To be suspicious of somebody taking a photo of my house?

[Sixisthemagicnumber]

I was sitting in the living rom when I noticed a car drive up, stop outside my house, the passenger window wound down and the passenger took a photo of my house using a phone camera. I don't recognise these people and couldn't get outside quick enough to ask them what the hell they were doing as they drove off straight after taking the photo and I had a toddler under my feet. There were two women in the car - fairly young. I did manage to read the number plate and wrote it down as soon as I could. We are a small street - only 20 houses and they didn't take a picture of any other house.
Why would somebody do this?
I can only think they were up to no good.

There are some task based apps where you are paid to do little jobs (like mini mystery shop type things). One of them sometimes has tasks for mapping companies, I can remember seeing some where you had to photograph the houses at each end of a street/cul-de-sac etc, or some where you had to photograph a particular feature.

Yesterday we were taking photographs of the local area for son's homework, sure we got a few random houses in there too!

I took a photo of a couple of houses recently which probably looked fairly random. They were painted the exact colour I want to paint mine. I debated knocking at the door and hoping someone remembered the colour but took a photo instead to show the painter.

Picture taken from inside a car is unlikely to give them any more details that a quick look at Google street view. I really wouldn't worry - there are a thousand different reasons to take a picture - all of which are entirely harmless. I really don't think that someone planning to do a place over would drive round the district in a car with her mate, number plates clearly on view, snapping away at possible targets.

I've done this when I liked someone's porch

It could be an idea for their own house.
They could be casing the place.
They could be hoping to apply for planning nearby and using your house model as a support of similar build in the area.
You could report it to the police so they are aware of suspicious behaviour.

Photos often taken by delivery people. Not a problem.
I might be taking photos of houses myself, as my dfather holds freeholds on properties and I'm collating information about them to prepare for sale.
I'd love to take pics of old houses that still have the original stained glass in the windows, just for my own pleasure, but don't dare.

Nobody said call 999
There's nothing wrong with calling 111 with something that could be something or could be nothing.. it might be relevant to something else that's going on in the area that you don't know about, and 111 isn't taking police away from "real crimes"

presuming you mean 101, by calling them you are taking the police (or rather the staff) away from real crimes, as the same people who answer 999 calls answer the 101 ones. Only the 999 jump the queue. But while you're gassing to the operator about summat or nowt, a 999 call could be now queuing unanswered

OP I honestly wouldn't be concerned, I genuinely can't see what info they'd get to case the joint/break in by taking a snap of the outside (which as others have said is easy enough to get on google) If you'd found them in the bck garden, maybe

gah, was hasn't that text gone in bold? I wish you could quote on this forum, I feel like I'm on Confetti circa 2005

In the last few months I have taken pictures of strangers' houses because :

I liked the style of the front door
I liked the colour of the front door
I liked the sentry box porch on the front of the house
I liked the shutters in the window
The house was once my ancestors' (Victorian terrace rather than Mansion!)

It doesn't have to be a pokestop, it could just be a Pokemon creature which can appear anywhere randomly. I was catching Pokemon in the lift at work today, walking down the corridor, one in my kitchen this morning......

I didn't know people were still doing the Pokemon stuff! Is it still a 'thing' then?

Having reflected , thenpokemon fo thing seems the most likely explanation. It baffles me that two women would be driving around photographing Pokemon characters, but then I don't really understand Pokemon go.

I'm in Wichita Kansas United States of America, and every 2-3 weeks some one drives by in a car in the middle of the night and takes a picture, and every time DCF Department of Children and Families, and or the Police show up asking to check the house

Zombie thread

There was a Pikachu in my house for a while, my front wall became a gathering point for teenagers/adult weirdos.

People may laugh and it may have an innocent explanation but people have taken pictures of houses and then listed them fraudulently for private rent or on air bnb as scams so I think you’re right to be concerned. I’d maybe check right move/zoopla/air bnb just to check your house isn’t on there!

I photographed a few houses in a town I visited a few years ago, in one house my father had grown up, in another my grandfather had been born. I am interested in family history. Could this be a possibility??

I've done this in the past.

My reason: I do a lot of family history research and the house was one that my ancestors had lived in. I have been known to photograph whole villages/hamlets and spend literally hours in one churchyard photographing graves.

ZOMBIE THREAD

How do people even randomly find threads that are NEARLY A YEAR OLD??

Not to alarm you but they could be car thieves. Around here, there are often men sitting in white vans, eating sandwiches and on phones. They are actually car thieves masquerading as builders! They have an "order list" for certain cars. There is no off-street parking where we live, so they want to see which houses owners of the cars they're targeting live in. Then they break into your house for car keys, nothing else.
We have had this happen twice. The first time DH was away and I didn't even realise anyone had got in until the car wasn't there for the school run. The second time he chased them. Now we have a mega security system as this has happened to lots of neighbours.

Maybe they want to use your street as a film set? We have also had this happen.

Oh sorry, didn't realise this was a zombie thread

If I were a burglar casing houses to see which ones looked worth robbing I'd be using Google Streetview from the comfort of my sofa.

As an architect I do this a lot! I also recommend clients take a photo if they see something they like as that’s a lot easy than trying to explain it sometimes.

I really wouldn’t worry too much.