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.

I love it when people get annoyed at an OP starting a thread that doesn't interest them; or berate them for how they chose to start their own thread!

As though it's compulsory for anybody to read or contribute to!

Why don't we just get ChatGPT to write all the threads, then set ChatGPT to read and contribute to them... then we humans can just go and find something more worthwhile to do with our time, like stalking our neighbours and rearranging their bins and reporting to the council every time a dog does a wee against a lamp post!!

😂 brilliant

Yes in our first house. We were like 19/20 and this man was really interested in how we afforded the house and convinced himself we were drug dealers. I mostly ignored him but my DH got into what can only be described as psychological warfare with him. His daughter was actually really lovely and apologetic, I think he had mental health issues but I’m genuinely not sure if he had an actual issue or was just a chronic busy body. Before I met him I would sometimes find my dads antics a bit embarrassing but now I think he’s positively normal.

@Popcorntimewatchingdrama you don't need to tell her your plans, she likely already knows them 🥴😂😂😂

There’s a local (Swabian) German saying: God sees everything. Your neighbour sees more.

(Der liebe Gott sieht alles. Der Nachbar sieht mehr)

Poor old Bill Stickers, what’s he done wrong? I used to think prosecuted meant persecuted, as in “Trespassers will be persecuted”!

What is an em-dash and an en-dash??

I have 3 too.
I recall not long after moving in I caught a neighbour moving out, nothing the matter with that but they chose to move at 4am, packing up the last of their belongings just as I was making a morning cuppa at 06.15.
I asked if they were moving? Rental property, he replied yes we can't stand this culdisack 1 more day, then backtracked & said he was joking.
2 years on i understand why he moved house at 2am-6am
The only chance you have of the escaping without being grilled by the gestapo about where you are going.

Good side 0 crime rate. The police even commented its the place where "nothing happens". Allegadely.

Why not set up a breakaway WhatsApp group with all the neighbours without her. All of you leave her group and talk amongst yourselves. She will wonder what the hell is going on 😅

It's getting onto springtime when
all the crazy ones come out.

Our next door neighbour is always watching but doesn’t channel it into anything constructive unfortunately. Like stands at her upstairs window with just her head poked between the curtains watching.

She mainly complains that people are using their gardens and homes in ways she sees unfit. My crimes are removing two very overgrown shrubs, getting cats and eating/drinking in my garden on sunny days.

She also believes the parking space on the road outside her house is exclusively hers so she blocks it with her bins if she goes out and screams at anyone who parks in it 😂

Careful what you wish for, it's like wanting a stalker.
You have to think about every move you make. I have the worst garden in the street as I don't like being followed or interrogated if I go outside.
They do wear you down. 1 of mine sat with a book yesterday watching everybody in the culdisack coming & going, he has lived there 57 years so owns the street apparently.
I've been chastised for vanishing off in the car & not telling him where I was going.

Just interested in what it is about a post that makes people think it’s ChatGPT? Length, language, composition, certain phrases? I’m often seeing these accusations levelled, but don’t have a clue as to why!

Send in a complaint that the monitoring isn't up to the same standard as at your old house.

Something like "there was a black car parked in the street for a whole 5 minutes the other day and it wasn't reported on the whatsapp group".

There has been at least one of these types in every flat or road I've ever lived in.

Yes, they're annoying but they're usually the one with enough balls to approach the random man with the white van and the ladder that's casing your house whilst you're away on holiday (and who you are blissfully unaware of!). They're also the one most likely to ask the person taking an unusual interest in your letter box who they are looking for?!

Unfortunately, access to tech has made them more intrusive but, on balance, I'd prefer a nosey neighbour as opposed to the ones who'd say "well, I thought it was funny they used a crowbar to open your front door to remove all your possessions for cleaning, but I didn't like to pry".

Our street has large houses and so it’s difficult to curtain twitch. Sadly that means in the last 2-3 years we have had dozens of burglaries every winter. They start the moment the clocks change. As a result, many of us have had security cameras fitted, had to agree with neighbours they are happy if the viewing field encompasses their homes and have a ridiculously active whatsapp. It’s not made much difference to the crimes, though we have all been able to share footage with the police that may eventually be of use. But we all opt in (or mute) and speak to our neighbours to establish where the boundaries are.

I appreciate this woman THINKS she is being helpful, but she is imposing herself and her anxiety onto others and being intrusive, especially given she has not consulted anyone to get their permission. I think a gentle word was probably needed, but it may be a bit late now. Maybe someone could post in your group that you understand what her motives were and appreciate the effort [a ‘thank you’ might diffuse her umbrage], but that you would prefer as a street/neighbourhood to self police and if you need help, you will all ask?

I can remember an interview with a celebrity talking about having a similar woman as a neighbour and they thought it was brilliant. They could relax knowing that someone was monitoring the security of their house. I can see their point. The downside would be annoying messages, so perhaps you could try and curtail that, but otherwise if your house was being burgled while you were on holiday I think you’d be rather grateful that your neighbour had noticed and written down the number plate.

What a fucking saddos they are, they really need to get a life..

My parents have a neighbour who monitors them and anyone visiting. When they were having building work done she would stand on the street and film the builders on multiple occasions, and asked my parents if she could check the work in their back garden (they said no). I injured my leg at one point which gave me a noticeable limp. She must have observed my limp when I was walking to and from my parents’ house as she called my mother to ask what was wrong with my leg. She also criticised my dad because my mother was doing a lot of heavy gardening work (she wants to do it as it’s good for her health and she loves the garden), basically she was suggesting that my father is a bad husband because he lets my mother do heavy work in the garden. She has also spread false rumours about my parents with other neighbours. These are just a few examples of her behaviour. It is distressing as my parents are quiet and respectful people and they don’t bother anyone.

I used to live in a block of flats, 3 flats to a floor, and there was a guy who would fling open his door and glare at anyone that dared set foot on ‘his’ floor. This included anyone on that floor opening their flat door. He must’ve been waiting by his door all day!

I'd be tempted to ask her whether she is registered with the ICO and whether she can confirm that she has signs confirming she is filming everyone and further to confirm her data retention and deletion policies.

I live in a new build estate. At the start a neighbour would post on Facebook ring doorbell footage to say be careful a scruffy guy is on the street. Turns out it was someone who actually lived there and not chuffed to be singled out on appearance.

she also posted any delivery vans as a warning we were going to burgled. Any noise in gardens after 6pm. There was also a spat of anonymous posted letters asking to be quiet. Think it was her.

she stopped as she got a complaint about her dogs barking. Apparently this was acceptable and was very annoyed she was reported.

however I lived in one street that was tight to park on. A neighbour policed the parking spots and told us were we could park outside our house. It was useful as she would move anyone not us, so I always had a space outside my house. I wasn’t bothered as it was public roads, but I did like this part of her.

I know I was thinking the same, it sounds like some of the neighbours are already on here!

I have one very nosy neighbour, she openly admits she sits at her kitchen table most of the day watching everything. She has made snide comments to me about the fact that I have a few gentlemen callers, she clearly doesn’t approve of my lifestyle! I despise her and if she corners me and starts quizzing me, I deliberately give her incorrect information to send her on a wild goose chase.

Another neighbour opposite is one to whom I’ve never spoken, when I moved in here all the others came to introduce themselves and welcome me, it’s a small road with only 8 houses. Anyway, he never came near me, which is obviously fine. But then a year later, when I was having building work done he came over one day and started talking to the builders about what they were doing and asked to be shown around. I was furious when I heard it.

A lot of people seem to have read somewhere that AI uses dashes, and concluded that any post with a dash MUST be AI

I was bored enough to copy and paste the original post into 3 separate AI detectors and they are all “highly confident” the post was written by a human

This really makes me appreciate my neighbours, we're not in each others pockets, no monitoring of movements or cars, no whatsapp group or self appointed boss of the street (ugh) just a friendly wave if we pass each other, don't get me wrong they would help out in an emergency but otherwise we keep ourselves to ourselves which just the way I like it!