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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Strange happenings in the street

106 replies

CanadaMoose91 · 06/08/2017 23:10

I live on a fairly small Close with only 14 houses, so traffic is minimal. Only the residents park here and it's a very family friendly area in the Midlands.

For the past few nights around 10:30-2:00, I have been hearing cars and relatively quiet closing of doors in the street. DH and I have noticed a large white van (no windows) coming only at night, and we really though nothing of it until tonight.

At around 10:35 tonight, a car pulled up beside the van and a man got out with a flashlight on his phone. I know I sound like a busybody, but it was odd, so I watched from the window - the man walked to the van, unlocked it, sat in it with the door open for a few minutes and then got out, locked the door, went back to the car, and did the same thing with both the driver and passenger seat of the car. He did this multiple times between the car and the van, for nearly 25 minutes, then went into my neighbour's house (he is not my neighbour, though she did open her door to him without speaking). Throughout all of this, he was shining his flashligh around and looking at upper-level windows of all the houses around.

Should I be concerned about myself? Should I be concerned about my neighbour? Should I be ringing police? Or AIBU and need to go to sleep?

OP posts:
CanadaMoose91 · 06/08/2017 23:13

Quick update: The guy's car alarm just went off and he and neighbor have gone outside and back in without shutting it off. It's the only car in the area the alarm is coming from. Weird, no?

OP posts:
Madwoman5 · 06/08/2017 23:13

Ring 101 and report it. They may send someone if they think there is a chance of drugs/ burglary

GloveBug · 06/08/2017 23:14

Sounds weird. I think I would report to 101 just in case

64PooLane · 06/08/2017 23:15

So intriguing!

They came out but didn't deal with the alarm, and went back in? Confused

PearlyPinkNails · 06/08/2017 23:15

Very weird. What's your neighbour like?

Yukbuck · 06/08/2017 23:16

So is the car alarm going off now?
What's the neighbour like normally? Family? Live alone? Drugs maybe?

GloveBug · 06/08/2017 23:16

How odd. Why would they not turn the alarm off?

64PooLane · 06/08/2017 23:16

It sounds weird but it's hard to see how it could be drugs/burglary. Or am I just kind of naive? (Actually I am quite naive tbh)

amermaideindesguise · 06/08/2017 23:16

.

Mumof56 · 06/08/2017 23:18

Drugs was the first thing I thought of. But leaving the car alarm going is hardly stealth so IdkHmm

64PooLane · 06/08/2017 23:20

Why are people saying drugs though? What exactly about drug stuff would require someone to move repeatedly from the seat of a car to the seat of a van and back again for 25 minutes, without any other apparent activity?

CanadaMoose91 · 06/08/2017 23:21

The alarm is now off, but they didn5come back out. The neighbour is a young single mum, really nice.

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Yukbuck · 06/08/2017 23:23

Maybe it's her partner? Are any of the vehicles hers? Perhaps he was looking for something in the car. But really odd that he was shining torch at people's houses

kingfishergreen · 06/08/2017 23:23

It's the neighbour's brother/friend/lover he's lost his car keys, thought he could have left them in the van, or they had dropped somewhere in the car - he couldn't turn off the car alarm without the fob.

RockyBird · 06/08/2017 23:23

Deliberate alarm going off to see who peers out of their windows.

If nobody looks out, house presumably empty, then burgled?

Though even I can see flaws in that plan Grin

Starsandwishes · 06/08/2017 23:24

Seems odd. says something pointless to mark place

64PooLane · 06/08/2017 23:25

I'm going to say SPIES or undercover excitingness, and that the alarm was deliberate for some reason. Diverting attention from something else.

Nice single mum = covert operative

GardenGeek · 06/08/2017 23:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

64PooLane · 06/08/2017 23:26

OP, I'm afraid we're going to need you to stay up all night and keep watch.

CanadaMoose91 · 06/08/2017 23:28

Have text neighbour in case she was in trouble - she says her step brother has come to stay. Doesn't explain any of the weirdness with the van, flashlight or car alarm though!

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Longdistance · 06/08/2017 23:28

Police watching one of the houses?

Hippywannabe · 06/08/2017 23:29

Watch and post!

Pippilottalongstocking · 06/08/2017 23:29

I thought the same as RockyBird, seeing if anyone reacts to the alarm and repeated opening and closing of doors, obviously if they do it's not worth attempting to break in

64PooLane · 06/08/2017 23:31
Brew
CanadaMoose91 · 06/08/2017 23:31

I appear to be the only one reacting to the alarm, as I couldn't see anyone elsenbeing nosy. Ooh, a horn has just gone off!

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