Page 9 | To be amused rather than freaked out? (Woo!!)

Elphame · 2023-08-30T14:10:59+00:00

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

ShortColdandGrey · 31/08/2023 13:05

You need to say out loud to the house faeries that you want them to bring them back 🙂

BashCandicoot · 31/08/2023 13:05

Despite being a total skeptic I’m riveted by this thread 😂

LetMeGoogleThat · 31/08/2023 13:05

I live in a house like yours, stuff is often going missing/ moving and odd things happen. It's one of 6 old cottages (1880's) and my neighbour has similar stories. After 15 years, I just accept it as I don't actually feel scared...just a bit WTF. But, activity always ramps up when things are changing, new furniture and for some reason any decoration. I had a carpenter fitting a kitchen years ago, who was terrified after a walking stick that he found behind a cupboard kept coming back in from the skip, he only told me after it happened 3 times.

Purplefoxes · 31/08/2023 13:25

Notaboutthebass · 31/08/2023 12:44

Your DH is having you on!

Yep...where have we seen this before..."1944 American film Gaslight, where a husband's extreme psychological manipulation was used to brainwash a his wife into believing she had a mental illness, so she could be committed to a psychiatric institution. Making way for his affair partner. The very reason we call it 'gas lighting'. Or in your case it's clockchain stealing...

MsFannySqueers · 31/08/2023 13:33

Yes@Sgtmajormummy I also agree with you and PP’s. It’s disapproving spirits. I live in a house (it’s not that old) that is very fussy about what is brought into it and where it is placed. I may have told this story on here before. In one room is a blocked up doorway. I now know that nothing must be placed in front of the blocked up doorway. I had a bureau there. Then lots of things went missing from it. I never found them. If I placed a vase of flowers on the bureau the flowers were completely dead within 24 hours. I now just have a blank wall space there. Oh and the replacement door next to it has to be kept open at all times. I also love the PP’s postman who doesn’t trigger the ring doorbell he must be a ghost 👻 postman!

Original poster

Elphame · 31/08/2023 13:33

Alondra · 31/08/2023 11:37

This. If the winding chains are not are the bottom of the clock, someone has taken them. Who has taken them out is the question you need to investigate.

Show quote history

Who and how though?

No one has been in the house since late last week and it is definitely not me nor is it DP. I would stake my life on that one.

If it's a brain tumour then we both have one in exactly the same place and yes we have a carbon monoxide detector and our gas boiler is serviced regularly. It's also located in the garage (which has no connecting doors or windows to the house) so even if it did give off carbon monoxide I don't see much getting through 18" thick stone walls.

Our security systems are very robust and anyone in either the front or back gardens would have been recorded on at least 2 cameras. There is no way they wouldn't. And why would anyone steal the chains from inside the clock? They are of no use to anyone unless you have a very tall long case clock.

They'd also need to open the case door to unhook the weights, stand on a chair, remove the hood of the clock, unhook the chains from the cog mechanism somehow and I'm not sure if you can do this without removing the clock mechanism completely from the case. They'd then need to reassemble the clock. Do you seriously think that they could do all this unnoticed?

This is truly inexplicable. There is no logical explanation. I do find the blind clutching at straws here almost more amusing than my missing chains. Having googled the cost of replacements though my amusement is fading fast!

OP posts:

MysteryBelle · 31/08/2023 13:37

Did the exploding light shade happen recently, Op?

WillSheBeMyLast · 31/08/2023 13:38

OMFG!!! I'm sure nobody will believe this but I'm going to tell it anyway. So last night I couldn't sleep and was scrolling through Mumsnet (probably why I couldn't sleep) and found this thread.

My headphones have been missing for 4-5 days and although I often forget where I've put them they've never been missing for more than a day or so and I was worried one of the kids (2yr old) had put them in the bin. It was bin day today so I had to put on my big girl pants and go through the non recycling bin last night. No sign of the headphones. I've cleaned the lounge with a fine tooth comb and gone through all the kitchen cupboards. Checked all the usual places and asked everyone in the house but no joy.

After reading this thread last night I decided to try asking the house for my headphones as a pp had said to. So I went all around the house asking 'please can I have my headphones back' then went out.

When we came back DD shouts out 'Mum I've found your headphones!!!!'. I asked where and she said down the side of the couch where I had already looked about 10 times. I don't know how but it worked!! So thanks for the advice woo people!!!

Herethere123 · 31/08/2023 13:39

I suspect the local clock repair person. Especially if they were the person to service the clock in June.

Alondra · 31/08/2023 13:43

Elphame · 31/08/2023 13:33

Who and how though?

No one has been in the house since late last week and it is definitely not me nor is it DP. I would stake my life on that one.

If it's a brain tumour then we both have one in exactly the same place and yes we have a carbon monoxide detector and our gas boiler is serviced regularly. It's also located in the garage (which has no connecting doors or windows to the house) so even if it did give off carbon monoxide I don't see much getting through 18" thick stone walls.

Our security systems are very robust and anyone in either the front or back gardens would have been recorded on at least 2 cameras. There is no way they wouldn't. And why would anyone steal the chains from inside the clock? They are of no use to anyone unless you have a very tall long case clock.

They'd also need to open the case door to unhook the weights, stand on a chair, remove the hood of the clock, unhook the chains from the cog mechanism somehow and I'm not sure if you can do this without removing the clock mechanism completely from the case. They'd then need to reassemble the clock. Do you seriously think that they could do all this unnoticed?

This is truly inexplicable. There is no logical explanation. I do find the blind clutching at straws here almost more amusing than my missing chains. Having googled the cost of replacements though my amusement is fading fast!

Show quote history

I've read all the input you've given to the thread but someone had to take the winding chains out of the clock. Forget ghosts, forget brain tumours, there is a logical explanation you still can see it

Alondra · 31/08/2023 13:44

can't see it.

Alondra · 31/08/2023 13:49

My advice at this point? Try not to think about it or dwelling on it. It's happened, you don't understand how or why it happened, but it did.

Give it time to settle out of your mind. Maybe the future will bring answers.

RagzRebooted · 31/08/2023 13:53

I'm probably too gullible, but I have experienced (much smaller) objects appear or dissappear without reasonable explanation and I believe PPs who have had the same.
Totally believe it's some kind of woo (spirits, dimension shift, something quantum?). However, also prepared to find out OP is just a really good storyteller! Either way, enjoyed this thread as bedtime reading last night.

KittyKingdom · 31/08/2023 14:03

Have you wound the clock since your last service. If not I would be taking the face off to check if batteries have been added and the clock gutted.

MsCactus · 31/08/2023 14:08

Elphame · 31/08/2023 13:33

Who and how though?

No one has been in the house since late last week and it is definitely not me nor is it DP. I would stake my life on that one.

If it's a brain tumour then we both have one in exactly the same place and yes we have a carbon monoxide detector and our gas boiler is serviced regularly. It's also located in the garage (which has no connecting doors or windows to the house) so even if it did give off carbon monoxide I don't see much getting through 18" thick stone walls.

Our security systems are very robust and anyone in either the front or back gardens would have been recorded on at least 2 cameras. There is no way they wouldn't. And why would anyone steal the chains from inside the clock? They are of no use to anyone unless you have a very tall long case clock.

They'd also need to open the case door to unhook the weights, stand on a chair, remove the hood of the clock, unhook the chains from the cog mechanism somehow and I'm not sure if you can do this without removing the clock mechanism completely from the case. They'd then need to reassemble the clock. Do you seriously think that they could do all this unnoticed?

This is truly inexplicable. There is no logical explanation. I do find the blind clutching at straws here almost more amusing than my missing chains. Having googled the cost of replacements though my amusement is fading fast!

Show quote history

Could it be an animal? My parents found lots of things going missing in their big, old house - my Dad laid a humane trap and it was a genuinely massive rat who lived outside and wandered in to take things. Some animals would definitely take fabric

Just a thought... As a lot of your stories seem to be "things going missing" related

Conkersinautumn · 31/08/2023 14:13

False base with a secret storage compartment. The weight fell after all the extra tweaking your dh has done and the chains have got snagged into the gears

ifIwerenotanandroid · 31/08/2023 14:25

MsCactus · 31/08/2023 14:08

Could it be an animal? My parents found lots of things going missing in their big, old house - my Dad laid a humane trap and it was a genuinely massive rat who lived outside and wandered in to take things. Some animals would definitely take fabric

Just a thought... As a lot of your stories seem to be "things going missing" related

Show quote history

I'm now getting an image of a massive rat wearing black high heeled shoes...

ifIwerenotanandroid · 31/08/2023 14:26

... & bringing them back when it had worn them out!

HeatherMoores · 31/08/2023 14:30

This is truly inexplicable. There is no logical explanation.

When did you personally last see the chains in the clock?

BrassyLocks · 31/08/2023 14:35

Someone living in your attic? 😱

Twistedsister808 · 31/08/2023 14:35

😂🤣@ifIwerenotanandroid

fruitsalad87 · 31/08/2023 14:36

OP this is truly terrifying. I have absolutely no rational explanation but I really want you to find one!

Original poster

Elphame · 31/08/2023 14:37

HeatherMoores · 31/08/2023 14:30

This is truly inexplicable. There is no logical explanation.

When did you personally last see the chains in the clock?

A week last Monday. It's an 8 day movement and we wind it on Mondays generally.

However, as other posters have confirmed, this type of clock doesn't work without its chains so I don't need to see them to know they are there.

OP posts:

TheClitterati · 31/08/2023 14:40

I don't know how but its got to be the cat.

AriannasGuitarCase · 31/08/2023 14:41

In that case DP has the same brain tumour!

Have you not been in the house without him at all since the clock stopped?