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

Someone is trying to get in to our house

263 replies

piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 13:36

....it started in summer. I came in through the door, shut it behind me and put my keys down on the side. Went to go out later and the keys were gone. The car was still there on the drive. Two days later Iwa idly scrolling through Facebook and saw them on our local towns lost and found type forum. They had been found on a bus in an area of town that I have never been to.
We had a lot of people doing work on our house last year after a huge house fire. Any number of them could have copied the key.
We changed the locks and although very freaked out, just kind of carried on as usual.
A few months later dh was away with three of our kids. I was at home with dd1. We distinctly heard someone try they handles on all three our our exterior doors. The dogs were going off it. We were terrified. We called dh who thought we were winding him up. We told the police who said there was nothing we could do bar put a camera up. We duly installed a ring doorbell.
A few months passed with no incident until this past few weeks. Dh and I both laid up with Covid. In the lounge with the blinds shut. Someone aggressively knocked on the window right behind us. When we looked there was no one there and no one showed up on the ring camera (which shows the whole front driveway).
And now today. I'm
Wfh and I could hear someone rattling the side door handle. Dogs going mad. I thought it was dh back early and not taken his key. Went to look-no one there. Dh is at work still.
Ring camera is charging up so not on to check.
I am now pretty nervy when in the house on my own. I'm going to work from Starbucks this afternoon.
We have a sort of granny flat thing in the back garden which I daren't look in.
The police basically said just keep your doors locked.
What else can we do?

OP posts:
VisionsOfSplendour · 16/12/2023 10:50

dawngreen · 16/12/2023 10:35

You say you shut the door behind you when you came in.

1/ The person was already in the house then left with the keys?

2/ Did you shut the door fully or assumed it would shut?

3/ I would hide a nanny cam in the house, and not tell your family members or husband.

I don't get why the keys would get taken, then discarded on a bus. Do any of your family know any one who uses that bus?

There isn't one bus for each route you know, the place wnere the person found the keys is irrelevant

GlitteryFluff · 16/12/2023 10:52

Did you maybe leave the keys in the door (on the outside) that time, like turn the keys in the lock, open door and forget to remove keys, so you thought you put them down as normal like you always do because that's habit and someone has removed them from front door and then they've been left on a bus?

dawngreen · 16/12/2023 10:56

The banging on the window sounds like teens having a laugh. And the door handle rattling maybe the same. Have you had a run in with the local youths for any thing? We have all seen tictok and that idiot walking into houses. Sadly kids copy that. Failing that you have a nutter that wants to scare you. Has any thing apart from keys gone missing from your house?

EmmaEmerald · 16/12/2023 11:02

Pp makes a good point about the incidents may be unrelated - the keys being nicked and now the door banging.

Lots of people I know have the experience of people trying their door handles.

A visible alarm will help because people don't want to bang on windows/rattle doors and set alarms off.

DeliciouslyDecadent · 16/12/2023 11:23

@piscofrisco Is this the same house that used to be a pub, is 150 years old and you found a skeleton behind the fireplace?

Oh and you allowed a group of ghost busters to come in and conduct a seance?

blackfluffycat · 16/12/2023 11:36

If someone wanted to get in that badly they would. They could break in, knock on the door then barge in, wait for me of you to return home and follow you in.

It's so so strange. How many times has the door been tried?

If someone did copy the key they would have used it instead of trying the handle.

Maybe the two aren't connected?

blackfluffycat · 16/12/2023 11:41

Zanatdy · 15/12/2023 20:33

That sounds so scary. My ring doesn’t pick up 100% of people coming and coming. It often picks my dog Walker only coming back, or only collecting, whereas she’s obviously done both. She has to walk right in front of the camera which is in the centre of the door so it’s a bit random

Same it's so annoying!!!!

GladioliandSweetPeas · 16/12/2023 12:29

TheSpruce · 15/12/2023 22:15

Admittedly haven't read the whole thing but frankly if no one is on the cameras then obviously there is no one there...

Have you never heard of camera jammers?

GladioliandSweetPeas · 16/12/2023 12:35

piscofrisco · 16/12/2023 00:29

Why would someone enter with a house key and take the car key? To take the car I would guess and then maybe got disturbed? That's what we guessed at the time but maybe not 🤷🏽‍♀️
Security neighbour is not the same as fire neighbour
Anyway no more incidents this eve. In bed with dh and dss 2 and all locked up so should be fine. Let's hope so!

DSS2? So you have a 2yr old step son? You can’t have been together that long, how long has this been happening for?

FortofPud · 16/12/2023 13:22

I've mainly read the OPs responses and not everyone in between, so apologies if this has been said...

The guy 'finding' the keys on the bus sounds like a possible setup - steal keys from house, then post on local Facebook group so that when someone claims them you have the address, keys, and the social media account of that person. Now you can monitor when they are on holiday/out and decide when to let yourself in.

What a scary situation for you. The friends staying over sounds like a good idea.

penjil · 16/12/2023 13:26

FortofPud · 16/12/2023 13:22

I've mainly read the OPs responses and not everyone in between, so apologies if this has been said...

The guy 'finding' the keys on the bus sounds like a possible setup - steal keys from house, then post on local Facebook group so that when someone claims them you have the address, keys, and the social media account of that person. Now you can monitor when they are on holiday/out and decide when to let yourself in.

What a scary situation for you. The friends staying over sounds like a good idea.

But the locks have already been changed., no?

And the person won't have their social media account to know when they're away on holiday unless they "friended" them or have an open account.

FortofPud · 16/12/2023 13:51

penjil · 16/12/2023 13:26

But the locks have already been changed., no?

And the person won't have their social media account to know when they're away on holiday unless they "friended" them or have an open account.

Show quote history

Agreed, the locks having been changed fixes any issue in that sense, but doesn't mean that wasn't the initial intention. And unless I misrembered I think the OP did friend request the guy (plus so many have open profiles).

Daftapath · 16/12/2023 13:53

"DSS2? So you have a 2yr old step son? You can’t have been together that long, how long has this been happening for?"

@GladioliandSweetPeas DSS2 means step son number 2, not a two year old. This is how MN has traditionally used acronyms and numbers. It is only in recent years that posters have started to use numbers with child acronyms to signify ages ... probably a Reddit crossover Confused

mrswhiplington · 16/12/2023 13:56

So sorry you are going through this. Many years ago we had some teenagers play a prank on us. A small pathway runs along at the front of our house, the other side of our driveway. We kept hearing knocking with the front door knocker. Opened the door, nothing there. It happened a couple of times. Suddenly I saw someone creep onto the drive, so I stood at the front window and watched. They tied a piece of string loosely to the knocker and pulled it from the other side of the fence so we couldn't see it.

Just as they were about to pull it for the third time I opened the door really quickly. It scared the shit out of them. They scarpered down the pathway and never bothered us again.

Really hope you can get this sorted out. You deserve to feel safe in your own home.

Original poster
piscofrisco · 16/12/2023 15:18

No @DeliciouslyDecadent-as I said in the thread, that was my old house and I no longer live there. I moved into this house when dh and I decided to move in together with all the kids -my old and lovely but spooky house was too small for us all.

OP posts:
jeffgoldblum · 16/12/2023 15:19

piscofrisco · 16/12/2023 15:18

No @DeliciouslyDecadent-as I said in the thread, that was my old house and I no longer live there. I moved into this house when dh and I decided to move in together with all the kids -my old and lovely but spooky house was too small for us all.

Wow that sounds interesting!!! , I miss all the good posts! 😢

Original poster
piscofrisco · 16/12/2023 15:57

That was in a thread about would you Iive in a house where a dead body had been found--and I did-in my old house-but it was a very of skeleton found bricked into the back of a fireplace. I would take that over this any day of the week!

OP posts:
Original poster
piscofrisco · 16/12/2023 15:57

*very old

OP posts:
jeffgoldblum · 16/12/2023 16:07

Wow! @piscofrisco , that sounds really interesting! Snd to be honest I wouldn't care about living in a house that someone died in !
Any house over a certain age is bound to have a few skeletons! 🤣

Nanaof1 · 16/12/2023 20:01

GaslitlikeaVictorianparlour · 16/12/2023 10:34

Why would they abandon your set of keys on a bus? What was the point in stealing them only to leave them on a bus

So that you get them back and then won't change the locks.

Or to add to the fear factor. "Look what I can do. I can enter your house, take and do what I want." And then hope OP would be happy to get her keys back and think all was well.

OP--I hope you find out more about how the fire was started. Ask questions. You are smart to get a few quotes for security measures and honestly, I would probably not hire the neighbor. I hope that this person, whoever it is, gets found or just gets bored and goes away. It's horrible when, what should be your safe space/sanctuary, becomes a place to be unsettled/afraid.

As to the posters who are STILL asking, "How did they get in to take the keys if the front door was locked? Why didn't the dogs bark?"
They had numerous contractors and subcontractors at the house during the renovation from the house fire. Any one of them could have developed a fixation on the family, made a copy of the key and come back and taken the keys to scare the homeowners. Or someone else got a hold of the code and took the key and made copies. Lots of possibilities. The OP and the dogs were in the back garden and heard/saw nothing until OP went to get her keys.

Whatever PP on here that made comments to the OP about her mental health? Next time, try actually READING the thread instead of sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to be witty, or have someone read the thread to you. First of all, it wasn't witty, it was lame, mean and quite unintelligent. Second point; the whole family has been a victim of the knocking and rattling, so your point wasn't a point; just a pathetic attempt to be noticed.

Evilcold · 16/12/2023 21:59

GaslitlikeaVictorianparlour · 16/12/2023 10:34

Why would they abandon your set of keys on a bus? What was the point in stealing them only to leave them on a bus

So that you get them back and then won't change the locks.

How would someone get keys back if they were left in a strange area. If keys were found very locally there may be a note on a street/village fb/whatsapp.

blackfluffycat · 16/12/2023 22:26

JFDIYOLO · 16/12/2023 00:46

Please buy curtains this weekend!

Would you consider going away yourselves while he's away?

Or would he even ... Possibly ... Consider NOT going away and leaving his family during this strange time?

He's working. My DH goes away for 4/5/6 months at a time. It happens.

Bernardmanning · 16/12/2023 22:33

I would get decent security lights and cameras installed. Then put up a load of signs. Have you got side gates that you can lock? Can you plant prickly plants anywhere to increase security? Have you asked your neighbours for any security footage?

Nanaof1 · 16/12/2023 22:49

piscofrisco · 16/12/2023 15:57

That was in a thread about would you Iive in a house where a dead body had been found--and I did-in my old house-but it was a very of skeleton found bricked into the back of a fireplace. I would take that over this any day of the week!

I would love to have read that thread! So, how did you find the skeleton behind the fireplace?

Maybe their spirit misses you since you've moved and wishes to let their displeasure be known. 😉😦💀👻😉

Dymaxion · 18/12/2023 09:15

How big is your garden ? could you fit a couple of geese in ?