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Found a phone in my garden - isolated property - shit scared

791 replies

ScarredBunny · 24/04/2020 19:12

Name changed for this - Sorry if this seem trivial, I know people are dealing with far bigger things at the moment.

I found a phone lying on the ground, about 5 yards from my house.

We live in an isolated property about a mile away from the first road. We have not have any visitors , maintenance people for many weeks (obviously). Delivery drivers, yes, but they would not have any reason to go to this part of the garden/couldn't access it during daytime without us seeing something.
At first I assumed it belonged to one of us, but no! Confused
Phoned the police, have a ref./case number, etc. but they're busy and will get back to us when they can.
The police said to take the phone indoors and wait for their call/visit.

I am worried that the next visit is going to be from whomever the phone belongs to.
The phone is dead as a dodo but I assume it still can be found?

What should do?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Inthepurplerain · 24/04/2020 22:57

This thread gives me the spooks

Japanesejazz · 24/04/2020 22:56

This is the best thing on mumsnet for months

Mummyshark2019 · 24/04/2020 22:52

Placemarking too!!!!

Serin · 24/04/2020 22:51

Your 2 updates dont quite match OP??

Firstly you say that they wont be updating you and then suddenly they will?

Which is it?? Confused

ChocolateQuiltedShitPig · 24/04/2020 22:49

Shameless placemarking.

HollowTalk · 24/04/2020 22:48

Me too!

Imainlineminieggs · 24/04/2020 22:44

Avalanche you are seriously ramping up the suspense here, I am definitely placemarking!

AvalancheKit · 24/04/2020 22:41

I need OP to give me some info first. Smile

ellanwood · 24/04/2020 22:40

OP, I'm sure it's genuinely unnerving irl, but this would make a great opening to a thriller novel.

areallthenamesusedup · 24/04/2020 22:40

Hi. Do you have children? If so, how old? I try and limit screen time and as a result my teens have built up a small cache of borrowed phones...

ofwarren · 24/04/2020 22:39

Me too AvalancheKit! Intriguing!

Pinkypie86 · 24/04/2020 22:38

Do tell... @AvalancheKit
Lockdown boredom has me seeking random stories on MN! Confused

SirVixofVixHall · 24/04/2020 22:37

I am curious as to the unusual outcome for AvalancheKit !

AvalancheKit · 24/04/2020 22:33

We live in an isolated property about a mile away from the first road.

OP you said in a later post you were 2 miles from the nearest road. The difference between 1 mile and 2 miles is material.

Can I ask how far are you from the nearest house please? This is highly relevant. I am remote and the nearest house is exactly 1 mile away. I too have had a similar occurrence and there was a very unusual outcome which I will post later.

WizardOfAus · 24/04/2020 22:32

@Slith
Grin
I got a good laugh out of that

perniciousdot · 24/04/2020 22:24

The police may well have turned up as part of a wider problem.

Fair point. I didn't even consider that.

womaninatightspot · 24/04/2020 22:23

I live rurally and this would freak me out. There's no walkers or anyone with an excuse to be up our drive at the moment. I'd assume a lurker too who'd been scared off by the dog. All sorts of crime at the moment, I'm assuming the more nefarious of us will not be respecting lockdown but may find their regular activities curtailed and be going further afield. Tonight I'm double locking the doors.

Whiskas1Kittens · 24/04/2020 22:22

If there have been local issues, e.g., a nasty burglary, a local person that is involved with drugs, they may well be eager to take a phone. A phone contains loads of info.

Then again, they just be having a quiet day.

Nitpickpicnic · 24/04/2020 22:20

If you’re concerned the owner might come back poking around for it, put a big notice up on your house/garden wall saying the phone was given to the police at xxxx.

justasking111 · 24/04/2020 22:19

We put up motion sensor lights back, side and front, that does mean the dog woofs if they go off. They are not expensive and when you live in an isolated home it is nice when they come on as the car comes up to the house.

Northernsoullover · 24/04/2020 22:11

The police may well have turned up as part of a wider problem. There is so much crime in my area at the moment. Vans being broken into, bicycles, car theft. I'm guessing a lot of crime sources (shops) are off limits and also people are taking advantage of quiet streets.

ScarredBunny · 24/04/2020 22:06

I'm back sorry, had dinner too, then posted and lost the post.

Here goes: so the police came, they said they had trouble finding our place, which gives you an idea of how isolated we are, then they seemed really quite surprised when I showed them the spot where i found the phone.
They thought it probably was someone lurking, who might have rushed off because of the dog and dropped or lost their phone in doing so.
Not really a surprise then.
They're going to let us know what they find on the phone, now that is a surprise because I would't have thought that they would share much info with us, but we'll see.

Not great because really I liked the paraglider idea Grin.

OP posts:
LesFleursDuMal · 24/04/2020 22:05

Why are some of the posters surprised?

I was once house-sitting my boyfriends house while he was on a business trip. He really does live in the middle of nowhere, what's so strange about that (one poster was amazed by this). The house is in Wales, on a hill top, the nearest road is really far, no neighbours at all, the nearest village is also rather far.

Anyway, after a few nights there, I found three beer cans outside, nearby a window. Two empty, one had some left. Must have been some lager-loving fox or an alcoholic crow. The cans weren't there before. The house IS remote, no footpaths, no nothing. Whoever that was, was there for some reason and wasn't just passing by in the middle of the night.

Naturally, it freaked me out A LOT, I admit. I phoned the police, then left and went back home to mine.

My boyfriend has an alcoholic brother. Erratic, aggressive, not a nice person. I knew about him, but I've never met him at that point. Turns out, it was him there. The funny thing is, he was living in a city 4 hours drive from boyfriend's place. He came to see him, but saw me through the window and was watching me (I was dressed, if anyone wonders). Then he left. He never explained anything.

In a way I'm glad I didn't see him peering through the window at night, that seriously would have killed me, haha.

About police paying OP a visit because of the phone. I can believe it. I lived in a tiny Welsh coastal town before. The biggest crime there were teens stealing cans of coke. My brother's expensive bike got stolen. It was crime of the century there, police paid us multiple visits, started an investigation and even did a repeat visit after a month (!) to regretfully inform us that the bike wasn't found (very nice policeman, he seemed genuinely upset).

perniciousdot · 24/04/2020 22:03

I was amazed the police turned up, how good is that?

To be honest I don't think it was good at all. I think it was a ridiculous use of the police time. Particularly as they attended in less than an hour. Where I live in Scotland we have people waiting days to have someone come out to take a statement about assaults yet here you are having them nip out immediately for why is essentially lost property.

They took the phone and said they will let us know what they find, I wouldn't have thought they would disclose any info, but we'll see.

They will not be doing that. They have pacified you.

Geepipe · 24/04/2020 22:00

Deffo get cctv installed op. I would be concerned too to live so rurally and find someone had been on my property at night.

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