Someone in my garden taking pictures of us inside?!

[cholla]

Something really flipping creepy happened to me last night and I guess I just need someone to say they believe me and I'm not going mad!

I was stood at our kitchen sink washing the dishes in between feeding my 9 mo ds who was sat in his high chair. There is a window directly in front of the sink which looks into our conservatory, which then looks into the garden. It was about 6pm and pitch black outside. Then suddenly there was a flash that seemed to come from the garden. By flash I mean the type of 'white' light that comes from a camera flash and I am convinced that someone was in the garden taking pictures of me and my son.

DH got home not long after and, while he hasn't directly said it, I know he just doesn't believe me. Okay so I was slightly hysterical by the time he got home but still...

so I guess I'm asking, AIBU to expect not to be treated like a child who has fabricated something out of nothing? Or is it likely to have been something other than a camera flash? DH keeps saying 'the light in the conservatory must have blown and that is what you saw' but I KNOW 1. The light wasn't on and 2. What a light from a camera flash looks like.

Someone tell me I'm not a hormonal hysterical mess and it might have been someone taking a picture. I feel like I'm going mad!

Did you go outside to investigate?

Could it have been someone using a drone? Do they flash?

What does the back of your garden face onto, could someOne be taking photos, but not of you, in the opposite direction? I'd they had their back to you?

The light can play tricks. When we first moved here I was convinced one night someone with s torch was walking up through the garden, but it was a neighbours light I could see through the trees.

Why didt you go and shout at them from the window

I believe you OP. There are some weird people around.

Is there easy access to your garden that an intruder could have gotten last?

Past!

does your garden back onto other gardens? someone in another garden taking a photo?

i believe you if you say it was a camera flash, but i think its a bit of a stretch to assume it was someone taking photos of you/your son.

Maybe they saw a squirrel? Or a bat?

I don't think that a camera from outside innthe dark would be able to take a pic of people inside innthe light, unless it it was it was right it was right up against the window. Was it, or was it further away?

But you seem to be very worried that you won't be believed - what is making you feel this way?

Get a motion sensor security light - if anyone goes in the garden it will light them up

I don't think that a camera from outside innthe dark would be able to take a pic of people inside innthe light, unless it it was it was right it was right up against the window.

Yes it can.

Are there houses nearby up for sale at the moment, perhaps it was a prospective purchaser just taking photos of the vicinity?

Or a neighbour taking a selfie.

I wouldn't have thought a flash would be much use taking a picture through a conservatory in the dark.
That's not denying you saw a flash though. Perhaps it was a drone. I'd freak out too.

That's the thing, our garden backs onto other gardens and would be pretty difficult for an intruder to get in but I'm not saying it's impossible!

I didn't go outside/shout etc because I was home alone with a baby and felt very vulnerable. I live in a very rural village and didn't feel safe if there was someone there.

Could have been a drone, I don't know much about them but the light was what you would expect from a camera/phone flash taking a picture.

My mam has told me to download a sound bite of a big angry dog and my dad has suggested carrying pepper round the house

There are some weird people out there but surely any stalker worthy of the name would have the sense to turn the flash off? Unless that's part of their "game" I suppose.

If this is a one-off, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If there is anything else to make you feel concerned, speak to the police.

It could be a lot of things. A firework, someone flashing their torch on and off, a piece of space-debris burning up. It could be a camera flash of course, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's some sicko in your garden. It depends on how your garden is structured - is it fully enclosed, or could someone have wandered in looking for their dog, and used the flash to see if they could see see it? Or someone in an alleyway photographing something completely random (I do that all the time, but try to be aware of people around me!).

I don't doubt that you saw something, but it is impossible for anyone to say with any certainty whether your assumption about it being something sinister is correct.

It's hard to describe but there's no way it could've been someone in another garden etc

If you garden backs on to others, could you go round and ask those neighbours to see if they saw anything? Is it possible it was one of them taking a picture in their own garden?

If there is some weirdo out there, it's possible someone else in the area would have seen something (not necessarily the flash, but someone acting strangely). 6pm is not late and plenty of people will be out and about at that time quite legitimately, perhaps they will have seen something?

Also because of the light in the kitchen, you would be able to take a clear picture without the flash. My thinking is that if it was someone they must have forgot to switch the flash off.

I am not crazy, I'm sure!

the thing is you could have been mistaken, really. as you said your garden is inaccessible and I think when panicked our brain goes into a fairly fixed threat mode

I second the motion sensor light, as whatever happens that will put people off , and make you calmer

Cross-post, you just answered my "someone else in their garden" question before I asked it.

Like I said before, I completely believe you that you saw something and that you can't explain it. Hopefully this is just a one-off incident. If not, make sure you record any unexplainable things like this and let the police know.

Keep your curtains/blinds drawn after dusk until you can install a security light.

I've got a few cameras and they all do a 'dot dit dot flaaaaash' when the flash goes - so 3 short red blasts then the full flash.

You saw something but it is most likely something else.

Put up a security light if it happens again.

Have you ever had migraines/headaches?

I only ask because, back along when I used to suffer much more than I do now, I sometimes used to see 'flashes' of light in dark rooms. I'd be standing there going 'lightening!' or 'what was that?' and everyone would stare at me as if I was mad.

Turned out to be a kind of 'aura' migrane. I still sometimes see something that looks like a car headlight very quickly illuminating a corner of a room, but it's just how it works with me. Could giving birth have triggered migraines, if you don't suffer already? Btw, now I just the the auras and not the headaches, so it's weird...

I don't think I'd feel so upset about it if I had been taken seriously by DH. I'm pretty sure he thinks I've got baby brain. I'm still an adult. I'm not a liar!