What is this man up to every morning…

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I walk my dog every morning at 6.30am. There’s a bloke in my street who must work nights (always dressed in reflective clothing) that arrives home at the same time.

Rather than pull up and park outside his own house he always pulls into a space about 5 doors up and then gets out and rummages in his boot, removing large liquid canisters and putting them back in. He’ll then sit in his car outside this other house on his phone for about 15/20 minutes. Eventually he’ll drive back up the road, turn around at the street entrance so his car is facing the direction as though he’s driven straight into his house then he’ll park up outside his house and go in.

One morning on my way back with the dog I saw him coming up from his next door neighbours garden. Their house was dark and they are older so wouldn’t have been up. I don’t know why but I’ve become really suspicious of what he’s doing in the morning. After a night shift you’d think he’d been glad to get home and into bed rather than fuss arse around and sit in his car for anything up to 30 minutes.

Its all quite odd and I’m getting tempted to ask him why he parks up away from his house 🫣 He is married, it seems like he doesn’t want his wife to know he’s home then. Weird.

Does he have young kids? Maybe they're up at the crack of dawn and he wants a bit of peace between finishing work and coming home to hyped up children first thing in the morning?

Maybe he wants a bit of chill out time on his phone? I quite often scroll through Facebook in the car after a long day and I live alone!

No idea about the canisters though

Could be he’s getting some peace, or has young kids that get up between 6:30-7 so he waits until he see’s a light on to know they’re awake? Like not going in at the risk of waking the house unnecessarily? He might not be up to no good!

Maybe he has a dog that will bark as soon as his car is on the drive, waking up the whole house, so instead, he waits half an hour to go in until the rest of the household is waking up. Then he uses that time to reorganise his work kit in his boot for the next night’s shift, and winds down on his phone a bit before going in and eg helping get the kids up and ready for school?

I was going to guess the same, waiting until people in his household are awake, rather than waking them all up too early going in

Do you just stand there watching him???

maybe he’s had his ear bent about waking up the house when he gets home. Dunno, I can’t say I’d be that bothered I’d carefully note his movements for any length of time.

I don’t think this is necessarily odd. A woman I worked with (teacher) used to sit in her car in the school car park for about an hour after work before going home. She used the time to decompress between the hectic school day and going home for the second shift of childcare, cooking etc. I envied her because I lived close to work and got no peace between teaching and my kids. So, he could be getting some peace and quiet before the morning routine with his kids.

Or, his wife doesn’t want him to wake her up to early by coming home before 7. Or he has told her he works until 7 because he wants half an hour alone.

But I don’t understand this,
One morning on my way back with the dog I saw him coming up from his next door neighbours garden

Does he go into their garden? I am confused because I thought you meant that he just sits in his car or rummages in his boot?

Having some downtime before he returns to screaming kids or an unhappy relationship.
Very likely organizing his boot ready for work.
My dh often gets calls and messages just after he's left work from the shift following him on. Stuff that needs clarification.

It’s likely he doesn’t want to wake his wife and kids up too early, so faffs around until a certain time.

Or is just having some ‘me’ time.

He does have one child and his wife is disabled so maybe he is waiting a bit not to wake them up. If it were my husband though I’d much rather him come in and go to bed, poor bugger, been awake all night!

I wouldn't ask him you might get a rude reply, then it will be awkward. If he's up to anything he's not going to tell you anyway..

Do you not have a job or something better to do with your time?

Have you ever worked a night shift OP? Generally night shift workers don't tend to just come in and go straight to bed. Your body clock isn't set for that. Do you come home from work and get into bed right away?

I work nights

No you don't need to go straight to bed! Night workers are accustomed to it so are not as tired as you would think, we need time to switch off same as you do if you finish work in the evening

I'm still wondering why he has to go and turn his car round, whatever he's up to!

This.

And why does he need to rummage about in the car boot?

Can't he just pull up and sit there ?

Well I reckon he's got a burner phone hidden under those cannisters of liquid (so his disabled wife won't find it) and he's phoning sex chat lines for a bit of, err, relaxation, before he goes home.

Either that or he's dealing drugs.

I worked nights for a bit and my husband worked very long days and is a remarkably light sleeper. I'd sit in my car and zone out listening to an audiobook for a bit when I got home so I didn't wake him coming in, he needed every minute of sleep he could get. Maybe he's just doing that?

Also I don't know anyone who works nights who comes in and goes straight to bed, you need your wind down and decompression time same as any other job. I'd usually not be in bed until 10am ish after getting home at 7:30.

I get the feeling he doesn’t want to let his wife know he’s home when he is, hence the parking up the street and then turning the car again to make it look like he’s driven into the street and parked up.

I’ve just got home and he’s there again this morning. Parked up outside some houses further along. When the weather is freezing he sits with the car engine running. The houses where he parks the people are retired. I’d be pretty pissed off if someone was sat with their car engine running outside my house at 6.30am.

I have, many years ago. I was only 19 so no problem getting home, cleaning teeth (I’d have showered in work) and getting straight into bed.
My DH has been a shift worker all his life - he’s been the same - home and bed. I’d feel awful if I thought my DH was sat outside waiting for us to wake!

It's the getting out of the car and rummaging in the boot removing large liquid containers and the putting them back in that would really mystify me.
That and coming up from the neighbours garden.

I often sit outside my house in my car. I don't want to face the chaos of what's going on inside.
Maybe he doesn't want to wake the family.

we have a lot of people coming to our house with containers of various styles so maybe the neighbour wants these containers for something like a hobby or maybe its something like a toxic weed killer he does not want to store at home due to a child so neighbour lets him store it there

None of us are going to know why he does what he does and speculation isn't going to resolve it so your only option is to ask him why he goes about his business in a way that you find suspicious.

Yeah thinking about it that sounds more likely.

He's got a burner phone that he's hiding under the lift up base of his boot that he's using for sex chat lines.