Bit weird or not?

[Foxysoxy01]

I'm not sure if I'm being a bit ridiculous so could do with some advice or a good talking too!

Bit of background needed but this may be quite long, sorry

Where I live it is quite rural. I have a dog I walk morning and night around the same time each day but not same time on the dot. I sometimes walk on my own (with dog) sometimes with someone else (more often than not in the evenings)

There are two walks both rural with no street lights and nothing other than the odd tractor, walker, horse rider etc etc. Just to add neither of these walks lead anywhere other than one to a house that then branches off to a longer walk.

So the track I went down today has a house at the top, one a bit further down then nothing till the big house at the end where it branches off.

The middle house (although closer to top of track than middle) goes garden, house, gateway, garden, shed, fence, big tree with the track running along side.

So that's the background now what happened.

I have walked past the middle house, down to big house and am on my way back. I see someone coming and get dog back on lead. The person notices me and moves quickly from right hand side of track to under the big tree (just off left hand side of track) just behind shed of house. Person lights a fag and turns around facing tree.

I find this bit odd but carry on as I get next to him he is still just off track under tree and facing the actual tree. I'm getting a bit on edge as this is clearly a bit strange behaviour.

I say good evening (admittedly I might have sounded a bit nervous) the person turns round while lifting their hood up so I cannot see their face.

I walk past quite briskly! (I'm not sure if IABU but something about the person did frighten me)

As I get nearer the middle house gates I see they are not in as car is not on drive (there is a mid 30's woman on her own living there) I stop and turn to look thinking I wouldn't actually hear if the person ran up behind me. They are still under tree looking straight ahead (not at me, but across the track into side with hedge)

I carry on and as I get to the next house I look again but can't see him and I was not about to walk back and see if he was still there.

Now the whole behaviour of this person was off. They very clearly did not want me to see their face. They were either an incredibly burly woman or a man, fairly thickset about 6ft obviously in black and just quite terrifying.

I am home alone tonight and just a bit worried I suppose that he was either waiting for a person walking (maybe not with good intentions!) or to break into the middle house? Or the thought did cross my mind if was he waiting for my but chicken'd out.

The woman that lived on her own is I suppose fairly vulnerable as her house is a bit away from any others and she is on her own (the house is quite large and obviously worth a fair bit of money so you would presume there could be antiques etc)

This all happened about an hour ago now so it was dark.

I'm not sure if I'm just being silly or should o go and check if he is still there? Phone someone? Or just ignore it all.

Writing it all down makes me think I am over reacting and the bloke maybe just wanted a walk but it really didn't feel like that at the time. His behaviour seemed odd and his body language was quite menacing tbh.

What do the collective of MN think?

Sorry it was so long!

[Harvestwidow]

I hope your friend gets there soon, at least you've got your dog with you!

[Littlehenrylee]

Is it your friend with you now Foxy?

[NettleTea]

could he be a teen from one of the houses, back from uni or something, or forced to spend boring time with relatives, and just wanted to get out for a bit. Maybe he saw you and didnt want to look like he was following you to give you the creeps, so just lurked under the tree looking sullen?

[Foxysoxy01]

The face thing was odd. Without that it would have been a bit strange but I would not have thought anymore of it.

Friend is just round corner apparently so will re cap it all for her then get some sleep.
I will let you know if anything happens at all.

Thanks for the hand hold

[WobblingWilma]

Don’t be terrified - it all ended happily, the bloke got arrested.

I was terrified for 10 minutes when I realised what had happened, but then pleased that he hadn’t been able to break in and my flat was secure

But the thing I learnt was if you are worried, call the police

Good that your friend is coming over. It’s probably nothing but do call the police if your concerns continue, they won’t mind.

[StarWarsFanatic]

I would suggest calling 101 if anything else alerts your suspicions. Hope your friend gets there soon.

I was convinced I could hear someone whistling when I was in the shower & OH was out. Went around checking the flat with a bat in hand, even though I figured it must have been a window cleaner. Same thing happened again a few days later. It was only the third time it happened that I realised it was my shampoo bottle

[HangryHanderson]

I got freaked out by the cat killer link but only because the adjacent story was about the man with the world's largest dong. He's been hanging weights off it since he was a teenager apparently and so it's mainly foreskin.

[Bodear]

Will you let us know when she gets there? Hate to sound thoroughly over-invested but well, I am! And thanks to the bloody cat killer links absolutely no chance of sleep

[Littlehenrylee]

What would you do if you had a medical emergency? Is there somebody you could ring that is nearer than a thirty minutes drive away? Esp if emergency vehicles take up to five hours to get to your area?
Have you an alarm? If so, is it linked to a police station?
I think if you live alone in a rural environment you should do your best to know your neighbours and have contacts in place should they be necessary.
It is also very possible that your neighbours turn out to be lovely people.

[impossible]

There is probably an innocent explanation but there is no reason at all why you shouldn't call for help if you are concerned. Generally the police would prefer to know about possible crimes.

Incidentally, you should call 999 for a situation in progress. For example, if you are worried about someone's welfare (your own included) or there may be a crime in progress dial 999. This will get you an emergency response.

Call 101 to report a crime that has already been committed (and has not just happened). An example would be if your car has been stolen or you suspect drug dealing in your neighbourhood. The police will log this and act on it when they have dealt with the 999s.

If you feel unsafe call 999.

[Foxysoxy01]

She's here, putting kettle on for a quick cuppa then to bed!

Just to answer Nettle, he could've walked straight past me as he was walking towards big house and I had turned round and was walking towards home. Or he could've grunted when I said evening. It was weird the way he saw me darted across the track to the tree just off the track, lit a fag and turned to face the tree so I couldn't see his face. Then to turn round as I got to him pulling his hood up.

[Foxysoxy01]

The emergency services aren't actually 5 hours away I was being flippant about that sorry, they can get out to us fairly quickly if needed it's just that they never do as we are out in the arse end of nowhere so it tends to take about 3 days for a non emergency pcso to come out.

[64BooLane]

Wow, this thread. I’m glad your friend is there now!

How many times did you hear the whistled tune?

[LifeLaundry]

I dont think I’m easily frightened, but this thread has scared me.

I hope you’re ok Foxy.

[StarWarsFanatic]

A good brew solves everything :)

Seriously though, get neighbours' numbers in case of emergencies. I got a call from one saying my smoke detector was going off when we weren't home. He couldn't smell smoke though and the ones in our building, put in at the same time, had recently been replaced due to malfunction. Meant I could run home & deactivate them and check on my poor cat who was traumatised by the loud noise and get battery powered ones from the shop across the road until I could get my electrician out to replace the mains ones.

[SheGotBetteDavisEyes]

Is your friend staying over OP?

[Motoko]

I'm surprised you don't have Neighbourhood Watch in your area. Where I live is similar and we do.

But I don't think you should be trying to persuade yourself it's nothing. He was obviously dodgy, and the whistling could be a crim calling to his mate.
It would have been a very foolhardy thing to do if you had gone back out (with a poker, an obvious offensive weapon as you wouldn't carry one normally).

In the morning, ring 101 again and tell them about the whistling. It was obviously a signal.

I do think you should put a note through the door of the woman's house, letting her know. You don't have to knock and speak to her. Might also be an idea to let the people at the big house know, with a note, too.
This is what Neighbourhood Watch would do. We were warned when the house down the lane was burgled. They had big dogs too, but it didn't put the burglars off.

I'm glad your friend is with you now and I hope you get some sleep.

[Madbee]

Even just reading that properly freaked me out. So glad your friend is there, hope it is an uneventful night.

[LoveProsecco]

Hope you are now fast asleep

[springydaff]

I'm amazed you have dithered about calling the police.

For goodness sake, your instincts were screaming. Please listen to your instincts!!

[threehoursin]

at the whistling

Hope you've had a peaceful night, OP.

[BitOutOfPractice]

Crikey op this has given me the heebie jeebies. Hope you've had a peaceful night

[horatioisabrick]

I’ve just read all of that. How scary! You’ve got a good friend, OP.

[Lukeandlorelai4Ever]

How did you sleep op?

[Foxysoxy01]

Morning all.

Nothing to report other than at the front side of the garden there was a bunch of wilted flowers (not quite dead but definitely past it) It looks like someone just chucked them as rubbish but I'm back from the road a bit so it could have been someone chucking them and they just happened to have a lucky shot but it would be a bit unlikely. I will add though that they weren't artistically arranged or put in a prominent place they were just sort of randomly chucked there.

Took the dog this morning and all was well. Middle house looked secure and nobody was about. There was nothing by the tree and the big house at end looked fine, the owners were in so they must have finished work for Xmas. (Can't imagine anyone trying to break into there now it's like a light factory there at Xmas)

Thanks all for the hand hold last night.

Just to clear up about the police, I did ring them the first time. They did log it all but that was all they would do. I didn't want to phone them unless something serious happened. It all sounds scary in the heat of the moment but when you break it down to tell someone it is literally saw a strange bloke, logged it with police, thought I heard someone whistling, saw some rubbish in my garden this morning. I don't think the police would be happy if I called them again tbh.

I will see what tonight brings. My friend is walking tonight with me and DH home tonight so fingers crossed it should all be quiet!