OK I was pottering about in my kitchen just now when a taxi pulled up in the street and a man of around 50 who I've never seen before got out with a holdall and a small wheely suitcase. I noticed him immediately because he's acting in a way that I can only describe as 'suspiciously': moving really slowly and cautiously, pausing a lot etc. He was not quite looking over his shoulders like a TV burglar in a stripy jumper but almost - his manner just looked 'off'.
He walked past the front of the house directly opposite, and stops and stares through the fence at something in the garden for a good two minutes. Then he slowly and gingerly climbed the front steps to the front door and paused on the top doorstep for another few minutes. I couldn't really see what he was doing because he was partially behind an overgrown bush but he was bent over fiddling with something. He then seemed to let himself in and slowly carry his bags inside. The holdall looked heavy. Almost immediately, he came back out and moved down the steps, stopping to fiddle with (I think?) a gate in the front garden. He then went round the side of the house and opened what looks like a fuse box or metre, I think with a key. He stared at it for a while and then took out his phone and took some photos of it. He then took quickly photos of the front garden, including the middle area he'd been staring at (which just looks like a bush and path from here). He then came out into the street and stared back in through the fence, hovered a bit at the bottom of the stairs, looking up and down the street, before going up the steps and into the house again. He's in there now.
I don't know my neighbours (London...) so I couldn't tell you if he lives there or is a relative of someone who does, so there might well be an innocuous explanation but I found his behaviour was really puzzling. I have a vague feeling a younger family lives there (I know they get big Ocado orders but that's it!). The house looks deserted today, with all the curtains drawn upstairs and down (he hasn't opened any since he went in). I'm not normally a net-curtain-twitcher in any way...but AIBU for thinking this is strange? Can anyone think of a clear and reasonable explanation? I'm trying to think he could perhaps have a bad back or poor mobility, hence the slow movement. Maybe he's back from a holiday or house-sitting or a new tenant and he wanted to document something in the front garden and take a metre reading? It was just such a weird combination of actions and I'm worried it could be something suspicious.
I am probably BU for being a nosy neighbour, but should I be worried for my neighbours (and should I do anything?)?
AIBU?
AIBU to wonder what this man is doing (and should I do something?)
bettyblueeyes83 · 28/05/2016 18:31
Errrr no you shouldn't be worried
All pretty normal behaviour, for someone who is staying somewhere they have never been before.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
I think it was an MI5 agent come to bug the house personally....maybe your neighbours are part of an international criminal gang......
No.... I've been watching too much telly! 
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.