To say that this is why people don't answer doors

[RachelGreep87]

There a number of scams such as this one where a "damsel in distress" will get into your house and do god knows what.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9244545/Moment-woman-caught-doorbell-cam-trying-way-house-shouting-need-help.html

All of you devil-may-care door openers are potentially welcoming this into your home.

There is no reason to answer the door to unannounced callers.

YABU - I am willing to gamble my life and answer the door at anytime
YANBU - Not answering the door if I'm not expecting anyone

If someone rang my doorbell at 5am and actually managed to wake me up at that hour, I'd shout at them from my bedroom window. Don't you dare interrupt my sleep!

I don't answer the door unless I know who it is. I also don't answer the phone unless I know who it is.

@StillCoughingandLaughing An emoji isn’t a swear word unless I’ve missed something.

And no, I won’t answer your question as you are rude. Use your common sense.

No wonder the police force is in the state it’s in...

@StillCoughingandLaughing And why is that then? Because a poster won’t answer your daft question on mumsnet?

Is it just me who thinks the woman might actually need help? The dog was barking the whole time so don't think it was that what scared her...... she seems a bit frantic

Then why would she say 'hold on, I'm just knocking on the door' into her phone?

There was nothing daft about the question. Which is more than I can say about you and your comments.

@SilverBirchWithout

YABU.How do people get the meters read?

Surely it depends on where you live, though.

I don’t think I’ve had someone call to read the meters in 20 years. I’ve just always done it myself.

To answer the OP, I never consider I’m risking my life answering the door, although our only visitors are Amazon & the postman, & they quickly hot foot it down the steps (to our door) straight after ringing the bell.

I do feel differently if it’s dark though, & will look out the window before opening the door (which is always locked).

I think if you're at the point of not answering your own door you have significant mental health issues to be honest and I'd find it hard to be persuaded otherwise. It's not rational to believe answering your own door puts you at significant risk or that most people are out to get you, massively inconvenience you, take your money etc. The exception is if you're a grumpy old sod who wants to be left alone - that I can understand even if I don't relate to it!

I think with many people it’s just anti social behaviour, they don’t want to deal with people.

However I’d agree, if the op thinks she’s gambling her life by answering the door then sadly there is a significant mental health issue that she need support with.

I'm one of those weird people that doesn't open the door unless I am expecting anyone.
None of my friends would call around unannounced just as I wouldn't show up on their doorstep either.
It's pointless me answering the door - it won't be anyone I want to talk to or anything interesting. Round here (in another European country) it's one of the following:
a) Jehovah's Witnesses (at least once a month)
b) people begging for charities trying to get you to set up a direct debit
c) the frozen bread company or the frozen food catalogue woman who screamed at me the one time I made the mistake of opening the door (because I was expecting someone else) and when I refused to take the catalogue she just launched into a tirade of expletives at me which continued long after I'd closed the door
d) the neighbour wanting me to fix her TV or give her food because her deceased mother's boyfriend (who now seems to show up once in a while when he wants "company") has spent all of her money on booze.
e) the TV licence people wanting to explain the rules about the TV licensing again and trying to get me to fill in a form declaring I have a TV and/or radio (I don't have either)

So no... can't be arsed. In fact my bell is switched off at the moment and has been since the last lockdown began.

Two stories.
I was out and DH was home. Sudden banging on the door. It was the woman over the road. She is nice enough but has a drink problem. She’d come over because she’d set the kitchen on fire and didn’t know what to do. DH call the fire service and then went over to check. It was a very small fire and everyone was ok. What would have happened if he hadn’t opened the door?

Early one morning there was a knock at the door. I answered and found the two girls, who live in a different house over the road, there with their dad, who didn’t live with them. Without going into details we took the girls in for the morning until we could track down their mum.

Now I didn’t benefit from either situation there but I’m glad in both I didn’t take the ‘I don’t answer the door unless I have 3 weeks notice’ view.

Also 3 time in the last year I’ve knocked to tell someone they have left their keys in the door. I’m bet they’re glad they answered too.

I wouldn't usually think twice about answering the door.

Might be different if I lived somewhere like Ilford though as the person in the story, and especially if it was the middle of the night and/ or I was on my own. I feel like the busier/ more urban somewhere is the more likely there is to be a weirdo at your door.

My DH, not realising the chain was on, opened the front door and entered our home one day. The chain was left in about 3 pieces on the hall carpet.

Kind of not fit for purpose there door chain.

read the article (lord forgive me for clicking on the daily mail). so a woman knocked on one door, knocked on another and ran off? and the police when approached for comment said they'd had no reports about any of it, so couldn't comment. so a lot of pearl clutching and frothing about nothing then. is it a slow news week or something?

I often hang out of the front room window, next to the front door, if the caller looks dodgy or is unexpected.

At 5am I'd definitely shout down from my bedroom window upstairs rather than go down and immediately open the door.
But during the day I do open the door. If it's a chugger or JW or political canvassers I just say 'no thank you' and close it again. I don't find that too difficult.

If the scariest thing in your life is agonising about answering a knock on the door you live a truly blessed existence, be happy about it

Of course I’m being fucking serious. Why do you find that so hilarious? Surely it isn’t beyond your reasoning to work out that someone ignoring the door because they thought it was the Jehovahs or someone flogging dusters might be more inclined to answer if it was the police?

You'd probably know from the knock tbh. Even though I've only had the police knocking on my door because I'd been a crime victim they still knocked like they were trying to raise the dead each time.

I read the daily mail article in the OP. I am not quite sure that was actually necessarily a scam. People do act very irrationally in stress sometimes. I don't think a gang of house burglars would start a break-in from screaming loudly in the middle of the night, and then darting off to do the same at the neighbours' door when no one opened.

Maybe I am taking it too personally as I was "outed" as a scammer in a local facebook group once - I was looking for my cat and knocked on a couple of doors at the other end of the street (where the cat has darted off, being chased by someone's dog). By the third "witness" comment under that post I apparently was at least 8 feet tall, wielding a knife or maybe even a samurai sword, drunk to a state of incomprehension, a car full of burly foreign men was seen waiting for me around the corner etc...

I was out and DH was home. Sudden banging on the door. It was the woman over the road. She is nice enough but has a drink problem. She’d come over because she’d set the kitchen on fire and didn’t know what to do. DH call the fire service and then went over to check. It was a very small fire and everyone was ok. What would have happened if he hadn’t opened the door?

She would have rung a different doorbell (just as she’d have had to do if your husband had been out too)? Or shouted ‘Help, my kitchen’s on fire’? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think if it was my door, I might just be a bit more flexible if I heard that. Or do people in a panic because their house is on fire just knock once and shrug when there’s no answer, perhaps grabbing a bag of marshmallows to toast?

I dont answer to just anyone
But its easy to tell, anyone who knows us or has been here before knows what door we use as our main entrance, plus we have cameras and can see who is where. Plus we expect them, they call, text or its a delivery.
Everyone else always gets the wrong door so i know not to answer, 9 times out of 10 its god botherers so not worth the effort to answer

Its not fear for my life, i just cant be arsed dealing with people if i dont have too
My MIL call or texts 24 hours before she comes over too, i mean she does live 1.5 hours away so it makes sense to make sure we home and not busy when she wants to come up
The delivery guy for local takeaway beeps as he pulls up

@user1732578431456

Of course I’m being fucking serious. Why do you find that so hilarious? Surely it isn’t beyond your reasoning to work out that someone ignoring the door because they thought it was the Jehovahs or someone flogging dusters might be more inclined to answer if it was the police?

You'd probably know from the knock tbh. Even though I've only had the police knocking on my door because I'd been a crime victim they still knocked like they were trying to raise the dead each time.

Well exactly. The way some people are talking on this thread, everyone gently knocks once and then leaves if there’s no immediate answer, whether they’re flogging dusters or trying to let you know there’s a burst gas main and the street is on fire.

YABU I will always open my door if someone knocks. I only lock it before going to bed at night.

Although this is a very dramatic incident, this has not happened in this area, or I would have heard about it, as there is a community, and the message would get around, partly (before covid) by calling in on people.

There are risks of not opening the door to people too!

I read the daily mail article in the OP. I am not quite sure that was actually necessarily a scam. People do act very irrationally in stress sometimes. I don't think a gang of house burglars would start a break-in from screaming loudly in the middle of the night, and then darting off to do the same at the neighbours' door when no one opened.

this was my take as well. no one knows for sure there even was a scam. no one called the police, not even to do the mn fave hobby of 'logging it with 101'. it's a massive non event that has somehow made it into the papers to fulfil the dm's weekly 'vague things that scare already quite silly people even sillier silly' quota . anyone would think we weren't living through a period of massive worldwide political and social upheaval or something.

This reminds me of the time I had a malicious referral made to ss about me and they said one of their “concerns” was I don’t answer the door if people knock 🤣 wasn’t even true