AIBU?
AIBU to be furious that this isn’t illegal?
YetAnotherHastyNameChange · 28/04/2021 13:20
During Covid myself and another few mums in my area have been visiting and delivering food parcels to elderly people whose families have been unable to visit. During this time I’ve made some really good friends with some of the old ladies and now the dc are back at school I’ve been still visiting a couple of them to help out and have a catch up and chat with them.
One particular lady is really lovely, absolutely hilarious but quite frail and her house really is a tip. Her family who live a distance away pay for a cleaner to go in weekly but as the lady is always there she never lets the cleaner actually do much other than the bathroom and all the books and stuff she’s hoarded for years is still piled up everywhere. A couple of weeks ago her family collected her and took her back to their house now restrictions have eased and booked the cleaner to go in as normal but hoping she could throw a few bits out - really not important things but there’s stacks of magazines from the 90’s, endless Tupperware that doesn’t match and the owner really won’t notice when she returns.
Anyway, cleaner goes in a discovers lots of things have been moved around so phones family to see if it’s them. It’s not them but they find out some internet blogger who visits ‘abandoned places’ has broken in somehow, dressed up in her clothes, sat on her bed, took loads of photos of all her possessions and posted it all online as a ‘time capsule house’. Family contact police who claim no laws have been broken as there’s no sign of a break in and he is claiming to have been invited in. Lady is now hugely embarrassed as everyone has seen what a mess she lives in and is refusing to come home again.
Having looked at this mans page he’s been going all round my local area and letting himself into people’s caravans, abandoned schools, loads of houses which he claims are abandoned but quite possibly just second homes that haven’t been visited for a while, taking photos in through people’s windows of houses that are clearly lived in, going into farms and photographing all the barns with animals, machinery that could be stolen, broke into a Victorian cinema that is currently being rebuilt by volunteers but is in a dodgy area so will now almost certainly just get trashed.
How is this not illegal? Why is he allowed to do this? So many people have complained on his page that he’s been in their barn/ photographing their dining room while they were out etc. and he just blocks them from the page.
He’s getting loads of views on these pages so more and more people are going to start doing this, surely? I find it outrageous behaviour and can’t believe the police won’t intervene.
Am I being unreasonable?
AIBUYou have one vote. All votes are anonymous.
giletrouge · 28/04/2021 13:26
Jesus that's outrageous! I'd be camping out at the police station until they took it seriously. Can you get together with some of his other victims OP and demand some action or consult a solicitor or something?
Entitled little shit doesn't even start to cover it...
Justanticipating · 28/04/2021 13:27
No idea but this is awful, I'm not sure what to advise but I'd try again. Surely the fact the lady doesn't want to go home is clear there was no permission, and theres a concern for the ladies safety and wealthfare? Could she be seen as vulnerable and this YouTube has taken advantage?
TakeYourFinalPosition · 28/04/2021 13:32
What?!
How did he get in? Any chance the door was open?
"Abandoned places" bloggers usually mention that, it's one of the things their audience enjoys. Sneaking past security etc... Although they're usually visiting actually abandoned places, not people's houses.
The police sound like they've fobbed her off here, but perhaps if you do some of their job for them and approach them with it, they'll be more helpful.
HenryHooverIII · 28/04/2021 13:37
Unless the person who's house has been broken into is willing to provide a statement to the police stating that their house was broken into, the police will not take any action.
Even if they did provide a statement, if he says he was invited in, where is the evidence to prove otherwise? It is unlikely a court would convict him.
It's not about whether it's illegal, it's about what you can prove.
queenMab99 · 28/04/2021 13:44
I commented on a similar face book video, that as there was no dust on the sufaces, even though the furniture, clothes and carpets were old fashioned, it was obviously cared for, and possibly lived in. I suggested they renamed the page 'Nosey young men breaking in and disrespecting peoples homes' however my comment was immediately deleted.
GeorgiaGirl52 · 28/04/2021 13:46
In the US that would be illegal - breaking and entering if in a building and trespass if filmed through windows or in unlocked barns, etc. Occupied or not, property is owned by someone and if the owner is not you, you cannot enter. All that is required is a sign that says "Private Residence".
ChekhovsWorkshoppedShooter · 28/04/2021 13:48
Trespass isn’t a crime. Breaking and entering is only a crime if you do it with the intent to commit another crime such as theft or vandalism. If he broke a window or a lock in order to get in that would be criminal damage.
Most of the time if you find someone where they shouldn’t be it’s highly likely they’re there to commit a crime. But in this case he’s got a whole YouTube channel full of evidence that he’s there for a non-criminal purpose.
I totally understand why you’re furious though.
LadyWhistledownsQuill · 28/04/2021 13:49
I can't think what to suggest but going to the local MP.
It sounds like an extreme, and surely criminal, extension of Urbex - which is normally just people wandering around very derelict buildings (abandoned hospitals, derelict stately homes, old hotels, that sort of thing). It's very definitely not about entering an occupied home!
This is a more normal version of Urbex www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/royal-alexandra-hospital-paisley-sep-2020.128238/
WarwickHunt · 28/04/2021 13:54
In the UK no crime would have been committed, unless he did some damage. It is illegal as a matter of civil law though. He will have committed various torts. This would be a matter for the people affected to take to court. The police won't do it. If successful they would awarded damages against him, and possibly an injunction that the photos be removed from his website.
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