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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Strange neighbours

127 replies

Whenthingsgobumpinthenight · 02/04/2021 21:25

Ok, please tell me if you think the house next to us sounds weird or am I just being ridiculous.

We’ve lived in our house for almost 5 months now but never seen our neighbours, not properly. They are very rarely home during the day but home late at night. So far I’ve seen a van half a dozen times pull up at the house with a man in it. He’s never in the house very long 5 -30 mins. DH thought he might be doing work on the house but he’s not there long enough. I have seen a few different cars pulling in and out with a woman driving but I’ve never got a good look at her, once I think there was someone in the passenger side. Again the cars don’t stay long. There seem to be the same 2 cars that tend to park overnight. I only know this because my bedroom over looks their driveway so when I’m closing my blinds at night I can see them, but only ever one at a time. Otherwise I never see them pulling up. The car is always gone before we get up in the mornings. Who ever turns up to the house dosnt until usually 10-11 o’clock at night. There is lots of moving around and banging which goes on quite late sometimes.

Today we saw a different car pull up, for the first time we were stood outside our front door, I was so bloody curious that a walked into the car door my DCs had left open🤦‍♀️ But it’s like they are magic as you never seen anyone going in or out of the actual house.

The other day the windows were open for the first time during the day. Not thrown open like ours and everyone else’s in the street, just slightly open and the curtains were pulled almost closed. At the front of the house I’d get as we have to close ours to block sunlight sometimes but the back of the house was the same. My DH was stood outside talking to our DC the same day and glanced up to see a woman watching them but she shot behind the curtains when she saw him look up. He didn’t get a good look at her.

Last week I was woken up by what appeared to be shouting or screaming coming from the house. At the time I dismissed it as the other side of us, not adjoining, is a student house. They aren’t usually loud but do occasionally like to have a few. When I got up I saw a couple of the students in the front garden and the music from their house was travelling through our open upstairs windows so I put it down to that but now I’m not certain it was the students as they were laughing and loudly chatting, what woke me sounded different.

For some reason my DH seemed to think older kids, high school age lived in the house, he dosnt know why he thought this and can’t remember seeing any, he viewed the house with the landlord and agent so he thinks he may have been told this.

We’ve got quite a good view of a lot of houses all around us from the upstairs of our house and with the nice weather there are lots of people out spending time in gardens, open windows chatting over hedges etc but not with the house right next door. There has been no one in their garden, front or back.

I don’t think I’m a nosy neighbour but I am observant of my surroundings and I like to know faces, I think it’s just natural to recognise movements of people where you live.

So Do you think this is weird, maybe vampires or wizards live there???? Or am I being ridiculous and stop being nosy.

OP posts:
FOJN · 02/04/2021 21:35

I know the general MN opinion is if you know anything about your neighbours routine you're being nosy but I agree with you, it's just natural to recognise the habits of people around you.
It all sounds a bit strange , maybe they have jobs with odd hours. Are they around at weekends or do they maintain the same timetable whatever day of the week it is?

Clydie89 · 02/04/2021 21:38

You are being nosey. They could be working nightshift, a med student or it could be a drug den. It doesn't sound like it's causing you any hassle other than the pain in your neck cranking it out the window at any movement, so I'd say to let them crack on!

Reinventinganna · 02/04/2021 21:38

‘I don’t think I’m a nosy neighbour’ Hmm

How would you describe a nosy neighbour?
What do you think they are doing?

Easterbunnyishoppingmad · 02/04/2021 21:42

Maybe they are hiding from the nosey neighbour..
I E bloody YOU op!!

PassMeTheWotsits · 02/04/2021 21:44

Maybe you are living next door to the Klopeks 🤔

Wingedharpy · 02/04/2021 21:53

Drug den?
5 - 30 minute man = boss, checking his crop?
Overnighters = harvesting and replanting plus watering and bagging up?

RubyWooRed · 02/04/2021 21:53

Sounds like the Burbs to me too

Youaremysunshine09 · 02/04/2021 21:53

I don't think you are being nosey, I think it's only normal to know who you're neighbours are as like you say opening and closing blinds etc you often glance out the window! Not as if op is stating she stands at the window all day and night watching for them. I can tell you who lives near to me and what cars they drive. Surely a lot of others are the same so you know if there is anything suspicious going on?! Op I would find this quite strange aswel, possibly a couple with no children who work long shifts and are really only there to sleep?

Whenthingsgobumpinthenight · 02/04/2021 21:53

@FOJN

I know the general MN opinion is if you know anything about your neighbours routine you're being nosy but I agree with you, it's just natural to recognise the habits of people around you. It all sounds a bit strange , maybe they have jobs with odd hours. Are they around at weekends or do they maintain the same timetable whatever day of the week it is?
It’s the same at weekends.
OP posts:
warmandtoasty2day · 02/04/2021 21:53

i thought the klopeks until i remembered reading a similar thread on here before but can't remember the outcome !

DoubleTweenQueen · 02/04/2021 21:59

I though drug den too - cannabis farm? Does sound a bit odd.

LadyOfTheFlowers · 02/04/2021 22:01

I think it's normal to notice the comings and going of neighbours and it doesn't make you nosey or weird.
I talk to my immediate neighbours and they are lovely.
I often think my neighbours opposite probably think I run some sort of youth club or something with 5 kids and their friends coming and going.

Whenthingsgobumpinthenight · 02/04/2021 22:01

@Reinventinganna

‘I don’t think I’m a nosy neighbour’ Hmm

How would you describe a nosy neighbour?
What do you think they are doing?

I don’t think it’s nosy to observe what’s going on around your house especially when you have children. And hasnt the government line for the last 12 months been look in on your neighbours, make sure people living near you are ok. There have been many stories this year of people stuck in isolation struggling to get help and putting notes in their windows, especially the elderly. If people weren’t observing their surroundings then these people wouldn’t have got help.

I wouldn’t care how nosy my neighbours were if it meant they were able to alert me to a stranger near my house while my kids were playing.

Absolutely no idea what they are doing.

OP posts:
LadyOfTheFlowers · 02/04/2021 22:03

I suppose people with very imaginative minds might think there's much more going on at my gaffe when in all honesty it's just hungry teenagers who know where a free feed is 🤷🏼‍♀️

FOJN · 02/04/2021 22:04

I know the dog walking routines of people who live streets away, the MN collective will no doubt conclude I'm a stalker but in my neighbourhood people do weird things like talk to each other!

I'm putting in a vote for a cannabis farm too.

Whenthingsgobumpinthenight · 02/04/2021 22:09

@LadyOfTheFlowers

I think it's normal to notice the comings and going of neighbours and it doesn't make you nosey or weird. I talk to my immediate neighbours and they are lovely. I often think my neighbours opposite probably think I run some sort of youth club or something with 5 kids and their friends coming and going.
Haha I know my old neighbours though this of me as before lockdown I’d always have kids around.

I’ve always chatted to my neighbours, it’s how we were brought up, be polite to people around you, you don’t need to be best friends but it’s nice to be civil to the people you live next to. My “nosy ness” saved one of my neighbours several parking tickets as I could always see the traffic wardens coming so would knock on her door as she was terrible for parking on the double yellows outside my house.

OP posts:
Whenthingsgobumpinthenight · 02/04/2021 22:10

@FOJN

I know the dog walking routines of people who live streets away, the MN collective will no doubt conclude I'm a stalker but in my neighbourhood people do weird things like talk to each other!

I'm putting in a vote for a cannabis farm too.

I do get regular whiffs off the stuff but I put it down to the students on the other side.
OP posts:
Midlifelady · 02/04/2021 22:10

Wow, I must be totally unobservant but I only notice my neighbours when I can see them in the garden as my desk is at the window. I do not spend my days looking outside the front to see the comings and goings. Occasionally when out with the dogs late I see the neighbours have not had their light on and windows closed so assume they are away, but that's the extent of it. I don't waste any energy wondering about them.

whatsleep · 02/04/2021 22:14

It makes me think of the stories you read about in the news where people or children have been held captive and although neighbours say the family were odd or the curtains were always closed, nobody ever reports it. Reading your post has made my skin crawl a bit.

Reinventinganna · 02/04/2021 22:18

I’m so glad that my nearest neighbours are a few miles away! I couldn’t cope with people judging how often I go out, what car is on my drive etc.

queenofthenorthwest · 02/04/2021 22:19

Op my neighbours are like this. But dicks.

I hope mine are moving.

Spotsandstars · 02/04/2021 22:25

Could be trafficking. Ring 101 if you're concerned.

GoWalkabout · 02/04/2021 22:26

BBC News - Who, what, why: How can you spot a cannabis farm in your street?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17896081

WiddlinDiddlin · 02/04/2021 22:28

Mmm.. weed farm.

Short visits interspersed with longer banging about noises, windows open a crack occasionally, various folk coming and going.

That exactly describes the patterns of comings and goings at my house when I moved here... the previous owner was my bloody idiot sister who had let the spare room to a friend who was growing weed in it, they all thought they were going to be rich rich rich... and I ended up moving in before they were done..

It was three weeks of utter hell, strangers coming round to deal with it, crashing about, stinking the house out, shitting myself that the police helicopter would pick up a heat signature from the roof.... (no, I couldn't dob them in, who the hell believes 'I just moved in and found an active grow room in my spare bedroom, I knew nothing about it officer...' I still don't believe it!)

Simple enough to ring the police and say you suspect your neighbours property is a cannabis farm :)