Weird thing happened in our garden

[TheFireflies]

We live in a Victorian terrace with a roof terrace above a kitchen extension, accessed by steps from the garden. Three of the steps bolt on and off, we remove them to get to our external tap if we need to water the garden, as this is on the wall underneath the steps. Our roof terrace borders that of our neighbours, an elderly couple who we are friendly with. The terrace doesn’t directly connect to our other neighbours (converted flats) - there’s a few feet gap between our terrace and the external staircase to the upper flat. I should probably attempt a diagram.

Lived here 6 years, no neighbour issues at all. Generally quiet.

Yesterday we heard water running. Husband went out to investigate and found the external tap was turned on. When he went to unbolt the steps to get through to it, he found that someone had pushed a screw into the step which he had to remove before he could get through to turn the tap off.

Our garden is generally secure with tall fences and our back gate was bolted.

I am 🤔 about who has done this, how, and why.

We have put up a cheap camera on the terrace now (can’t currently afford a proper security system) and luckily we aren’t on metered water, but I think what really bothers me is why someone would go to this sort of trouble, and what other unpleasant surprises we might come across.

Help settle my mind!

I do not believe for one second that it was a tradesman. Very easy to find out. Walk over to each of the neighbors and ASK them if they’ve had a tradesman over, or a window cleaner, or a gardener/landscaper and if water was a part of the job. This will eliminate the suspect of a tradesman or window cleaner or gardener or the Easter bunny.

Could it be a tradesman has hopped over to ‘borrow’ a non-client’s water because he thinks it’s ok or obeyed client who told him it’s ok then did all the rigamarole of getting under the step, trespassed on a non-client’s property, ‘forgotten’ to turn off the water or gave tap a lackadaisical swipe so it kept running, then for good measure put a screw into the step WHY, then hopped back over.

REALLY?

20 something son of neighbor. Op, make sure if you put cams up, first put them on inside or where he doesn’t see or know you’re putting them up or he’ll be on his guard.

20 something son of neighbor. Op, make sure if you put cams up, first put them on inside or where he doesn’t see or know you’re putting them up or he’ll be on his guard.

It probably is him. He seems an immature type, so could imagine him doing it ‘for a laugh”. The upstairs camera unfortunately would have to be visible to capture the whole area (glass in one of those windows is frosted) but we have set up another indoor camera in our sun room downstairs which covers but can’t be easily seen from the lower garden. I don’t mind if he spots it, might deter him from coming into the garden again.

I’m also going to mention it to our local shopkeepers who know EVERYTHING that goes on around here, just to “see if they’ve heard of anything similar going on”

Sounds like a good plan, op. What a malicious thing the person has done to you, to go to that effort!

Have you got planning permission for your roof terrace?
I think it's likely a pissed off neighbour.

Yes it was built as part of a kitchen extension 20 years ago well before we moved in.
Can’t think what we have done to piss them off, but I hope it won’t happen again!

I have just checked - it was definitely a screw, screwed right through the step at an angle, so would have required a screwdriver 😳

I reckon it's the flat with the son, or any other neighbour that can clearly see how the tap is accessed. They're either bored, malicious or both. Could they be jealous perhaps, if you have a house and they're in a flat? They've been watching you, so know about the tap and your comings and goings, so knew when to do it.

It could have just been a convo like "can't believe they have to take apart those steps just to get to their tap. How funny would it be if it was on and they couldn't get the steps off.....". Then they got to watch and see your husband puzzled.

Definitely keep your eye out and see if you notice anybody keep looking out of the overlooking windows.

Just to add... 20 somethings can often be very immature.

I used to live in a flat that overlooked Blockbuster. Entertainment for the 20 somethings next door was waiting for the employee to walk to the other side of the store, then call them on the phone. They'd hang up just as they were reaching to pick up the phone. Over and over 🙈

I'd like to second the theory mentioned above - that someone moved the steps so that they could 'borrow' your tap, couldn't put them back properly, panicked, and shoved a screw in.
It is so easy, in relation to our home space, to feel vulnerable, anxious, worried about having caused inadvertant offence or animosity from neighbours, etc. It's a horrible feeling, and probably unnecessary, so I wanted to chip in a reassuring voice.
People are mostly nice and normal, and an explanation that doesn't involve tensions or malice is probably the most likely.
Or imaginative squirrels. Never discount the possibility of imaginative squirrels.

So someone has climbed into OP's garden. Found a hidden tap. Decided she must have removable steps and taken them off. Used water. Replaced the steps but think they've broken them so climb back out of garden and get some tools. Then climb back in before climbing back out again.

Yes, this sounds quite likely.

I think that the tap broke and turned itself on/spring a leak. In his haste to get to the running water your DH fumbled with the bolts and somehow dislodged some existing screw and then concluded that it had been put there to secure the step.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why someone (the people you bought from?) went to the bother of making the steps removable instead of just adding some pipe work to move the tap. Someone who had paid for a carpenter but not a plumber I suppose?

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why someone (the people you bought from?) went to the bother of making the steps removable instead of just adding some pipe work to move the tap. Someone who had paid for a carpenter but not a plumber I suppose?

Honestly, this isn’t the first weird decision they made 😂
We will move the tap just as soon as it reaches the top of the “fixing bodge job” list.

Let’s see.

1. A well meaning, friendly neighbor or well meaning, hardworking tradesman trespassed onto your property via ladder, 9 foot drop, and acrobatic means, or by nasty brambles, discovered a hidden tap (explorer vibes), discovered and removed the step to wriggle through, turned tap on for a noble purpose like using your water for free, left the tap on because why not, then panicked (naturally) when step didn’t fit back and luckily had a screw and screwdriver handy to drive a screw into step, in full view of the water was still running, to prevent owner from turning tap off because why not, then the rigamarole of escaping hard-to-access garden. And left owner to discover running tap and frustration of removing screw to access hidden tap. Radio silence.
2. Imaginative squirrels.
3. The tap turned itself on. It. turned. itself. on.
4. Dh screwed the step shut. After the tap ‘turned itself on’, dh screwed screw into step so that he couldn’t access tap, then he unscrewed it and turned tap off, then told op that someone had used a screw to fasten step, which damaged the step, a screw that hadn’t been there before, so that he couldn’t get to to the tap. 👀

I’m beginning to understand how the world has gone insane.

You've forgotten 5. The burglar who snuck in and turned the tap on, to see if anybody noticed. He also decided to screw the step back on, so if anybody did notice, they couldn't turn it back off, therefore when he came back he wouldn't know if they'd not noticed or if they couldn't get the bloody step back off 😂

The burglar theory was my fave, marking the house like they were the wet bandits or something 😂

Ah yes, ‘testing the waters’ they were 😂😂😂

The wet bandits 🤣

I like that, The Wet Bandits 😏😀

Is that a hose on the tap in the picture?

I once forgot to turn our outside tap off, I was pottering about in the garden occasionally watering things with the hose with a gun thing on it.

The gun was switched off, and I completely forgot to turn the tap off. The pressure must have built up, and blew the hose off the tap. Lost a colossal amount of water before I noticed.

That could explain someone like a window cleaner replacing the steps with the tap turned on. But does not explain the screw, which is really bloody weird.

Oh it was definitely the wet bandits... or the Carling Black Label squirrel 😂

My favourite phrase in this thread....
The Shopkeepers who Know Everything...
Would love a thread on that alone!

It's true that those are all mad explanations (apart from the imaginative squirrels). But it is such a mad thing to have happened that there isn't really a non-mad explanation available: the prank theory is also pretty mad.

I'm going to look out for the mirror-image thread- where someone confesses the terrible embarassing situation they got into that involved them falling out of a window into their neighbour's garden, leaving a mad hidden tap on and accidentally doing DIY on their neighbour's mad steps. Then all will be revealed.

😂 love this. This might just be what happened 😄😂

When I was a kid - probably around 10 or 11 we did weird things to create ‘mysteries’.

Once we were camping on a large national
trust estate and came across a marque. All the seats had been stacked. We very quietly put all the seats back into rows. There were six of us and it took over an hour! No idea why we thought it was so funny. Some poor sod must have been raging the next morning. And puzzled.

Please tell us more about the bodge jobs. The tap is almost too weird to believe so I would love to know what else they did.

Teenagers.