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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Somebody rung my doorbell at 6.30am! Why??

129 replies

ThatsSoFetch · 24/12/2018 07:27

I live on my own with my 2 children - 4 and 9 - and not in the nicest neighbourhood but honestly we have never had any problems. This morning though at 6.30am somebody rung my doorbell!

I went downstairs, peeped through the peephole and saw there was a person stood there but couldn't make out a face as it was dark. I asked through the door several times 'Who is it?' Very loudly I might add! And got no reply.

So I ran upstairs to get my phone - in case I needed to call the police - ran back to front door and proceeded to ask who they were again. Still no answer. So ran to my living room (3 storey house so this is upstairs) to look out the window to watch someone leaving but nobody left so they must have left the front door before I physically had eyes on it - window is locked so took a few seconds longer to locate the key.

I don't need to ask the question of if any of you would have opened the door as I'm fairly sure you would have all not opened it either but - I thought should I ring the police anyway on the non urgent line just to mention it? Bearing in mind I couldn't tell them anything about who it was.

Equally pretty worried about the house - we have motorbikes in the garage and it's that time of year isn't it!!!!

OP posts:
Lana1234 · 24/12/2018 08:13

I had a very drunk man when I was in my old flat try and get in. It was about 6am and he was absolutely wasted. Could be something like that or a delivery for a neighbour? I wouldn’t have opened the door in your position but I wouldn’t phone the police over it

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 24/12/2018 08:13

We've had Amazon deliveries this week well before 8am.

floribunda18 · 24/12/2018 08:15

As for people saying "Burglars never announce their arrival". Plenty do knock at the door. Often those intending to use violence and intimidation to find out where your car keys are.

MagnificentSevenHeaven · 24/12/2018 08:17

DH opened the door at 6.40 this morning... it was a postman with a package.....

I love my postie, but if he'd rung my bell at 06:40 he'd get the rough side of my tongue.

Unless you had lights on & it was obvious people were up of course.

GnomeDePlume · 24/12/2018 08:18

6.30 is very much daytime for me. Probably someone who got the wrong house number. Your 'who is it?' response plus delay alerted them to that so they went away.

FestiveNut · 24/12/2018 08:20

Clearly a Christmas Eve ghost...

👻

Ratbagcatbag · 24/12/2018 08:20

We had a spate of break ins in our area yesterday (think 5 or 6). In the middle of the day. Some of the victims had cctv hidden. In those cases it showed the burglars ringing door bells first to establish if people were home.
So not all burglars are tucked up in bed waiting for the dark night to go about their business.

I wouldn't have opened the door either.

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 24/12/2018 08:23

Some people on here are awful. I have PTSD and the door is a massive trigger to me. One of the reasons is because someone knocked my parents' door when I was a child at half seven in the morning, my mum answered because she thought something had happened to my DGF and a man held her at knife point while another grabbed her handbag. It was absolutely terrifying. Naice area too.

You were right not to answer OP. Especially as they didn't answer you.

Babymamamama · 24/12/2018 08:24

I would check if there is a parcel left on your doorstep.

Tumbleweed101 · 24/12/2018 08:24

I would have likely opened the door - but my area is fairly safe and it would likely be a delivery or someone needing help. I think you judge that kind of thing by the place you live.

I wouldn’t call the police this time - someone may have got wrong house - but would if it happened again.

ittakes2 · 24/12/2018 08:26

I think you might find there is a package at your door or something.

FBEH · 24/12/2018 08:27

I’d put money on it being someone casing the house. If they were genuine they would have rung again. The hello probably scared them away.

This time of year it’s common for burglars to see who is away for Christmas in this fashion.

Hofuckingho · 24/12/2018 08:28

I would definitely not have opened the door. Well done you.

FBEH · 24/12/2018 08:28

Oh brw if you don’t find a genuine reason I would just let police know on the non emergency line

mumof2sarah · 24/12/2018 08:28

To all those saying not to ring the none emergency number. That's what it's there for. I remember an officer telling me that, if you find something strange/dodgy etc to just ring up report it or ask for advice, especially things like that. They then add it to a report for the day in the area, if something did happen I.e a burglary they'd have a lot of other suspicious things and be able to piece it all together and maybe find the persons/incident on CCTV from further up the road etc. She's not asking for the police to come all flashing lights and sirens, or for them to send CSIs and CID she just wants to make them aware of something she found a bit strange and maybe dodgy. I've only rang them once (regarding something different) but the police women thanked me and said they'd prefer to be made aware rather than the unknown.

Hope you're ok OP x

Boredofthecommute · 24/12/2018 08:31

A lot of our local delivery drivers and posties wear headphones on their rounds and are unlikely to hear someone calling through. Could be absolutely nothing but if you see a neighbour maybe mention it to see if they had the same?

Hofuckingho · 24/12/2018 08:33

Those saying they would have opened the door, in the circumstances stated, need a reality check.

twoheaped · 24/12/2018 08:34

I would have opened the door but I am quite fortunate that I haven't met many ne'er do wells in my life and therefore don't automatically think everybody is up to no good.
I'm sure that stance would have changed had I been in when my drugged up skanky neighbour broke into my flat some years back.

fedupandlookingforchange · 24/12/2018 08:34

I would ring the non emergency line and report it to the police. I had a problem with my door bell being rung at odd times ( between midnight and 5 am) and I lived in a good area. There wasn’t a pattern to it, it happened over a long period of time, stupidly I didn’t report it and got so anxious about checking the house was secure before I went to bed and then not sleeping that I had to move.

MontyPants · 24/12/2018 08:35

Seriously glad you didn’t open the door OP!
If it was a genuine caller then they would have answered to your calls.
Likely someone checking if the house was occupied or not.
If you go out today, keep lights and TV/radio on. Make it look like house is occupied. Keep presents hidden, away from windows. If you don’t have a dog, Alexa has a good realistic bark setting.

And for anyone saying “the police have better things to deal with,” erm, no. This is the sort of thing that should be reported. They won’t attend, but they’ll log it so they can build a picture of what’s going on in local area. Trust me on this one. It will be genuinely useful if you give them a ring. Sounds like some local scrote is door-knocking to try their luck.

And yes, I appreciate it could just be a confused piss-head...

ARiverInEgypt · 24/12/2018 08:36

On Christmas Eve a lot of self-employed delivery people (eg Hermes) and even the Royal Mail will be up at the crack of dawn in order to try and work through an enormous backload of parcels. 6:30 seems highly plausible, and if I got a knock on the door at that time today from a postman with my parcel my (bleary) response would be “bless you darling postie, Christmas is saved”. Only if it was for me though: if it was for someone else then I’d be a bit miffed.

WhiteDust · 24/12/2018 08:36

If it was a delivery, surely they would have answered you when you shouted through the door?

You did right to keep the door shut.
I open the front room window or upstairs window to late at night knocks at the door & shout down.

diddl · 24/12/2018 08:37

I'm guessing not a parcel as Op must have checked by now-would have seen the van when she looked out of the window anyway &known then.

Plus they would have answered her!

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 24/12/2018 08:38

*I’d put money on it being someone casing the house. If they were genuine they would have rung again. The hello probably scared them away.

This time of year it’s common for burglars to see who is away for Christmas in this fashion.*

Oh come on... it's really not. People don't "case" houses by pressing doorbells and seeing if anyone answers. It would mean nothing if you didn't! You could be asleep, in the shower, having breakfast, getting dressed, hiding out behind the door with a massive frying pan...

People get really worked up about doorbells on here. Answer them if you want to; don't if you don't. I probably wouldn't have at 6:30 if I was feeling a bit fragile and wasn't expecting anyone, but I've answered it many times in the past. Keep the sneck on if you're worried.

People have rang my doorbell at 5:20 to give me 2 £50 notes they found in my front garden; around 6am to use my phone because their car had broken down, because they'd got a parcel for me or next door and wanted somewhere to put it, to ask for directions... and those are just the ones off the top of my head.

The downside of not answering the door is; as you always see in threads on here, you are left with no idea what the caller wanted. And if you dwell on that and you're anxious anyway, it makes it worse.

Plus it may well have taken you a while to get down three flights of stairs to shout hello anyway; and at 6:30am, the caller is going to expect people to be asleep and not wait too long. You probably just missed them and they'd gone before you got downstairs.

BehemothPullsThePeasantsPlough · 24/12/2018 08:39

Depends - if the OP yelled “who is it?!” in an understandably grumpy way then a delivery person might have decided she was unlikely to be understanding about taking a parcel in for a neighbour.