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Original poster

Someone was in our house last night.

470 replies

worried91 · 10/04/2022 10:59

Am so worried and confused about what happened.
1am- DH and I go upto bed, dd1 has popped out to pick up her boyfriend from the pub and bring him back here and dd2 has just arrived home from work. Younger dc have been asleep for hours.
5am- I hear a phone vibrating in the house and what sounds like an alarm, dh puts his ears to the older dc's doors but thinks it's coming from downstairs. Goes down past the (closed?) front door and locates the phone down the back of the couch. Knocks on oldest dd's door and throws the phone to her sleeping boyfriend saying he'd left it downstairs.
8am dd2 goes downstairs for a drink and the front door is wide open. I hear her coming up to check on the little two who are still asleep in bed.
At this point I start getting concerned so go into dd1s room and her boyfriend says the phone isn't his! He thought dh had got confused about who he was giving it to at 5am so just put it under the bed and went back to sleep.
Dh insists the door was closed when he walked past it at 5am (Yale lock no handle so when it's not clicked closed it swings wide open so I believe it was closed)
Back door is locked with the key in the door and the conservatory has an added locking system over the original lock that hasn't been moved.
We live in a nice area, we are on the edge of town with fields all around so you wouldn't walk past our house going anywhere else iyswim, you'd have to be deliberately coming this way.
We rent our house (moved in 18 months ago) so we don't know who all had keys before us which stupidly never crossed my mind until this morning 😕
Nothing seems to have been touched, my bag is over the end of the stairs, the cars and keys are all there and no laptops etc are missing.
I've no idea why anyone would have come in, lost their phone on the couch then left again without us hearing anything.
I'm worried that the person must have still been in the house when dh went downstairs then left the door open when he went out.
The only other thing to add is one night a few weeks ago dd2 came in at 1am then I went out at 5am and the door was wide open. I told her to be more careful when she came in and she insisted that she had closed the door properly but now I'm wondering if someone has done this before.
We've phoned the police who are coming out at some point to talk to us and pick up the phone (phones locked with a gaming picture on the Lock Screen) and will be going to B&Q to get new locks but I feel so on edge wondering what's been going on 😔

OP posts:
ApolloandDaphne · 10/04/2022 11:39

How very odd, particularly the random phone. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

Sswhinesthebest · 10/04/2022 11:41

The answer is in the phone.

Is there an ICE number in it?

TurquoiseDragon · 10/04/2022 11:42

@Sswhinesthebest

The answer is in the phone.

Is there an ICE number in it?

Phone is locked, so they won't know.
SomethingVexesThee · 10/04/2022 11:44

@MadMadMadamMim

I can't get over the fact your DH thought it was acceptable to knock your DD and bf up at 5am and throw a phone at them.

Wtf? They'd only been in for 3 hours. Why on earth would you wake them for this?

Because he thought it was the boyfriend's phone and the phone's alarm was going off?
Original poster
worried91 · 10/04/2022 11:45

@MadMadMadamMim

I can't get over the fact your DH thought it was acceptable to knock your DD and bf up at 5am and throw a phone at them.

Wtf? They'd only been in for 3 hours. Why on earth would you wake them for this?

Please don't be too outraged 😁 he had to walk past the room with the phone already in his hand so he put his head in and threw it onto the end of the bed. He didn't crash in like the hulk and throw it at his head. DD's boyfriend is part of the family and gets treated as such. He's not some random guest we tiptoe around. If one of the girls left their phone with the alarm going off it would be returned to them as well so that they could turn the alarm off if it went off again and not wake the little ones up. Anyway I've tried the sim in my phone but it's coming up not recognised. I'm thinking my phone must be locked to only my net work.
OP posts:
IntergalacticP · 10/04/2022 11:45

I wouldn't (since the police are coming) but if it was just the phone mystery I would have said phone one of your numbers then save to your phone to check WhatsApp (may have a contact photo) and also search Facebook as people sometimes have their number attached to their account. Probably not a good idea to go detective with the real ones coming though

clkim · 10/04/2022 11:47

Could you possibly get a Ring doorbell to put your mind at further ease? We have one and they are really worth it

thisplaceisweird · 10/04/2022 11:50

When you rent a house, always change the locks, keep the original locks and then change them back when you leave!

Hope it's resolved OP, scary but doesn't sound sinister as they've not taken anything

Crunchymum · 10/04/2022 11:50

Okay.

A few random ideas / theories (don't be offended)

Could your DD1 be sneaking someone in?

Was DD1 BF there the last time the door was open? Could he be sneaking someone in?

Can you ask neighbours who was in the house before?

Can you speak to LL to see if there were any unreturned keys from last tenant?

I am guessing latter two questions are best left until after the police have been.

MrsElm · 10/04/2022 11:50

Why are you tampering with the phone, ie taking the sim out and trying it in your phone, if the police are coming out to look at it Confused

Gwenhwyfar · 10/04/2022 11:51

"A few years ago a friend of mine discovered that an ex-tenant had kept his keys and sometimes kipped on the couch if he thought they were away! "

Ex-tenants can always keep some of their keys, but using them again to sleep at your old home is rare and not something to worry about imo.

Gwenhwyfar · 10/04/2022 11:52

@thisplaceisweird

When you rent a house, always change the locks, keep the original locks and then change them back when you leave!

Hope it's resolved OP, scary but doesn't sound sinister as they've not taken anything

That's expensive given the low risk of ex tenants doing anything.
IncompleteSenten · 10/04/2022 11:52

Glad nothing was taken. The fact they left their phone should shit them up a bit.

SeaToSki · 10/04/2022 11:53

Does the phone have any ICE info saved on it? That will usually come up even when its locked. Each phone has a different method,so if you google the brand and ice info on lock screen you could find out how to access it

pastabest · 10/04/2022 11:54

We had a similar situation. One of our visitors (think visiting professional) had picked up someone elses jacket at the house they had visited before ours.

It didn't even look like anything they owned when they were leaving they initially denied it having anything to do with them but we knew it wasn't ours and we hadn't had any other visitors. So for a short time we were all completely confused until the phone in the pocket of the jacket started ringing and we were able to answer it and unravel what had happened.

forrestgreen · 10/04/2022 11:54

I'd post on the local Facebook page saying you've found a phone.
Someone will claim it and then you can do a bit of sleuthing

FOJN · 10/04/2022 11:55

I'd be very unsettled by that. The phone will need to be unlocked before it can give you any information and I'm not sure how easy that is to do. I recall some cases where police wanted to unlock phones to gather evidence but were unable to, I think it's a particular challenge with iPhones.

On a separate note the lock arrangement on your front door is unlikely to be secure enough to satisfy an insurance company, standard Yale locks are very easy to open without a key. A flexible piece of plastic between the door and frame will unlatch it and they can easily be picked with a couple of paperclips if you know how lock barrels are constructed.

DebtheSander · 10/04/2022 11:57

How very strange. I agree that the phone couldn’t have been there long if it still had a decent battery life. Also , found down the back of the sofa means the person sat or had a lie down. Not exactly the actions of a burglar.

I would put money on very drunk ex tenant who still has keys. Or a friend of ex tenant who was given keys for some reason. But people who are v v drink tend to make a lot of noise when entering a property. Very strange indeed.

Or someone in your houses is allowing a friend to crash and they don’t want to admit it to you.

Crinkle77 · 10/04/2022 11:57

@MadMadMadamMim

I can't get over the fact your DH thought it was acceptable to knock your DD and bf up at 5am and throw a phone at them.

Wtf? They'd only been in for 3 hours. Why on earth would you wake them for this?

I was coming on to say the same thing.
Saz12 · 10/04/2022 11:57

It does sound a bit like someone has sneaked in for a post-pub nap, leaving v early morning. Maybe they woke before the alarm went off and left, not realising the phone had fallen out of their pocket.

Creepy and weird, but seems like they didn’t actually mean you & yours any physical harm (they didn’t do anything to anyone). Add new locks though!

Notgettingbetter · 10/04/2022 11:59

A previous tennant once tried to get into our house whilst very drunk. A few months before he'd moved a few houses up the street. I guess in his drunkenness he forgot and just tried to go "home" to our house.

wanttomarryamillionaire · 10/04/2022 11:59

This happened to me years ago. Got in from a night out and stupidly believed the kids when they said they had locked up. Kept hearing random noises so went and checked on all the kids......fast asleep. Panicking by now i did another search of the house and found a very drunk lad fast asleep. Turns out he was a neighbour's grandson who was so drunk he mistakenly came into our house through an unlocked side door never trusted the kids to lock up since thinking it was his grandparents house. He was absolutely mortified when he was woken up and turned up the next day with a bunch of flowers and an apology.

Paddingtonthebear · 10/04/2022 12:01

Very weird. Could it be possible someone in your house has a second “secret” phone?

Snoopfroggyfrogg · 10/04/2022 12:01

Could the BF have picked up someone else's phone by mistake in the pub, perhaps forgetting his was in his pocket, and left it on the side?

SurferRona · 10/04/2022 12:02

@Seeline

Has DD2 been bringing someone home with her without your knowledge? And then they leave in the early hours, don't want to slam the door so it's not shutting properly?
This^^ Have you pressed your DDs and her boyfriend on this? Most logical and likely explanation. With your understandable worry, is why they might be trying to deny and get away with it