Doorstep interaction and a bit unnerved

[Chanel05]

I was feeding my baby to sleep about half an hour ago. The ring doorbell went and I answered it on my phone because baby was fussing. A man was there and said "oh hello, are you in?" I answered "yes". He had a large, empty bottle in his hand and said that his car had overheated and could he fill up a bottle of water for him. I said no because I was feeding baby upstairs and a neighbour would, I'm sure.

He said bye and I watched the ring doorbell. He missed my next door neighbour's house completely and walked round the corner. Further round the corner there are quite a number of houses. 5 minutes later, my husband came out of my dd's room from putting her to bed and I told him what happened. He took a quick drive and no one was around.

Any clues as to what might have happened here? I'm feeling a bit shook up, especially as the next door house to me (semi-detached) was missed completely. I've spoken to them and they had no knock.

Maybe he just tried knocking on a door around the corner, closer to where his car was.

What is your worry? I'd be unnerved too but if he was carrying a bottle could be genuine

You did the right thing. I hate unsolicited callers and answering the door in general.

Did he look nefarious or odd?

Least you have the ring!

Same thing happened to is a few years ago one evening, when just me and my daughter were at home . I answered the door to a man with a very large water bottle , not the sort you just happen to have in your car . He asked for it to be filled for his over heated van . Fairly sure he was just checking to see if the house was empty . Rather unnerving at the time , we have a ring doorbell which I would use now after dark because I have a tendency to just fling the door open , and the last evening caller was a rather persistent couple from a local church group , have decided no good comes of answering the door after dark !

I would assume he was checking to see if anyone was home. If he needed water, surely he could have just asked to fill it up himself from an outside tap? Or gone to a nearby business?

It could be a distraction burglary. They distract you so that they can gain access to your house when you leave the front door wide open.
It could also be completely innocent.

@Theraffarian it was a 2L bottle, similar to yours.

Thanks for the mixed responses. It's hard to know whether my mind is working overdrive or whether someone was trying it on. I've reported it to 101 nevertheless.

Having checked the doorbell footage again, we were the only house with the light off downstairs.

He gave himself away when he asked “are you in”! He was checking to see whether anyone was in the house.

@FictionalCharacter that's immediately what alerted me to be honest.

I wouldn't have answered the door anyway, I never do if I'm alone/alone with the children I read way too much too crime. I need a ring doorbell really!

I had to do this years ago, my old banger was prone to overheat and I'd forgotten to fill the gallon bottle that I carried in the car. I knocked on a random strangers door and asked if I could fill the bottle (or if they could fill it for me) it was a pretty grimy bottle so they let me fill it myself. I was a young woman alone though.

Well, you’re not going to know. Could be he was genuine and had already tried those neighbours, so went further to try more, or could be he was casing for empty houses — you’re not going to know. But you did the right thing either way.