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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

"Watch out everybody, a white van was spotted in such and such street" and other such pointless panic-mongery

432 replies

ImNotACat · 17/02/2021 16:17

AIBU to be totally fucking sick of the "warnings" on local social media about absolutely bloody nothing?

Yeah, you saw a white van. OMFG the driver got out and left something on a doorstep then took a photo Shock Perhaps he's a delivery driver you thick drama llama.

And what? An Asian woman with glasses was taking photos of an empty house on your street?? Quick, log it with the police. She must be up to something. Or maybe, just maybe, she's a fucking estate agent?

A car drove slowly past as you walked your dog? Yes, BECAUSE ITS POURING and the driver was probs trying to avoid soaking you as they went through puddles.

A van was seen driving very slowly round Labyrinth Close with 2 men in the front peering at the front doors 😱 That would be because the numbers are arranged in some bizarre configuration that makes no sense and it's basically impossible to find your way around if you haven't been before. Every time I have to drop something off to that estate (I do local deliveries for work sometimes) I expect to see a post about a badly dressed woman driving a rustbucket and staring into people's gardens 🤣

I mean I know IABU to care about Facebook really but it's infuriating watching people getting so worked up about fuck all.

OP posts:
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Original poster
ImNotACat · 17/02/2021 16:17

PS the ones in my OP are genuine examples from the last 48 hours!

OP posts:
FossilisedFanny · 17/02/2021 16:20

Why are the police at Dumwell street? I dunno doing police stuff probably.

There’s a helicopter flying overhead, does anyone know why ?

And fireworks, the minute someone hears a bang , they’re straight onto SM complaining.

DisappearingGirl · 17/02/2021 16:21

Very true, that made me laugh! I want to know if the un-navigable road is really called Labyrinth Close :)

Also the posts about a missing dog etc ... it's not that I don't care about the dog, but if the people on your Facebook are scattered throughout the country/world it is unlikely any of them will spot the dog!

Original poster
ImNotACat · 17/02/2021 16:23

Oh god yes the missing dogs posts where the dog went missing in Fife in 2016, but that's not gonna stop Jackie from Plymouth sharing it today "just in case"

OP posts:
BlobbyYouTwat · 17/02/2021 16:24

We had one of these on FB yesterday, apparently there was a "foreign" man seen driving a white van around the village. Confused

Original poster
ImNotACat · 17/02/2021 16:25

It's always a "foreign" or "Eastern European" man, sometimes "one of our travelling friends". Like you can tell through a windscreen Confused

OP posts:
Plonque · 17/02/2021 16:26

@ImNotACat

Oh god yes the missing dogs posts where the dog went missing in Fife in 2016, but that's not gonna stop Jackie from Plymouth sharing it today "just in case"
My aunt is a bugger for that. She once shared one from America and regularly shares ones with that clearly say UPDATE, DOG HAS BEEN FOUND at the top. Can't fix stupid.
comedycentral · 17/02/2021 16:26

We have lots about cats 'Does anyone know this cat?' It keeps coming in my garden, it miaowed last Tuesday, my cats don't like it.

SimonJT · 17/02/2021 16:27

I love these postings on local facebook pages, they’re often posted by a small number of members.

We had one last year as there was a suspicious man outside my sons primary school everyday between 3:30-3:40. I was the suspicious man! Weirdly said busy body failed to mention that they saw me collecting the same child every single day.

A friend is a plumber, he often sees his van being reported for suspicious behaviour, like parking outside of a property he is working on which does sound really dodgy...

We have one at the moment who posts angry messages about selfish residents if anyone has a delivery after 7pm.

comedycentral · 17/02/2021 16:27

We have also had a few where someone has been targeted/ followed/ mugged and they get endless 'Why are they out, it's lockdown' literally zero sympathy for the victim!

BeakyWinder · 17/02/2021 16:28

Ha! A couple I know were checking out a new build estate when house hunting and a post went on the local fb page about a dodgy looking couple prowling the neighbourhood Grin.

(The post included a description of them and their car so defo them)

They found it hilarious and shared the post, but didn't buy the house.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr · 17/02/2021 16:29

“what was that noise that sounded like a rocket”

It was the RAF who practice noisy jet plane stuff over this area a lot. Like every week, and have for ever.

BrumBoo · 17/02/2021 16:29

NextDoor has been a goldmine for the curtain twitchers. It's the only reason I'm logged into it, endless entertainment.

I'm surprised I wasn't highlighted the other day, had an appointment in surgery set in the middle of a huge residential area. Their tiny carpark was full, so ended up crawling the streets in my car, praying for a spot that didn't mean having to drag my pregnant spd self 2 miles down the road (which would have been irony considering I only lived 1.5 miles away to start with).

BigTallyWacker · 17/02/2021 16:29

I hate “ambulance just went flying down river close. Hope everyone ok” ie someone give me the gossip pls.

TawnyPippit · 17/02/2021 16:30

@ImNotACat

It's always a "foreign" or "Eastern European" man, sometimes "one of our travelling friends". Like you can tell through a windscreen Confused
Ah yes, we had one on NextDoor where there was a CCTV still of someone/a wrong ‘un in a mask and it attracted the comment that you could tell from his ears that he is probably Eastern European...
skiclothes · 17/02/2021 16:30

I agree! It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Its worse on my close whatsapp group, “grey car reg ... drove down the close slowly. Didn’t want to not mention it in case”
In case of what?! God forbid someone you don’t know drives down a public road Hmm

BeakyWinder · 17/02/2021 16:31

Yesterday a guy posted asking if any other dog walkers were in the park at X time and fancied a chat then to say hi as he was quite isolated atm. Many nice replies then one lunatic decided he was obviously plotting to kill another dog walker. Yes really Grin. I bloody love fb groups I'm in loads just for the laughs they give.

ZombeaArthur · 17/02/2021 16:31

We had one recently, apparently someone knocked on a door at 9pm and the whole town needed to be notified... just in case.

Original poster
ImNotACat · 17/02/2021 16:33

Tell from his ears Grin

Yeah right you can.

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Original poster
ImNotACat · 17/02/2021 16:34

@skiclothes

I agree! It’s absolutely ridiculous. Its worse on my close whatsapp group, “grey car reg ... drove down the close slowly. Didn’t want to not mention it in case” In case of what?! God forbid someone you don’t know drives down a public road Hmm
Just in case of....??? This is what I mean. Everyone thinks they're in the secret fucking service or something.
OP posts:
Plonque · 17/02/2021 16:35

@BeakyWinder

Yesterday a guy posted asking if any other dog walkers were in the park at X time and fancied a chat then to say hi as he was quite isolated atm. Many nice replies then one lunatic decided he was obviously plotting to kill another dog walker. Yes really Grin. I bloody love fb groups I'm in loads just for the laughs they give.

Tbh, that sounds just like a mumsnetter Grin

MsMarch · 17/02/2021 16:36

I've been known to get into minor arguments on some of these!

The most batshit one I've seen though was a picture of a man with a post about how this man had been picked up by the police as he was "lurking" and watching children in the playground. And then it went on to say that if you see this man anywhere, you should report him etc.

I pointed out that perhaps putting photographs of people and asking people to report him for just existing seemed a little excessive. That went down well.... NOT.

Meanwhile, some women then piped up with this is the SAME man who she spotted peering through her window FIVE years ago, in a completely different part of the country....! FFS.

GalesThisMorning · 17/02/2021 16:36

We had one recently where 2 "Muslim" men stopped outside of the playing field in my rural Welsh village and approached a woman with her child. She naturally (?) ran away and they stayed where they were standing.

This led to people declaring that there were Muslim men wandering around the village looking to nab children. People on our local Facebook page were going out looking for... brown men in a white van, apparently.

As a long time resident of the village and the mother of brown sons it really upset me.

ballroompink · 17/02/2021 16:37

Ahahaha this is EVERY local Facebook group isn't it? Ours is always full of posts about helicopters. 'Anyone know what it's doing?' Why do you even care? Also, I live reasonably near an air base. There was a period where every other post was 'Anyone just hear those jets? What's going on?' as if some war had started and nobody knew about it Grin

BlueTimes · 17/02/2021 16:37

AIBU to be totally fucking sick of the "warnings" on local social media about absolutely bloody nothing?

Yes, YABU because it’s total nonsense that you are allowing to wind you up. I appreciate how annoying they are but you need to just unfollow the group/s.