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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Very minor strangeness really but it has us puzzled ...

In the bookshop where I work our current best-selling book is "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" by Charlie Mackesy. By the late
afternoon there was only one copy left on the main single title table but our computer system said two in stock. My colleague and I looked everywhere for the second copy but no luck - we concluded the in-stock figure was a computer error. Then, Sam turned to me and said "Oh you found it then" and pointed to the table which now had 2 copies. Of course I hadn't found it and Sam was astonished as she hadn't either. (I should point out Sam is an old and trustworthy friend who has no interest in practical jokes).

We concluded a customer must have overheard us talking about it, found the book and quietly put it on the table. Except that just doesn't happen. It really doesn't! And it had been put back with great precision, lined up with the other copy to the millimetre. There should be CCTV footage available so we'll have to take a look when we can.

Ghosts aside, this is a brilliant book. I suggest everyone buy it for someone (or themselves) as a treat. It's something special.
 
Very minor strangeness really but it has us puzzled ...

In the bookshop where I work our current best-selling book is "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" by Charlie Mackesy. By the late
afternoon there was only one copy left on the main single title table but our computer system said two in stock. My colleague and I looked everywhere for the second copy but no luck - we concluded the in-stock figure was a computer error. Then, Sam turned to me and said "Oh you found it then" and pointed to the table which now had 2 copies. Of course I hadn't found it and Sam was astonished as she hadn't either. (I should point out Sam is an old and trustworthy friend who has no interest in practical jokes).

We concluded a customer must have overheard us talking about it, found the book and quietly put it on the table. Except that just doesn't happen. It really doesn't! And it had been put back with great precision, lined up with the other copy to the millimetre. There should be CCTV footage available so we'll have to take a look when we can.
Be interesting to learn/see what appears on the footage! In my experience earlier today,

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/minor-strangeness.28407/post-1911196

the power cord that would have had to have been yanked from its socket was within eyeshot, and the manipulation of the cord required to get it into the looped position in which I found it (and to which it is always returned after I unplug it from the device), would surely have been noticed had there been any gradual movement from one position to the other. It had to have been instantaneous.
 
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Be interesting to learn/see what appears on the footage! In my experience earlier today,

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/minor-strangeness.28407/post-1911196

the power cord that would have had to have been yanked from its socket was within eyeshot, and the manipulation of the cord required to get it into the looped position in which I found it (and to which it is always returned after I unplug it from the device), would surely have been noticed had there been any gradual movement from one position to the other. It had to have been instantaneous.
nest of cables, photo ?
 
nest of cables, photo ?
Sorry, I have no capture device. It's not a nest, really, just the one cable that I loop around the modem antenna (which stands vertically behind my monitor) when I shut everything down at night. To get it back into that position, though (which is where I found it as soon as I saw it that it was unplugged from the modem) -- if it had been a gradual movement of the cord from the modem back to its unplugged resting position -- the black cord's movement would have stood out against the creamy wall which forms its visual background (only a few feet from my eyes). If it was instantaneous (which it had to be), it would have been much easier to miss, since there would have been almost no movement to perceive, just one position replaced by another one in the blink of an eye...
 
I have two identical car keys for my car, on two separate fobs. Now I know I had both these fobs on me around two weeks ago, because I had to change the batteries in both keys, and did it at work, one afternoon.

The keys live on the side in my kitchen. I pick up whichever key is closest to hand. On Monday I became aware that there was only one key. No problem, I must have put the other key in the pocket of what I was wearing at the weekend. Didn't really need to look for the other key, one is enough.

This morning I put on a pair of jeans I haven't worn for a fortnight. And the other key was in the pocket. Now, I realise that I've probably been only using one key for longer than I think, they are identical after all. But I last wore these jeans BEFORE I changed the batteries in the keys. And I marked the key fobs when I changed the batteries (to make sure I didn't just change the same one twice) and neither of these fobs have any mark on (I used a fluorescent pen, it probably wore off).
 
I have two identical car keys for my car, on two separate fobs. Now I know I had both these fobs on me around two weeks ago, because I had to change the batteries in both keys, and did it at work, one afternoon.

The keys live on the side in my kitchen. I pick up whichever key is closest to hand. On Monday I became aware that there was only one key. No problem, I must have put the other key in the pocket of what I was wearing at the weekend. Didn't really need to look for the other key, one is enough.

This morning I put on a pair of jeans I haven't worn for a fortnight. And the other key was in the pocket. Now, I realise that I've probably been only using one key for longer than I think, they are identical after all. But I last wore these jeans BEFORE I changed the batteries in the keys. And I marked the key fobs when I changed the batteries (to make sure I didn't just change the same one twice) and neither of these fobs have any mark on (I used a fluorescent pen, it probably wore off).
My car keys have a habit of wandering about the place too.
 
I mislaid my car keys, couldn't find them anywhere, so used the spare set for a week. Parked up at Tesco and as I was walking away some-one kindly pointed out a bunch of keys hanging from the boot lock.

The amazing part of that is not that the car keys were still there, but that the car itself was.
 
I mislaid my car keys, couldn't find them anywhere, so used the spare set for a week. Parked up at Tesco and as I was walking away some-one kindly pointed out a bunch of keys hanging from the boot lock.

I used to do that! Once spent a good, ooh, 40 minutes searching for them. Eventually slammed the car boot in a temper and there they were! The worst thing was that I did the exact thing AGAIN a while later.
 
I have two identical car keys for my car, on two separate fobs. Now I know I had both these fobs on me around two weeks ago, because I had to change the batteries in both keys, and did it at work, one afternoon.

The keys live on the side in my kitchen. I pick up whichever key is closest to hand. On Monday I became aware that there was only one key. No problem, I must have put the other key in the pocket of what I was wearing at the weekend. Didn't really need to look for the other key, one is enough.

This morning I put on a pair of jeans I haven't worn for a fortnight. And the other key was in the pocket. Now, I realise that I've probably been only using one key for longer than I think, they are identical after all. But I last wore these jeans BEFORE I changed the batteries in the keys. And I marked the key fobs when I changed the batteries (to make sure I didn't just change the same one twice) and neither of these fobs have any mark on (I used a fluorescent pen, it probably wore off).

Could anyone have "borrowed" the fob and then returned it but got it in the wrong set of jeans?

On a different track, I didn't know that fobs required batteries (a silly lack of thinking on my part). Say the battery dies in an emergency, and no new batteries are available—what then?
 
My cork board fell off the wall in the middle of the night. I heard the crash but didn’t check it out until the morning. The odd thing I found was that the board was not flat on the floor as I’d expected - but leant up against a cupboard halfway across the room. So it had somehow fallen vertically and landed on its side six feet away without falling over. I’m still a bit baffled by it!

The board fell off the wall naturally but the poltergeist moved it out of harms way, obviously!
 
Looped around your handle bars?

Naaah, I last used it when I went out on Sunday. Techy let me back in so I believe I must've tipped it out of my rucksack while looking for something and I've left it behind. It should be safe.

The rucksack is new*, posh, but has a couple of features I don't like AND has no internal clip for keys. All my bags have that even if I need to install it myself. In fact I'm off to do that right now.

*to me anyway
 
Could anyone have "borrowed" the fob and then returned it but got it in the wrong set of jeans?

On a different track, I didn't know that fobs required batteries (a silly lack of thinking on my part). Say the battery dies in an emergency, and no new batteries are available—what then?
No one to borrow them, I live with my dog and she can't drive.

If the battery dies (I can speak with authority on this, because it happened to me in the work car park, hence the changing of the batteries), there is a keyhole located under a plastic cover on one door. You lever off the plastic cover and unlock the car the old fashioned way, with the actual key.
 
Another strange little experience this week. Out on the congested roads in the grim north of the UK, I had to stop at a red light on a pedestrian crossing, cursing slightly because there was literally no one around to cross. This crossing is set on a busy but straight road with a wide pavement which is 6 or 7 meters wide with a clear view of the wide corner of the road junction, the pavement on both sides ahead and the road. Only a very narrow lamp standard positioned about 5 meters in front of the crossing. I was watching the lights for the them to change and the adjacent pavement when suddenly , apparently out of nowhere, a very large lady stepped (from the nearside) onto the crossing. I almost jumped, out of surprise at her appearance. Obviously a trick of the mind or sight, but somewhat disconcerting nonetheless.
 
I had some minor weirdness earlier.
After work, I parked at Tesco and locked the car doors as usual with the remote fob.
Like I always do, I checked the doors... and the front ones opened! WTF.
I tried this repeatedly and concluded that something was wrong. Rather than leave an insecure car and risk getting robbed, I drove back home.
Locked the car in my driveway and the locks both worked OK!

Either the locking system experienced a transitory malfunction, or someone nearby was tuning into my remote and unlocking it... I'm really not sure what happened there.
 
My car keys have a habit of wandering about the place too.
A few years back I had come home after work and took off my jacket with my car keys still in my hand. In the process, I accidentally let go of them and in theory the only places they could have landed is on the floor or they could have still been in my jacket sleeve. However, they never ever reappeared and I had to root out the spare key which I continued to use till I got rid of the car. To this day I cannot figure out where they vanished to?
 
A few years back I had come home after work and took off my jacket with my car keys still in my hand. In the process, I accidentally let go of them and in theory the only places they could have landed is on the floor or they could have still been in my jacket sleeve. However, they never ever reappeared and I had to root out the spare key which I continued to use till I got rid of the car. To this day I cannot figure out where they vanished to?
Were you aware of letting go of them when you did so, and how long was it before you first went looking for them?
 
Either the locking system experienced a transitory malfunction, or someone nearby was tuning into my remote and unlocking it... I'm really not sure what happened there.

Some years ago I left my daughter in the car while I took a trolley to the rack.
When I came back the doors were locked and I asked her why she had locked them She replied that the driver of the car next to me had pressed the remote for his car and ours had locked.
It wasn't even the same type of car.
 
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