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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
Surely2023IsTheYearForMyRainbowBaby · 30/08/2023 23:41

sparepantsandtoothbrush · 30/08/2023 18:48

Your neighbour's cat got in, couldn't get out again, got tangled around the chains and then ran off when it smelt crab sticks being thrown through a window. Definitely what happened

😂😂😂

ItstimeToMoveagain · 30/08/2023 23:45

That's weird !

I'm not place marking at all

KissyMissy · 30/08/2023 23:47

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 30/08/2023 23:40

I think DH hates the clock. Probably waking him up

Yep!

Katiemag · 30/08/2023 23:51

And are you really not even the tiniest bit spooked out, OP?

I love these spooky tales, btw

Louise303 · 30/08/2023 23:59

So strange this happened to a friend after major renovations on her house she had lived there since being a little girl. Little things like leaving her bag on a chair and it vanished 5 minutes later.She searched all over and it turned up the next week upstairs. It has to be somewhere in the house if you have cctv could there be a hidden storage space?

darkestnights · 31/08/2023 00:04

I usually hate reading these woo threads before bed 👻 but the crabstick content has made me laugh no end

Fortboyard · 31/08/2023 00:22

Stuff like this has happened at my parents very old house. Stuff is moved. Creaks and footsteps when there’s no one there. Clocks and also jewellery went missing one time and my dad searched high and low for days. No plausible explanation whatsoever. Someone advised him to ask “the spirits” for them back and not long after they did turn up. Jewellery was found in a saucepan that had been used multiple times since jewellery had gone missing and clock was found sitting right in the middle of the floor in attic. The attic had been checked multiple times and if it had been there it would have tripped you up. I’m actually quite cynical but even I can’t find any sort of an explanation it freaked my. Mum and dad right out. I’d recommend you try asking politely for it to be returned or maybe not if you’d prefer it to stay a (slightly less spooky) mystery.

Someoneonlyyouknow · 31/08/2023 00:33

I hope it's the white cat. Being a cynical non-spiritual person I suggest sleepwalking by either OP or her husband.

BlindMedusa · 31/08/2023 00:38

Striking at 2am for sure the last time ... and 3am is the witching hour 🫣 I've now got visions of the ghost wrapped in the clock chains like Statler and Waldorf the two old men in the Muppets in Muppets Christmas Carol. Lets hope they also do a musical number them pesky ghosts!

Silvers11 · 31/08/2023 00:40

sparepantsandtoothbrush · 30/08/2023 18:48

Your neighbour's cat got in, couldn't get out again, got tangled around the chains and then ran off when it smelt crab sticks being thrown through a window. Definitely what happened

LoL!!! Love it.....😂😂😂 We read the same threads then.....😂

coxesorangepippin · 31/08/2023 01:21

Come on now op, time's marching on, what's the conclusion?

mightymam · 31/08/2023 01:53

sparepantsandtoothbrush · 30/08/2023 18:48

Your neighbour's cat got in, couldn't get out again, got tangled around the chains and then ran off when it smelt crab sticks being thrown through a window. Definitely what happened

Genuinely lol'd at this!

HeatherMoores · 31/08/2023 01:55

Are you absolutely sure the chains were in there?

I know they are needed for the clock to work but could the old mechanism have been replaced by something else during the last service? Whatever that newer mechanism is, it has come to a stop and there were no chains in there as they weren’t needed by this alternative newer mechanism?

When did you last actually see the chains in there yourself?

truthhurts23 · 31/08/2023 02:07

i dont know about clocks but could they not have fallen inside the clock ?

fabmaccawhackythumbsaloft · 31/08/2023 02:07

What was the other inexplicable thing besides this and the lampshade?

Furries · 31/08/2023 02:10

fabmaccawhackythumbsaloft · 31/08/2023 02:07

What was the other inexplicable thing besides this and the lampshade?

The material for the draught excluder.

Furries · 31/08/2023 02:10

Draught - stupid bloody iPad.

Furries · 31/08/2023 02:11

Forgot about the shiny new edit function - stupid bloody Furries 🤣

Catsmere · 31/08/2023 02:16

Zonder · 30/08/2023 23:37

Well you clearly have a ghost in your house who liked the fabric you were going to use, objected to your taste in lampshades, and got fed up of that blinking clock.

This is what I'm going with!

nettie434 · 31/08/2023 02:29

Zonder · 30/08/2023 23:37

Well you clearly have a ghost in your house who liked the fabric you were going to use, objected to your taste in lampshades, and got fed up of that blinking clock.

Maybe it's a very fussy Georgian ghost who wants everything to be the right period. It doesn't like your 19th century grandfather clock. The draught excluder fabric was not linen. The light fittings shouldn't even be there. You should creep about with candles.

@sparepantsandtoothbrush I also loved the cat and crabsticks explanation.

PeachCastle · 31/08/2023 03:07

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 30/08/2023 22:49

Loving your work 😁

OP is pulling our chain.....

shitt · 31/08/2023 03:20

From a logical perspective, only a few scenarios are possible. They include things you have already ruled out.

it could be that either you or your husband did it and don’t remember

it could be that your husband did it and is covering it up

it could be that the chains went missing before you assume they did, so your CCTV isn’t covering the right time period and a 3rd party did it

it could be your memory isn’t accurate on some of the details because checking the chains isn’t something you do routinely or keep a record of

it could be the clock froze at a certain time, but that isn’t the time the chains were removed

it could be that the clock stopped working before Monday

etc

Redrunnynose · 31/08/2023 04:52

Could somebody have got into the house from the loft ?

RantyAnty · 31/08/2023 05:09

The timeline makes sense. You were given it a couple of months ago so it's not like it's been in the house for years. It was serviced in June.

My guess is that your DP hates the thing going off every hour 247 and he removed them. He knew it was in your family a long time but didn't want to hurt your feelings.

My DSis has a westminster chime clock that goes off on the quarter hour and the thing gets annoying.

husbandcallsmepickle · 31/08/2023 05:12

There are a lot of PP who sound like they don't know what the insides of a grandfather clock look like or how they work.
These are big heavy weights and there's nowhere in the case for them to disappear into.