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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
barelyfunctional · 30/08/2023 21:44

Doublebubblegum · 30/08/2023 21:40

Also...it can't have stopped on Monday night, if you heard it on Tuesday at 2am.

Unless you mean Tuesday last week?? In which case it could have been out of action since then.

I would class 2am Tuesday as ‘Monday night’

Butteredtoast55 · 30/08/2023 21:45

Checking the time it stopped is an excellent idea.

Fordian · 30/08/2023 21:48

GasPanic · 30/08/2023 19:15

How much do they cost to replace, are we talking thousands or tens of thousands ?

No, they aren't valuable of themselves.

Getting them fixed can cost as it's niche.

My dad retired at 58 (🤔) and used his payout to set himself up as a clock and watch repairer.

He (to mum's annoyance) only ever charged parts and minimal labour. He would have charged to OP £40 to sort the clock out, tops. But £1000 to cleanse the house if it's vengeful spirit. 😂

Elphame · 30/08/2023 21:48

Just been to look! The clock stopped at 6.23.

That could be early Tuesday morning, Tuesday evening or early this morning. Not a very woo time sadly! I suspect it was yesterday morning as I don't recall hearing the clock yesterday but honestly the brain filters it out as background noise very effectively so I can't be sure.

The dogs would have gone mad if they heard anyone in the house at that time in the morning and I was around and about yesterday evening preparing to go out around 7pm so there was definitely no one here as I would have seen and heard them.

I've checked all 4 cameras at that time morning and evening and there is nothing.

The clock would have stopped as soon as the chains went. They drive the mechanism in a long case clock and it won't work without them.

I know they are too big to just disappear but disappear they have! A lot of things do go missing here regularly and I'm really not that careless, but it is faintly possible I could have moved them myself although I know that I haven't. This is about the 3rd completely inexplicable event.

A major riot act has been read and I've threatened the house with a full exorcism if the chains are not returned pdq!

OP posts:
Fordian · 30/08/2023 21:51

For those asking, removing the chains (and presumably weights) would stop such a clock immediately.

Doublebubblegum · 30/08/2023 21:53

Were you both in the house at 6.23 am Tuesday, 6.23pm Tuesday, 6.23am today?

If you're certain it wasn't you, and your DH was home, it must be him trying to have a joke?!?

Fordian · 30/08/2023 21:54

@Elphame What if the chains reappear, fully installed, tomorrow? Or on the middle of the kitchen table? 🤔😬

Tulipvase · 30/08/2023 21:55

We need Sherlock to figure it out. Please bring Sherlock back.

NotSureYet86 · 30/08/2023 21:58

What were the first 2 inexplicable events before the clock?

BatsHatIsWonky · 30/08/2023 22:00

As much as I'm enjoying this tale ... you're pulling our leg aren't you OP?!

WineIsAFruitRight · 30/08/2023 22:00

NotSureYet86 · 30/08/2023 21:58

What were the first 2 inexplicable events before the clock?

☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻 this. Please share!

Tulipvase · 30/08/2023 22:03

We live in a row of 5 1860’s ish cottages. We moved in a couple of years ago and our neighbour who has been here for 50 ish years says things often go missing and then reappear in their house. Not as big as those chains, granted.

ballsdeep · 30/08/2023 22:06

Garihairy · 30/08/2023 18:52

😅

i Wonder if there’ll be a £1600 charge ?! 😂

tunainatin · 30/08/2023 22:10

Please can we have details of the other 2 inexplicable events?

smashburger · 30/08/2023 22:10

Please let us know when they reappear

justasking111 · 30/08/2023 22:12

The dogs hid them

Tilllly · 30/08/2023 22:12

Get a clock expert in

There's a rational explanation
There must be

AngelinaFibres · 30/08/2023 22:14

When you go to bed ask nicely,and out loud, for the chains to be put back. They'll probably be back in place by the morning. My friend has a house where things disappear all the time. Latest one was a favourite earring. She put the one she had left on the bedside table and asked out loud for the other one to be returned. In the morning it was there.Shes a widow who lives alone.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 30/08/2023 22:18

Marking my place!

Iamacatslave · 30/08/2023 22:20

This has to be a wind up.

RuffledKestrel · 30/08/2023 22:21

Could the chains have snapped? I noticed you said the bottom of the clock is open. Is there a chance the chains have snapped, fell or dangled out the bottom and a dog has gotten it?

Yoghurtpotsatdawn · 30/08/2023 22:24

I was going to suggest one of you was sleep walking but if you have cameras and know the time the clock stopped that rules that out so I’m stumped. Very very weird . I don’t believe in woo but I can’t think of an explanation

Hobbes8 · 30/08/2023 22:27

Did the old man die? If so the grandfather clock would have stopped short, never to go again. That’s just a fact.

Missingthegore · 30/08/2023 22:36

We will require an update once the clock person has visited.

If anyone knows where my travel card and spirit level is that would be great to know. I live on my own and they have vanished from inside the house

QueSyrahSyrah · 30/08/2023 22:36

Craftycorvid · 30/08/2023 21:06

I am shamelessly place marking a great woo thread.

Same. When I was a kid we had a lot of inexplicable things go missing and then reappear. The back door keys once went missing (we always kept them in the lock on the inside of the door). Three weeks, no sign, then they turned up inside the tape deck in the stereo. We'd played several tapes in the intervening 3 weeks 🤷🏻‍♀️