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!

Tap lock.
Security cameras.
This appears to be deliberate and if you hadn't clocked the running water, it could have started flooding the area, no?

Have you actually knocked on the doors of your neighbours (both sides) and asked? And also casually mention that you have installed CCTV security cameras as a result...

@TheFireflies when was the last time you used the outside tap?

I ask as I have one and in winter I tend to switch the stopcock off inside the house. And there have been occasions over the last 20 years where one of us would try turning it on… nothing happens. We wander off and then get distracted with other jobs and forget if the tap is on or not. All fine until we turn the stopcock on again!

Likeliest thing is someone working there, in the flats, thought they had access and permission?

or CF resident has done it?

Have you explored the possibility of a demonic entity with a screwdriver complex?

Jealous of your terrace maybe?

The gate was bolted. If you count scaling a fence and bramble bush or a bit of parlour to count as thinking they had permission, then yes, it's plausible.

Parkour*

Can you isloate the tap? Then anyone randomly turning it on will think it has been disconnected?

It could be the CIA. They might have had a pop up 'Waterboarding' event in your area and needed access to a slow flow of water.

What fairy folk have you angered recently!?

Has anyone suggested a poltergeist yet?

If not; poltergeist. It was definitely a poltergeist.

It's not an easy thing to drive a screw through a piece of wood such as a step by hand, it would have been done with a combi-drill, which isn't something teens or someone playing a casual prank would be carrying. So either it was someone that was doing work and had a drill with them, or it was someone that went there deliberately taking a drill to do that. The latter option seems unlikely to me.

This is a thing. I’ve done this too.

That is so weird, I get what you mean about being completely freaked out by it.

Years ago I came home to a mirror on my front doorstep. The mirror was the same mirror I had on the wall in my bedroom, which you would be able to see through our upstairs window, but it was on the far wall and quite small so it would have been a bit of a feat to see it. Maybe with binoculars? Anyway, it wasn't right in the window or anything. My brain immediately jumped to 'why has my husband taken our mirror off the wall and left it on the doorstep?' So I took it inside and went upstairs, only to see that our mirror was still on the wall. So someone had walked up our path and left another of our exact mirror (one I bought about 8 years previously and couldn't even remember what shop it was from) on our doorstep for some unknown reason. So random but it made my blood run cold, I was so creeped out. My boyfriend didn't get why I found it so weird. Nothing else ever came of it and I never got an explanation!

I would say it was a tradesperson or neighbour doing DIY/washing/maintenace. Likely the neighbour knew about your garden tap and told the tradesperson about it (possibly telling them you wouldn’t mind) or the neighbour themselves used it and decided you wouldnt mind or would never find out. Then they or tradesperson struggled with putting it all back as they found it. I wonder if it has been used before but this time they messed up and you found out for the first time?

They use nuts, not screws though 😆

I would say most likely it's kids messing about.

That is incredibly unnerving

I'm not sure I entirely understand the layout from the diagram.

Are you saying that you have in effect a ground floor flat and the neighbour with the son is in the upper flat?

If there is an upper flat, is it possible they had a window cleaner who wanted a tap?

I would also make a complete list of all the properties that overlook the steps from any angle - because this isn't a random chancer. It's someone who knew the steps could be removed so would have to have seen it.

I would go round and let them know its happened (speak to them in a way that you are warning them of a suspicious incident as opposed to suggesting its them in any way). See what their reaction is. Sounds so bizarre!

Not another thread about a garden tap!

To be fair, the other was a couple of years ago but was most puzzling and never resolved. It enters my thoughts occasionally

I wonder if your neighbours are on water meters. Is your tap in the same location theirs are - crazy steps aside?

Algor1thm that is bizarre.

I've not heard any weird tap stories.

Yep - DM’s window cleaner was perfectly able to get over her 8ft gate when she accidentally left it locked (he was expected, she usually leaves it unlocked when he is coming but forgot). I’ve had floor sanders pick my door lock when my downstairs neighbour/joint freeholder failed to open the door to them as planned (she was drunk, they phoned me to ask permission first).

I’m sure there have been CF threads on here where people have caught random window cleaners breaking into their gardens to fill up their water tank (they were not customers, they just happened to have an accessible outside tap).