Heard something scary. Should I call police?

[HartleyHoots]

Was watching telly in bed and heard arguing outside. I live in a town centre so it happens often but I turned TV down as it sounded aggresive.

Sounded like a young couple (18ish) arguing and swearing at each other in the car park bend my row of terraces. Eventaully she yelled something and then I heard a loud bang followed by the bloke screaming "SHUT THE FUCK UP". Then it went silent, didn't hear anything else from either of them.

Would you call the police? I suspect a neighbout will anyway but I don't know what to do. Don't want to go out there.

Read about Kitty Genovese, chilling story

Absolutely. Very chilling. I remember studying it in uni and it makes total sense when you actually think about it.

Yep bystander effect. Glad someone checked and called police

Well, following your recommendation to read up on the Genovese case, it seems the reports were distorted and it really wasn't the case that lots of witnesses did nothing, but the newspapers didn't want to spoil the story so the inaccuracies were only recently revealed. Still a hideous murder case, but not unassailable proof that people do nothing to help, thankfully. And good on the OP for reporting in this case.

Oh god, I hope she was alright. I used to live near a pub and I heard drunken arguments/fights and domestic arguments fairly regularly :( As a single woman on your own you never want to go and investigate IME but it's good that your neighbour did.

Hope everything's OK.

I'm actually astonished that rather than just picking up the phone then and there and calling the police, you decided to pop on a forum and make a posting to ask what other people think.

While you were waiting for responses to help you make your mind up, anything could have been happening.

Hopefully, nothing more than an argument, but really, the mind boggles why you'd think "I'll see what the MN jury reckon I should do" is an appropriate response.

A tad harsh I think ShatnersWig. If you’re not expecting something alarming to happen and you are on your own with no one to quickly run your response past, it can be easy to second guess yourself.

extra calls just get logged to the same incident no so as long as you are clear with location it won't matter there are several calls it just can bump on the urgent list if there is alot of concern etc.

The bystander effect: don't expect neighbours to call, be the one who rolls the dice! Has no one watched SVU?

Hope you're okay tho OP. Hope the girl is okay too!

I was at WFH a few weeks ago when I heard a woman scream. Grabbed my phone and ran outside (in socks) to try to work out where it came from. 5 other neighbours (3 women, 2 men) ran out too, not bad for during the working day when many houses are empty, guess we are very lucky people care in our street!

Two young lads jumped over a fence and legged it down the road (too quick for any of us to even get a photo nevermind chase), turns out they broke into what they thought was an empty house, but the owners mum was visiting and at home upstairs, poor woman was elderly, Chinese with very broken English. The NDN stayed with her until the police arrived and her son came around all the neighbours that night to let them know what happened and/or to thank them for their help/concern.

I would always try to investigate or report a scream, if dh wasn't in I would knock on a neighbours door for some backup. The problem is if there isn't further noise it is difficult to trace.

Bit late to the thread and OP hasn't been back, but just adding that I once called the police when we heard shouting and screaming next door at midnight - I was outside standing at the top of our stairs (1st floor maisonette) on the phone to the call handler when I realised that 2 other people from the nearby flats were also standing outside, on the phone to police. The call handler was telling me that they'd had several calls and a car was on the way, when it all kicked off and the handler could hear the woman screaming. She asked me desperately if I could get to her, and I said I can't even see her but I'm not wading into that!

Turned out it was a drunken man terrorising his elderly mother. Common occurrence apparently.

Late to the thread, OP has disappeared and this is a huge tangent...

An old boss used the Kitty Genovese story at a staff meeting to make a point about no one reporting the bottle was empty on the water dispenser! Total prick!! He said it was like the bystander effect!!

@NannaNoodleman what a prick!