To be scared of my neighbour? Weird noises at nights...

[Mikadua23]

So this is going to be very messy and long..
We moved here 2 years ago, we live in 2 semi detached house and our neighbour is on our right.

We live in cul de sac and the area is very quiet and peaceful.
I dont work right now due to taking care of our young child and being pregnant with our second so I am home all days.

My neighbour is a man in his ( I believe 50s)
He is very shy when you try to say hello but usually kind, we don't have problems and never had.
He lives alone and have no family or friends, nobody ever visited him for the last 2 years..
He was always alone on christmas, easter or other celebrations..
We would check on him through the covid situation when he would not leave his house for few days at all and we would do some food shopping for him, he was very happy with the help.
I would give him christmas cards but never had one back (not that I expected him to give one! I have purerly felt sorry for him)
I would also give him a portion of christmas dinner last year and he was very happy although never really came back with dishes , he just left them outside our door 2 weeks after..

Our landlord did say to us when we first moved here, that our neighbour is weird and nobody in the road likes him but I never asked questions.

I wouldn't care about the way He chose to live if not the fact that he works night shifts every other week and every time he leaves the house, you can hear noises from his house like someone is still inside which is odd because he does live on his own.
As I mentioned before...
He never even had a friend coming over...

We share walls and it usually takes about 5 mins after he leaves around midnight and then you can hear someone coming down the stairs inside his house .

I dont know why, I am scared of this man and always find him a bit weird, it shouldn't really be in my intesrest whats happening inside his house but the whole thing is just odd.

Despite all this..

He never goes anywhere except his job where he works 12 hours shifts around 4 times a week.

@MegaCityOne yeah but what about Stockholm syndrome? Overinvested

@MegaCityOne this is exactly what I was thinking..
This person could have escaped if wanted

Do you hear a toilet flush?

@TheClaws noo although I hear water running sometimes

@BishBashBoshBush Didn’t think of that. Hm. It will be his mother, pretending to be bed ridden to keep him under the thumb. Could be a father I suppose, same thing. Didn’t Lowry’s mum act the same way?

Even if his victim has Stockholm syndrome though, would the neighbour/kidnapper trust the victim enough to leave them free to roam the house while he's out for 12 hours? I wouldn't! I'd tie them up and lock the room they were in (I'd also have it soundproofed).

Maybe their room IS soundproofed, which is why all OP can hear is them coming down the stairs and in the kitchen

You could knock after he's left, and have an excuse ready, like you need to borrow a lightbulb or something. You'll either meet his wife, mother, or the demon that descends on his vacant house for snacks and showers. Whichever way it will be interesting. Try tomorrow.

I wouldn't leave my victim 'loose' though, I'd want them tied up in the soundproofed room while I'm out for 12 hours!

@McdonaldsMilkshake I love how much thought you've put into this!

I had dreams where he was standing in my bedroom with an axe trying to kill my family, I swear there's something wrong with me

Can't you do a 'friends' type thing. You know when chandler and Monica went on their honeymoon and phoebe and joey got the janitor to kick the door in and then they lied and said they could smell gas…

[quote BishBashBoshBush]@McdonaldsMilkshake I love how much thought you've put into this! [/quote]
I might be on a watch list now 👀 😂

Wish I hadn’t read this at 1:45 in the morning. Agree with pp, investigate the electoral register to see if anyone else should be there. On the cat thing, we have wooden stairs and I often can’t tell if it is one of the kids or cats coming down the stairs (although cats definitely can’t think turn a tap on!).

Maybe he's got a partner or a parent with MH issues- I was going to say disabled but going up an down the stairs doesn't fit.

So either dementia, depression or agarophobia (people scared of open spaces/ being outside of a familiar house). That would explain that he spends all his spare time indoors.

When you hear them knock on the wall where you hear them loudly. See if they knock back? I must admit I would probably wet myself with fear if they did...

Well as he lives alone surely the only thing to do is call the police as you can hear an intruder when you know he is at work.

If someone is being held against their will then they will be helped and if not.....well whoever is being exploited will be helped.

Are all the parcels you have for your neighbour in his name OP or is there ever another name on them?

@Wheresmybiscuit3 every time I hear these things I get paralyzed with fear, no way I will be able to deal with this or investigate futher ..because I usually hear things when he leaves for his nights shifts!
When he works days I dont pay attention with noises because I am too busy with life and crazy toddler and there would be no chance of me hearing anything 😪😪

@Rebeccasmoonnecklace only ever his name on the parcel

Did he actually say he lives alone? Just stay out of it. If there is someone they're probably hiding away for a good reason.

I don’t blame you @Mikadua23 as I’d be pretty terrified myself. Odd noises like that always freak me out.

Perhaps if it’s giving you bad dreams, and the heebie jeebies then it’s worth escalating. Record the noises on your phone. Call the police when he’s at work and tell them you think there’s an intruder in the house?

He can’t really have a go at you about that (if the noises are innocent) as you were just trying to protect his property... and if he is dodgy and up to something then the police can catch him and help the potential person.

I would knock on the door after you hear them come down the stairs and if they open, check them out, and say you were after the casserole dish you'd left, or similar excuse to call by. I don't know if a sex slave would answer the door, though... Or Lowry's mum, for that matter.

Ariel Castro (who had the 3 girls locked up for years in Cleveland, USA) often left the house.

He had enough things in place to keep them locked in the house while he went out and lived his daily life.

The documentaries on it are chilling, you’re always wondering how many poor people are in this situation that we don’t know about