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

[ImNotACat]

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 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.

Great one tonight with a photo of a marking sprayed on a pavement. Dog theft imminent!!! police!!

Meanwhile the reality is the fibre broadband they are all so excited to receive is going in this week and the markings are actually by the installers for where to dig. “But you can’t b 2 careful hun”
😂

We had one......

Local community "do gooder" .........

Dog stolen from a garden in Dogtheft Street

Loads of people .... oh no, what breed,size, colour, name ......

No response!

So one particularly persistent guy kept asking, the other resin who put the post up just would not answer.

He kept on.

They eventually said they'd not been given that information, just that a dog was stolen.

AKA no dog was stolen, it probably didn't even escape, it probably never even existed!

But it made for some hype and lots of attention for the local do gooder !

Ours is full of reminders about bin day (& what colour bin) & ring footage of people letting their dogs cr*p on front gardens. This is usually followed by suggestions to find them and post it through their letterbox or, more extremely, put their windows in 😱

The funniest post was someone asking if anyone knew if the doctor’s surgery was open as she had been ringing and the answer machine said they were closed! 🤦🏼‍♀️

@LubaLuca

This is why I'm very glad my mum has never been tempted to use Facebook. If she posted half the things she messages me about, I'd have to put myself up for adoption.

"Different postman today. It's a woman."

"Van been parked outside Lynn's since before I got up. Not sure, possibly having her gutters looked at again."

"Is it a new Big Issue seller by the station? Perhaps she has a new coat."

Are you my sister? 😂

@iklboo

My mum & MIL are suckers for the

'Halloween candy containing LSD found on 6th & Johnson. Sheriff Billy Bigballs warning kindergarten children to be safe'.

A) it's probably not true
B) Erm, we live in England. I'm not taking DS(15) all the way to Fuckbutt Arizona to trick or treat

Howling at this

We’ve had two separate lone women targeted for their dogs in our area - and yes it was a man/men in a white van. They directly posted themselves. No they were not confirmed by the police but why would they?

Yes some are gossipy but some are valuable in making people aware. And we shouldn’t really demand proof before they are believed.

The prices of dogs shooting up during lockdown has made them a valuable target but we really are at a point where women walking them are being stopped.

We had a woman post recently about a suspicious man stopping and asking her weird questions, which sounded odd and a little unsettling so fair enough I suppose. But then so many of the replies (mostly from men) said things like ‘I always get very worried when I see women walking on their own, it’s not safe.’ Apparently we can’t even go for walks in broad daylight now?!

@Shaiva

We’ve had two separate lone women targeted for their dogs in our area - and yes it was a man/men in a white van. They directly posted themselves. No they were not confirmed by the police but why would they?

Yes some are gossipy but some are valuable in making people aware. And we shouldn’t really demand proof before they are believed.

The prices of dogs shooting up during lockdown has made them a valuable target but we really are at a point where women walking them are being stopped.

Until it's confirmed by police it's only a gossip. People who were actually targeted would have no issues, and what's more, would actually want to report it, isn't it. If someone reguses to report these things I am very doubtful of the exaggeration then. Someone tried to grab my dog? I would vbe calling them immediately. A van was deiving around slowly? Well... No.

A schoolgirl went missing in a town in New Zealand which has the same name as our village. There was a photo of her in a school uniform which clearly wasn't our village school's uniform. By the time our village was worrying about her, she'd been found. It had been a miscommunication between two Mums over an after school playdate.

Had one of these in my local area. A poor young lad had opened his front door and the family’s new puppy had run out. It was raining and the young guy put his hood up and made off after it.

He went into one of the neighbours front gardens who happened to have a doorbell camera. Next thing you know he’s all over our local Facebook group as a suspicious character checking gardens at 7am.

Loads of comments about how he should be “strung up”, “if he came into my garden..... ”. Luckily the poor boy’s mum seen it and explained and offered an apology. The puppy was found in a nearby garden.

He was a young boy looking for his puppy and it almost turned into a man hunt!!!

@Shaiva

We’ve had two separate lone women targeted for their dogs in our area - and yes it was a man/men in a white van. They directly posted themselves. No they were not confirmed by the police but why would they?

Yes some are gossipy but some are valuable in making people aware. And we shouldn’t really demand proof before they are believed.

The prices of dogs shooting up during lockdown has made them a valuable target but we really are at a point where women walking them are being stopped.

Yes but the two women need to report it to the police so the police can stick a notice on Facebook saying “this area is being targeted”. They can put more time and money into investigating if its being reported.

If people post it themselves on SM it becomes heresy and of course is of no benefit to anyone not on social media.

I get these on the Next Door app all the time. On one post, the man who was "spotted" came on the app and said that it was him who's CCTV image had been put online and labelled a suspect by everyone joining in. He was an Amazon delivery driver just doing his job. The other person then had to apologise and must have felt a twat.

We have a very dear neighbour who sends messages like "Saw a man walking up the road who was looking at the houses. Mid 30s, grey top, white male, short dark hair. Last seen turning left on Top Road at 8.43. I've called it in, CAD ref Numpty1."
I worry he'll be arrested for police time wasting at some point.

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!
My friend always posts these.
I have had to tell her that the dog went missing in 2016 in West Virginia. We live in the Ribble Valley. Its hardly going to wandering round Grindleton in 2021!

My favourite recent one was a posting about an "eastern European looking man" driving a white van and taking pictures of people's houses including the OP's house and included a still from the Ring doorbell.
It was pointed out that the picture was of a local delivery driver and if the OP looked outside her door she would find a parcel.

That said, we do get parcel thefts and some neighbours from other streets have put up video or photo evidence that's useful. One particular man was eventually arrested, we must have seen 4 photos of him before he was caught.

We’ve had two separate lone women targeted for their dogs in our area - and yes it was a man/men in a white van. They directly posted themselves. No they were not confirmed by the police but why would they?

But what does this mean? Too often "targeted" is someone with an accent and a white van liking your dog. In my experience, tradesmen are generally very dog friendly - I guess they have to learn to be as so many of their clients will have dogs - so it's not weird that they might stop for a chat.

I have a jack russel. One thing I've learnt is that old men LOVE jack Russells. No idea why. But we absolutely get stopped by every old guy when we're walking as they bend down and call, "jack jack" enthusiastically. Everyone else largely ignores her. I do not assume all these old men want to steal her. I assume they just like jack Russells

My village must be really boring. The local Facebook group is full of black and white photos of the old butcher's shop and the 1986 Ladies Darts Team.

Things that get repeated every week on our local page:

• Watch out dodgy van driving about, vague description and no they didn’t get the reg
• GP surgery posts update on vaccinations, specifically about the current targeted age group. Someone ALWAYS asks when the 40-45 bracket will be contacted or why they haven’t been contacted as although they’re 53, they have asthma or diabetes but aren’t in an at risk group and haven’t been asked to shield
• ‘can you make this post so I can share it? / can’t share post!’ NO because it’s a closed group you thicko

😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤

But what does this mean? Too often "targeted" is someone with an accent and a white van liking your dog.
All reports of being "targeted" in local groups indeed were when someone "Eastern European" complimented the dog or just walked close to the said person, often with their own dog. Or wait... maybe not even their own, but a previously stolen one?
I mean, of course, people love their dogs dearly, but it is unlikely that a 10 year old overweight mutt with incontinence issues and a tendency to snap at strangers has a material market resale value, lockdown or not.

@SchrodingersImmigrant
Ah thanks, the cat enjoyed it, I suspect, even returns for snacks to that house quite often. That lady herself was mortified and apologised, I think she genuinely wanted the best - moved into the area recently from a more urbanised area and was probably not used to free roaming cats.
What really disappointed me is that the posters were all my (not immediate, but still) neighbours, and despite I answered under the post that the cat is mine and the collar has my name and address printed on the inside, there still were a couple of comments addressed to the OP along the lines "hun, you need to verify independently that this lady is indeed the owner... there are so many dishonest people out there it is better to be safe".

Why don't you just scroll on by? Honestly! Stolen dogs get shipped all over the country. No dog thief is going to try and sell on in the area from which they steal, too much chance of the dog/s being recognised. So we do repost missing dogs if there's a chance they've been stolen. And one shouldn't be troubling police for an animal you know for a fact has simply gone missing, they've more important things to worry about.
We have at least one dog thief in operation around here, I know because my friend"s DD was one of his targets whilst out walking the family dog. Fortunately the girl had seen posts on social media and saw him getting out of his vehicle, having deliberately stopped when he saw them and the dog was too well trained to go near the man. And yes, he was in a white van so yes, non local men in white vans are watched pretty carefully in this area.

There have been several attempted dog thefts in our area (Wales) and 80 dogs have been found in two locations by the police who have managed to get some (still working on others) back to their owners - some had had their chips cut out. Dog thieves use them for breeding (if a popular breed) or baiting for dog fights. Lot of publicity from police in media with warnings to take care. So although not every lost dog has been stolen there is an issue in some areas

We often get posts about a group of Eastern European men in tracksuits, hanging around outside the local garage, smoking and talking forrin. It’s the Polish guys who run the car wash.

Also, alarmist posts about helicopters overhead. Umm, we live near an RAF base. Perhaps that could be the reason? Install Flightradar24 and enjoy.

Yeees but in my area a woman did get tricked into a van and assaulted - I’m glad that was posted as the police haven’t found him yet. Plus the local schools are all issuing warnings over attempted abduction on diff sites in same day.

I’d rather have a couple of really serious warnings and a string over overreacting nonsense warnings than no warnings at all.