Anyone else have a neighbour that monitors everyone?

[Popcorntimewatchingdrama]

So, we finally moved into the new estate have been there for a year. Everyone’s settling in, the vibes are great, and life is pretty mundane… except for our self-appointed “Sheriff of the Estate”. She’s always been pretty active on the WA group, god forbid a bin isn’t emptied on time or something or a dog wees on a lamppost nothing to do with us. We try to live and let live but be really respectful of others.

Apparently, we have a neighbour who has decided—unprompted and unpaid—to be the CEO of her own Neighbour Watch. She’s out there recording cinematic masterpieces of everyone arriving and leaving the estate, we’ve only just found this out.

Things hit a fever pitch this week while we were (thankfully) away. Now, keep in mind: we all have massive drives (2–3 cars easily), wide roads, and plenty of visitor bays. But someone dared to park on the street opposite our house for—wait for it—3 hours and 16 minutes. Absolutely nothing to do with us- our adult and quiet children said our drive wasn’t blocked or hers or anything.

Cue the frantic texts to us. She sent us the “surveillance footage,” mentioned she knew we were on holiday because she watched us pack our rucksacks on Saturday morning (not creepy at all!), and demanded to know whose car it was and exactly when we’d be back.

My husband, bless him, replied: “Not our car. or anything to do with us or our family. Was it blocking you?”
Her response? “No, but I need to know who it belongs to because I’m doing Neighbor Watch for everyone!” 🫡 (News to us... we never signed up for the Premium Stalker Package).
When he asked why it mattered how long we were away & if the house was fine, she hit us with the fact she keeps logs of people coming and going for ‘security’. We have a zero crime rate locally as far as I can see. DH seems to think it might be illegal to record people arriving and leaving their homes / her house the first one into the estate so you have to drive by hers. We are next.

She then took her investigation to the local WhatsApp group, and let’s just say the neighbours haven’t received it well. It’s currently a digital riot of “How dare you film us?” and “This is actual stalking.” 🍿it has properly kicked off and I can see why. We haven’t replied or got involved.

We’re just sitting here on holiday, rucksacks and all, watching the drama unfold from a safe distance we are a 5 hour flight away. Does anyone else have a neighbour who thinks they’re the lead character in CSI: The new estate or is it just us? 😂

We don’t dislike them but I’m sure as hell not telling them my movements or where I am / be back. In an emergency yes but it’s not.

You could have asked chatgpt to make that shorter at the same time

I’m sorry I haven’t used Chat GPT. The post was meant be lighthearted sorry if it offends you!

There’s three on our street. Pray for me.

We have the bin monitor, who waits on the drive for them to arrive, watches them, and checks the bin is empty enough before he nods them on their way. Tbf we are fucked when he goes on holiday though.

Then we have the parking warden, who monitors every arrival and departure, comes out of her house to peer into unknown cars, and spends the day reorganising her car to get the perfect spot.

Then we have the “we’ve lived here forever who do you think you are” couple. Who monitor every damn thing you do, question your builders, want timelines for skips, question road workmen and generally just watch everyone all day.

(Also guilty of watching everyone all day, mainly because those three are all batshit.)

OP please start doing random things like putting tomatoes on your windowsill only on Wednesdays when it's an odd number or skipping up your drive ever 6 days backwards.

Get the other neighbours in on it to.

Unfortunately this sounds like her hobby. Hope you are enjoying the WA play out.

Our neighbour hit the local WA group when her recycling wasn’t emptied. It turned out she had put glass in the wrong box (they won’t collect) and she was a bit shame faced about that.

We also had the bins sealed whilst the estate was being finished and people were leaving piles of dog shit (in bags) next to the bin which was sealed. She posted about it daily and photos of people leaving bags etc - the people were walking through the estate. She moaned and moaned and one day I went with DH and a black sack and grabbers and picked them all up and put them with our waste.

It has just been posted that someone from the estate has left a violent relationship and is reporting ‘recording’ neighbour to the police as she says she’s not having one controlling ex replaced by a stalker neighbour. It’s just blown up a bit now and nosey sheriff neighbour is backtracking saying she was ‘trying to keep everyone safe‘ 🤔

Couldn’t live without my neighbour who knows everything. We’re rural so visit him (old widower who has lived here all his life) regularly to check in but also to get local gossip. Who’s moved in/dead/bought the field that was up for sale etc

These people are strange. I cannot imagine having the time to monitor anyone like it.

We had one, well a husband and wife tag team. They moved out just before Christmas. 🍾
I'm so looking forward to sitting out in the garden with a gin in the summer, without be accosted and bored shitless with updates.
You have my sympathy, but the rest of your neighbours seem to be onto her.

My friends neighbour (several doors up) bought them a bin, as they found the way they put the black bin bag out for the bin man unsightly, obviously letting the street down.

Lots of neighbours posts this week 😆 😆

We lived next to the King of the Road (as we called him) in our first house. Any work we had done, he was out there, interrogating people on what/how they were doing. He used to stand in his drive in the mornings waiting for us to leave for work so he could point something out. The end came when we had the temerity to have our drive relaid. He seemed to think we should have asked his permission and he went on about how awful it looked so I said "It's a good job it's none of your business then". He never spoke to us again, just glared at us while we gave him big smiles!
Your neighbour sounds crackers, op.

I had a woman in the block of flats in the first place I owned. She thought she ruled the place. She'd complain about the dog and the cat that lived there as it was a no pets place, but the two pets were there before the new rule, so they were allowed to stay. Didn't stop her complaining to the management committee every time she saw them. She also thought she owned the communal garden outside her flat, and the visitor parking spaces. She was fuming when the committee ordered a skip and it was put in the space outside her place. She didn't like that we then had a baby (maybe she thought it came under the no pets rules😂)
My ex was on the management committee and they had a whole huge folder just for letters from her.

I have no idea of anyone monitors anything on the road i live now. It's not me, although have reported a pot hole. Maybe they all have a chat where they moan about me!

That is fantastic. I wish I had a nosey neighbour like that, purely for the entertainment value. Sadly everyone around here is normal and minds their own business.

We have a nosy neighbour but she’s harmless enough and great for gossip, she even caught the local drug dealer for the police, her flat was opposite the dealer and she let them monitor from her place.

I think some people really miss the Covid times when it was almost acceptable to monitor your neighbours.

I think he has passed now, but there was one guy in my street who seemed to know everyone and everything. He was also a self appointed bin person.... on bin day, he would put everyone's bins out but only up to a certain point in the road. It was almost like he had fallen out with the people living past a certain number).
He would take bags out of bins and shift them about, so some people had a full bin, and others had an empty bin (he would then put them back in their garden). It used to piss me off, as a few times he took my bags out my bin and put my bin back in my garden, and come bin day I had more stuff to put out so my bin went out anyway. Or he filled my bin with other people's bags and there was no room for my own rubbish.
During Covid, and the Thursday night clapfest, he would go and knock on your door if you were not outside clapping.
I have MH issues, and police/ambulance can be regular occurrence at times for me. I overheard him talking about it, saying he rang 101 and wanted to know why they were visiting me as it was somehow in the neighbourhood's best interest.
One of my next door neighbours is a huge gossip, and she is often on the street talking about people. I have heard her talking about me... mainly my financial situation, which she knows nothing about as I never talk to her and she would have never overheard it either.

DF is a neighbour that monitors everyone. He will ring DM and say her parking space (on street) is gone as someone else is parked there. This is hours before she is due home anyway. He was on about getting a Ring doorbell. They don't need one, as he literally acts like one anyway. Any movement outside, and he pings DM.

Isn’t anyone just telling her to stop?

They must be bored out of their brains !! You should feel sorry for her , her world must be really small if this is all she’s got going on to concentrate on …

My parents had an accident and my Dad doesn’t leave the house now and my Mum goes out a lot less and they are OBSESSED with emergency vehicles. One only has to go past (which is very often) and we are told about it … they have become very boring coz they have nothing going on in their lives anymore. I imagine it happens to a lot of people especially as they get less mobile as they get older.
I hope I don’t feel the urge to make up a neighbourhood watch as I get older lol.

At out old house there were 3 of them. We called them the 3 witches. Always gossiping, they would stand outside gossiping, turning to each persons house and point and make it obvious they were talking about each neighbour. One neighbours ring doorbell picked up some terrible things they were saying. If you had any work done on your house or bought a new car, they would need to find out how it was paid for, whether it was a motability car. If kids were playing out they would quiz the kids about what their parents were doing, why a couple of the children didn’t have contact with their grandparents, why dad hadn’t been at work, who the visitor was last week etc. They also had a problem with normal levels of noise. We and a couple of other neighbours were complained about on their street WhatsApp for not joining in with jubilee parties and not shopping for them during Covid. It was awful. We moved and now don’t have neighbours and it is bliss!

My grandad used to have a book where he logged the neighbours going out and coming home, their visitors etc. He even used to write down when we visited, how long we stayed for, whether we had something to eat or drink.

There are some strange people around!

Yes, we have the eccentric male hoarder sort of opposite but a little further up the road, he works part time but other days he sits in his office and texts some of us whats going on..he also has binoculars. He lives directly opposite the 2 other eccentric hoarder females and gets jealous when he sees them bringing items into their homes and quizzes us on where they got items from and how much they worth etc !!..He is a carpenter and used to work for a very famous hairdresser years ago...interesting chap but very ocd etc.

don't be a donut, donna!

One of my neighbours (deceased now) was a proper curtain twitcher. She knew everything about everyone and used to monitor all my comings and goings, plus all my visitors.

Anyway, I needed to renew my home insurance and phoned around for quotes (this was pre-meerkat). One insurance co. asked "do you have a neighbourhood watch scheme? " and I said "weeell, there's Ada ..." - I got the discount!

That's insane
Here for all the updates 🍿

Don't know if I'm more shocked at your batshit neighbour's antics or you wasting time on holiday telling us what your neighbour is getting up to.

I’m not surprised neighbours are angry being filmed, that’s a bit much
but good she’s vigilant but this sounds a bit overboard.id keep a very low profile 🫣

Struggling with long posts is a you problem that OP does not need shitty brainless AI to fix for you.