Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Please tell me nothing will happen to us tonight.

88 replies

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 30/09/2020 22:28

I’ll start by saying I’ve suffered with anxiety and chronic insomnia in the past but have been doing really well recently.

Thai afternoon a woman walking past our house stopped and took a photo of our front door and then our car. Why would a stranger do that?

I can’t stop thinking that something bad is going to happen tonight, a break in or a fire. Dh is working a late shift and I’m here with our teens. I have to be up early so have come to bed but I can’t relax.

I’ll be ok won’t I?

OP posts:
fizzandchips · 30/09/2020 23:48

As someone else said put your car key in a biscuit tin (stops thieves being able to remotely open and start car) but also remember to put the spare key in the tin too. This was the advice from our local Neighbourhood Watch.
Then deep breaths and go to sleep.

pippitypoppitypoo · 30/09/2020 23:50

This happened to us - lived in a very bog standard house. A nosy neighbour over the road told me he'd seen a bloke drive up to our house and get our and take a picture. And he actually called the police about it! we had been broken into a few weeks before (sadly nosy neighbour had at that time not been doing his usual surveillance of the street) and I started freaking out. But nothing bad happened afterwards as far as I know. Some people are just weird I guess!

Quaversplease · 30/09/2020 23:59

I've been taking photos of people's driveway as we are about to start doing ours and it's an odd shape so I want some ideas. I usually do it on dog walks and take different routes.

It did occur to me that it could look like I'm casing the place but it's totally innocent.

StargazyDrifter · 01/10/2020 00:06

Could she have been using an app to identify trees/plants? That requires you to take a photo in the app sometimes.

Alternatively, I took a picture of someone’s front door recently because they’d dumped a load of enormous/industrial-sized cardboard boxes on the pavement and the stuff was blocking the walkway. I was going to share with the council. May be something administrative like that.

caringcarer · 01/10/2020 00:11

Just make sure you lock all doors before you go to bed. Take phone to bed with you. If you get anxious you can ring your DH.

HermioneMakepeace · 01/10/2020 00:21

Maybe there was a passing animal she was taking photos of, like a stray cat or a fox.

Kanaloa · 01/10/2020 00:40

There is also an instagram account called something like ‘pretty doors of Britain.’ Anybody can take a photo of someone’s front door and have it featured on this account. It could have been something like that because she found your door/house pretty. I see how it could be unsettling for you though.

Sarahandco · 01/10/2020 00:46

It could be many harmless reasons. Young people take pictures of everything!

MarriedtoDaveGrohl · 01/10/2020 00:48

Hm. Unlike a policeman to be so relaxed. Athapaskan he knows her and didn't want to let on?

MarriedtoDaveGrohl · 01/10/2020 00:49

Perhaps he knows her I mean!

TakemedowntoPotatoCity · 01/10/2020 01:11

Perhaps it was somewhere she once lived? I've done that before it revisiting somewhere (sneakily, though).

Alongcameacat · 01/10/2020 01:25

Do you have a front garden OP?
We have tiny gardens that nobody bothers much with. On the rare occasions I have walked past someone's house who has planted, I have taken photos to give me some ideas.
The gardens aren't particularly great but in comparison to mine they are :).

waitrosetrollydolly · 01/10/2020 01:30

Sorry that this has you anxious. To be honest it's made me a bit anxious too but only as I didn't know about car key cloning. I have a fancy car ( and DH too ) and am now thinking I need to get a lead lined box to keep the keys in.

AlwaysLatte · 01/10/2020 01:35

Maybe her family lived in the house previously or she found out a link in Ancestry. If she was up to no good I doubt she'd have been that brazen.

greenlynx · 01/10/2020 01:36

We were planning to replace windows and thinking about porch, and extension. We went thousands times around locally to pick up ideas. DH often even stopped near houses but I was really worried that we looked suspiciously so tried not to do this, without me he would probably do some photos.
Hope you are ok, OP. I was scared by the sound of my own heating yesterday, someone taking photos would freak me out too.

PutThemInTheIronMaiden · 01/10/2020 01:38

Oh no I feel really bad now! During lockdown I walked every day and for some reason I saw Magpies everywhere. I took pictures and put them on Instagram. I must have taken loads of the outside of people's houses where the Magpies were!

MarriedtoDaveGrohl · 01/10/2020 02:05

Hm. Not convinced... she took pictures of the car too!

WhatDoIDooDIoDtahW · 01/10/2020 02:16

I’ve been eyebrow-raised at at least 3 times from people thinking I’m taking pictures of them when I haven’t worn my glasses out and am actually just trying to read something on my phone through my shite vision 💀

Don’t panic, you’re okay.

ulanbatorismynextstop · 01/10/2020 02:32

Ive taken pictures of plants in peoples gardens before. I was making a vision board for the garden for my new house. I hope I didn't upset or worry anyone. I was dog walking as that is an inconspicuous way of wandering streets of the nice bit of town and staring in peoples gardens.

RainbowMum11 · 01/10/2020 02:53

Or the Harry Potter game (similar to Pokemon) but when you have walked a certain distance you unlock a port key so you move the phone around to catch the wrackspurts

Mimishimi · 01/10/2020 03:02

I've taken pics of people's front yards before because I liked their gardens. Taking pics of both garden AND car is odd .

BeanieB2020 · 01/10/2020 04:08

She'll have been taking selfie's or making a TikTok video (w/camera pointed at herself not your house/car). Would bet money on it being this.

vanillandhoney · 01/10/2020 07:00

@MarriedtoDaveGrohl

Hm. Not convinced... she took pictures of the car too!
No proof of that whatsoever, it's just what OP assumes has happened.

She'll have been playing a game on her phone. Plenty require you to walk about and "find" things.

Original poster
GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 01/10/2020 07:29

Good morning! Sorry I disappeared, I put my phone down and tried to get some sleep. I left the little bedroom window open so I could hear if anyone was outside in the night. I woke a few times and quickly checked on the car and nothings happened last night. I also brought the keys upstairs and put them in a tin!

Just to answer a few questions

No debt or outstanding finance on the car
No fancy garden, just a tarmac drive
No flowers or bushes, a bog standard composite door and crappy windows. It’s a HA house and she didn’t used to live here.

Dh wouldn’t be relaxed because he knows her, he never saw her as he’s at work so doesn’t know who I’m talking about!

I am feeling a bit more relaxed as I realise the dozens of things she could have been doing. Dh came home in the early hours so I haven’t spoken to him and I’m leaving soon so I will talk to him again later.

Thanks for all the reassuring messages. I had no idea people had so many desires to photograph other people’s homes, it’s very unnerving!

OP posts:
MarriedtoDaveGrohl · 01/10/2020 11:08

Of course he didn't see her but he may know a young woman nearby with a reason to walk past..