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AIBU?

AIBU to be furious that this isn’t illegal?

349 replies

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.

OP posts:

Am I being unreasonable?

AIBU

You have one vote. All votes are anonymous.

Appledrop · 28/04/2021 14:46

Think I have found him as well. Just had to click on that photo you posted of that guy sitting in his chair, right click and do a search photo. If you then click on images you see it linked.

Juststopit · 28/04/2021 14:47

Quite a few urban explorers groups on Facebook , I had no idea this was even a thing. That poor lady.

thenightsky · 28/04/2021 14:47

This is unbelievable! How does he know there's no one in the house? There could be a very old or sick person sleeping! He could kill someone with shock Angry

LaBellina · 28/04/2021 14:47

It’s shocking that this is not illegal. Essentially victim blaming because if you didn’t lock the door, it’s not even a punishable offense. Let’s hope that this creep soon walks into the wrong home where the owner is actually at home and gets his arse kicked out in a very painful way.

cuparfull · 28/04/2021 14:47

So anyone can illegally enter your home and photograph themselves within and blatantly broadcast themselves doing it??? How....

YetAnotherHastyNameChange · 28/04/2021 14:47

jebthesheep the lady I visit is very frail and tbh should have had a lot more in home care or been in a residential home for a while but has always outright refused. I’m assuming that’s what will happen now if she’s refusing to go back to the house Sad. I only know about it through the cleaner, she was only supposed to be gone for a couple of weeks so I didn’t get any contact details and just told her I’d see her when she got back. It’s all just really sad.

OP posts:
DorisLessingsCat · 28/04/2021 14:48

Until he finds a house that is in fact occupied and someone wallops him with a baseball bat. Reasonable force, who would know what an intruder in your home is intending to do?

Yep, I'm not an advocate of violence but this is an appropriate outcome for his antics.

Backstreetsbackalrightdadada · 28/04/2021 14:48

That is so awful and gross! What a huge breach of decency - how is this not a crime? Particularly in these times when lots of properties will be empty - there are loads of second homes where we are and I’d feel awful for neighbours if this happened to them. Feels frightening like any break in, we’re supposed to feel safe in our homes especially in lockdown. And it affecting an older lady who could be vulnerable, awful. He’s the type of guy who will do this and complain about his lack of privacy when it gets revealed - this is honestly one I wouldn’t mind the DM picking up!!

alphajuliet123 · 28/04/2021 14:49

Can you speak to the family directly? Surely they could press charges?

YetAnotherHastyNameChange · 28/04/2021 14:49

gerrymanderson he posts on YouTube and Facebook. I don’t really feel I could complain as I’m not NOK or anything, just someone who visited her during Covid. Hopefully her family are doing something about it although if I was them I’d be half relieved that she wouldn’t be living on her own 150 miles from her family as she was very frail.

OP posts:
Dogscanteatonions · 28/04/2021 14:49

I've been a member of urban exploring forums for years (my personal interest is abandoned mines) . It used to be quite unheard of but unfortunately with the ever increasing amounts of FB groups and YouTubers/instagramers there's been an explosion of interest in it.

Urban explorers used to be extremely cagey about giving out locations and leaving everything as it was found and certainly wouldn't break into an occupied house

Unfortunately now there are loads of to totally unscrupulous people involved, they give out locations willy-nilly and even post them online or post pics that are instantly recognisable so people can find them easily. This has lead to lots of very good locations being absolutely trashed. It's disgusting.

Sandgrown1970 · 28/04/2021 14:50

I’ve had a recent experience that’s similar and was caught on CCTV but, as nothing was stolen and no damage was done

The police wouldn’t even come out

The person has been back since.

Police said if he’s in the property again call 999 and they’ll see then if they can do anything.

YouJustFoldItIn · 28/04/2021 14:50

Breaking and entering is illegal

Not of itself in England. Needs to be damage to property or contents, or theft / intended theft.

Just walking through the door, taking photos, not a criminal act AFAIK

Surely this depends entirely on whether the house was locked up and entry was forced? I can't beleive it's okay to access someone's home by forcing a door or window, breaking a window or lock or getting a ladder to climb up to an open window for example, as opposed to just trying the front door, finding it unlocked and wandering in.

LaBellina · 28/04/2021 14:51

What also must be quite a scary thought for this old lady is how he must have been watching her home and waited until she was out to go in. Quite predatory behavior and it would really freak me out in her position. Agree with pp that he wouldn’t dare to do this in the US but let’s hope karma gets him soon.

Bathmatt · 28/04/2021 14:51

How awful. Such an invasion of privacy. It’s one thing to walk around a disused commercial/public building, quite another thing to walk around someone’s home particularly when you are walking into a vulnerable person’s home. How awful. I hope someone finds a way of making him stop.

Gingernaut · 28/04/2021 14:51

The place was left so insecure that he didn't have to break in and he didn't damage or break anything.

A complaint has to be made for the police to deal with it.

Redburnett · 28/04/2021 14:51

Perhaps try to get local councillors interested, sounds like something they might be interested in. The police response, or lack of, is truly shocking.

Dogscanteatonions · 28/04/2021 14:52

OP - you might want to warn the family that it's very likely others will be trying to access the house if it's online.

TheFirstMrsDV · 28/04/2021 14:52

He is clearly doing this for internet clout. He wants to build a career on it. What a horrible person.
I remember stumbling across a site that had photos of the hospital my daughter was treated in. The photos didn't upset me but the comments did. Talking about dead kids and spookiness etc. No respect for the relatives of the kids treated there.

YetAnotherHastyNameChange · 28/04/2021 14:52

dogscanteatonions that’s exactly what he’s doing. Claiming he’s not giving out locations but making it immediately bloody obvious like “abandoned school in the Totnes area ” kind of thing and then acting all mysterious when people ask him if it’s the abandoned school in Totnes 🙄

OP posts:
LaBellina · 28/04/2021 14:53

@Dogscanteatonions

OP - you might want to warn the family that it's very likely others will be trying to access the house if it's online.

I really hope that isn’t the case.
What an absolute nightmare for this woman.
YetAnotherHastyNameChange · 28/04/2021 14:55

gingernaut it’s not about it being insecure, he’s obviously very good at breaking in. He’s broken into a National Trust mansion while it was closed and looks like he spent hours there. Also an abandoned cinema in a town centre with a huge homelessness problem and it clearly hadn’t been accessed until he got in there.

Numerous complaints have been made to the police (although I don’t know if they have in the case of my lady) but they say no crime has been committed so nothing they can do.

OP posts:
YouJustFoldItIn · 28/04/2021 14:55

Everyone locally knows who he is, where he lives and what his name is.

Really? Then I am very surprised that a group of local men haven't strung him up by his balls and demanded to know why he's poking around in the home of a vulnerable old lady while she is in hospital for the laughs and the instragram likes.

BingBunnyIsAnnoying · 28/04/2021 14:55

Sounds like the police don't want to get involved as the courts would just give him a slap on the wrist

I used to know somebody who did some urban exploring and they got caught along with others by the police who were actually sitting waiting and all were cautioned. The site in question had only recently shut down and soon became very popular with the UE community

Abouttimemum · 28/04/2021 14:56

I’d be suing him for trespass to be honest. Absolutely outrageous behaviour.

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