Neighbour lifted up my fence?!

[Fizzystrawberrybelt]

Hi everyone.

So last night my neighbours had some people round in their back garden, playing music, drinking and just genuinely being loud.
I was in my kitchen finishing up dinner, and saw something in my back garden. A man (who I didn’t know) had darted across my garden, grabbed a ball (not mine) and then gone back into next doors garden. They’d lifted up the fence between both gardens to let themselves in... WTF?!
I didn’t say anything at the time as they’d all been drinking, and the neighbours are quite rough as it is, so any conversation I would have had at that point would have escalated and I was home alone with DD9.
I’ve woken up today and I’m still really pissed off about it. I can understand wanting a ball back, but why not knock my door/send me a message instead? I feel like it’s a total invasion of privacy, if my DD had been in the garden at the time she would have been terrified.
Should I say something to the mum? Or am I being precious and overreacting?
Now I’m worried that if I go out anywhere they could let themselves into my garden whenever they feel like it!
I wrote out a message last night of what I wanted to say and slept on it until today just to make sure that I didn’t say anything in anger etc but unsure if I should send it, or let it drop.

[quote Fizzystrawberrybelt]@rainbowthoughts I was in the kitchen when it happened, and I didn’t hear them shout over anything like “hello, anyone there” etc. So it seems like they didn’t know if the garden was empty or not, as they didn’t ask, they just came in. DD could have been sitting there quietly reading or playing on her iPad, and they wouldn’t have known, because they didn’t shout over first.

Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? Not at all.[/quote]

She is 9. Would she not have been able to throw the ball back over using her own initiative? Mine all chucked balls back over to next door from about 6/7 - before that they couldn't get the ball over the high fence, but they still tried!

Honestly OP YANBU. I am truly surprised by the comments by people saying "yeah I'd much rather the neighbours lift up the fence and get the ball themselves than ask for it to be returned". Genuinely bizarre. I actually can't imagine my neighbours doing it. Is that what people do? Go into their neighbour's garden to get their ball back without permission? I am very grateful to have dogs 😂.

OP wait a week or 2 and then secure the fence so it can't be lifted. And do it when they're not in the garden if possible. That's what I would do anyway as your neighbours sound like knobheads and you probably don't want to cause a row!

Yabu. Mine lift up too.

Total invasion of privacy. I have similar fencing and an arsehole neighbour but fortunately I also have three dogs who the arsehole neighbour is scared of.

Secure the fence panels, or get dogs.

@FireflyRainbow

Yabu. Mine lift up too.

Just because you can lift them up doesn't mean you should.

OP is DNBU.

Massive overreaction. If they'd knocked on your door you'd be on here complaining about that. Choose your battles.

Say something... I woke up one Sunday to find my neighbour in our garden. He came in by lifting his fence panel up without informing us first and when I approached him, he started shouting at me in my garden saying he has every right to come in my garden as that is the only way he can access the side of his garage which he wanted to paint at the time. I wrote to surveyors then who were involved and they must've told him and warned his wife I would be calling the police next time. If this is your fence, definitely drive some nails at the bottom to ensure they don't do this again. We can't as it is his fence but have put some cameras in. Surprising how many people don't realise they shouldn't be doing this. Yours just sounds like an innocent spur of the moment thing, but let them know it's not ok.

I definitely wouldn’t be complaining on here if they’d knocked my door at 6:30pm for a ball back! I’d probably grumble to my DD about it (or the cat) but that’s not something that I would ever deem as rude.

I think the worst thing is that the person who came into my garden wasn’t even my neighbour, it was someone I’d never seen before so I’m assuming the random darter was a guest of theirs.

Would people really not mind that?

Hello Op... just read your recent posts about drugs etc. I would now suggest not to speak to them and just do what you can to secure the fence.

Maybe it just wasn't drinking could of been drugs too. What if you'd left a bsck door open and whilst toff their heard this random person walked into your house looking for a glass of water ( having been around people who do drugs at events i know they do some crazy stuff)

Your right to not be okay about it, your right to have decided to not say anything and to just quietly get on and secure your fence.

The brackets really easy to fit & recommend them. Wait for a day when neughbours are out & they won't even know you have added them.
Photina red robin is a shrub that grows fast & can get to 3/4 meters, saying that if you get the really small plants it will still take a while to get to something that resembles a hedge.

No, I'd be immensely fucked off if someone did this at any time of day. Given what you've posted about it, I wouldn't say a word to them but I would be securing the panels ASAP so it doesn't happen again.