04/10/2023 12:04

There is clearly a secret trapdoor underneath your clock 😉...

WildFlowerBees · 04/10/2023 12:19

We used to have keys go 'missing' my mum exasperated used to tell whomever had taken them to put them back and stop playing silly buggers. Keys were returned in odd places. Mum wasn't particularly woo and it never seemed to bother her.

sleepfortheweek · 04/10/2023 13:46

Did the old man die?

That's my only conclusion

SinglePringle4eva · 04/10/2023 13:59

Brilliant!!!!! 😂

Foodieasfuck · 04/10/2023 16:24

Oooo I’ve loved reading this. You should definitely set up a camera if you are going to replace the chains.

medianewbie · 04/10/2023 20:45

Placemarking. I asked my local minister (Church of Scotland) to come to my house (long history, before we came here too) but I was laughed at sadly. 'There are more things in heaven & earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy...'.

Catpuss66 · 05/10/2023 00:02

Elphame · 04/10/2023 10:14

@Catpuss66 The clock has no base to the case. The chains (both of them simultaneously) can only drop on to the floor which is flagstone under Karndean. There is nowhere for them to hide in the case.

To all those blaming DP - if that helps you rationalise this then fine. I would stake my life and that of my children on his innocence in this matter. We've been together over 40 years and I know him very well.

Thanks for clarifying. Cleaner? Broke them took them away to be fixed to be returned before you’d notice?

TrickyD · 05/10/2023 16:59

If the chains turn up, please can you ask them if they have noticed my pink shoes anywhere? I wore them to a meeting last Tuesday, came home in them and they have disappeared. We have a long case clock, maybe they have hopped into that. I will look.

HerRoyalStressHead · 05/10/2023 21:31

Ooooh I love a woo thread I wonder where they could have gone

AndSoFinally · 28/10/2023 15:32

Any update, @Elphame??

WildFlowerBees · 28/10/2023 15:53

Op has gone the same place as those chains, she might be wandering around like Jacob Marley.

Catsmere · 28/10/2023 21:02

WildFlowerBees · 28/10/2023 15:53

Op has gone the same place as those chains, she might be wandering around like Jacob Marley.

😆😆😆

Elphame · 29/10/2023 13:00

No still here!

Nothing exciting to report though. House has been well and truly cleaned up. I haven't had my chains back and I don't expect to as whatever caused the trouble has been removed.

I have more chains though and the clock is happily ticking and chiming as it has for the last 150 years. It's just struck 2 which reminds me I need to put it right!

OP posts:
Papergirl1968 · 29/10/2023 13:04

Now you’ve replaced them, they’re bound to turn up!

Elphame · 29/10/2023 13:09

No I don't think so - whatever took them has gone.

OP posts:
Papergirl1968 · 29/10/2023 13:12

Perhaps they will make a special reappearance for Halloween. How did you get rid of the spirit or poltergeist or whatever it was, out of interest?

LookItsMeAgain · 29/10/2023 13:24

Question for you @Elphame - did you have guests around before they went missing? Do these guests have their own grandfather clock by any chance that was missing chains but miraculously they 'found' theirs???

Could that be it by any chance?

Elphame · 29/10/2023 14:21

@LookItsMeAgain No - no guests in house between last sighting of the chains and their disappearance.

@Papergirl1968 Full banishing rite and cleanse with asafoetida and a few other herbs!

OP posts:
Papergirl1968 · 29/10/2023 16:04

So is there a different, more peaceful atmosphere in the house now?
Sorry to bombard you with questions, just find it fascinating!

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