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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Caught neighbours using my garden

812 replies

Weird21 · 26/07/2021 23:58

I have a block of flats next to my house and I thought for a while things have been moved in my garden and it seemed a bit weird. I’ve got a lock on the gate and it’s always locked. So over the weekend I’ve installed a small out door camera under my guttering which records the whole back garden.

So I’ve come home tonight after work (I work the late shift) and found two cigarette butts on the path by my seating area. So I checked the camera and the neighbors have climbed my wall and been sitting in my garden from 2pm until 8pm using my seating and table. To say I’m annoyed is an understatement but how to I confront them as they aren’t the friendliest of people at the best of times. So I guess they’ve been doing this since the nice weather began.

Unfortunately it’s not difficult to see i’m out as I have to drive to work and so once my cars not there they obviously know I’m out.

I just don’t know how to approach this as I’m a single woman and just concerned it’ll escalate but I can’t allow this what would you all do? I thought maybe a note through their door asking them to not use it anymore. They haven’t seen the camera but now I wonder how long it’s been going on.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
mogtheexcellent · 27/07/2021 11:14

The moat comment was a joke. quite clearly.

SoNotRainbowRhythms · 27/07/2021 11:15

Put up a CcTv sign and no trespassing si gn. Report to police and show them footage. Is Anti climb paint possible?

StMarysKettle · 27/07/2021 11:22

Put a sign up about anti climb paint but don't actually paint unless they keep coming over. They'll think you're full of shit, probably keep coming, until one day you've got round to painting it

MrsMaizel · 27/07/2021 11:22

@AddsVsGeorgs

Can you view the camera without being in the house? If so, drive the car away, ‘to work’ sit around the corner and wait and then ring the police and say there are intruders in your garden and explain to the police how to get to the garden without them seeing!

Bet they wont try it again

Great idea!
Dohrehmee · 27/07/2021 11:26

Call the police And say you feel scared for your life as a single person . Maybe a visit from police is needed where police could say that it’s wrong to enter illegally and that anyone caught will be prosecuted.

mumwon · 27/07/2021 11:27

Borrow a large dog?

Dixiechickonhols · 27/07/2021 11:27

Visible CCTV and a warning sign - CCTV in use Sprinkler on a timer. If you are worried call police you’ve had garden broken into/people casing joint.

Flak · 27/07/2021 11:30

I just wonder how they would know when you get home?

languagelover96 · 27/07/2021 11:31

Leave the camera in a obvious place as a warning. Keep a record of their movements too, it will help if or when you want to contact the police about this. Also this is another thing to try- print out a picture of a police officer and stick it on a outside wall where they can clearly see it too. And even try driving away and observing carefully what happens.

Always be the bigger person here however. You can also buy those anti climb spiky things online have a look at some reviews first though. See if you can secretly take pictures or record footage of them being there in your garden on top of that as a precautionary bit of evidence.

AdobeWanKenobi · 27/07/2021 11:32

@Flak

I just wonder how they would know when you get home?
OP says she drives. Presumably they can hear the car. Or they just know her routine.
Thecazelets · 27/07/2021 11:33

I agree. I phoned them because there was a man running round our old street with a machete. Knocking on doors with it hidden behind his back.
They came three days later

That is horrifying.

newnortherner111 · 27/07/2021 11:33

I wouldn't do note through the door, consider the other suggestions that have been made.

Iamthewombat · 27/07/2021 11:38

Why are people still suggesting acquiring a fierce dog when several posters have explained, with excellent reasons, why it is a bad idea?

Re this:

Even as trespassers, you have a duty of care to them (I know, it's daft but that's the law)

Yes, you do. It’s the Occupier’s Liability Act. It is not daft. Do you think it would be OK to set man traps in your field if you thought that people were using it as a cut through? How about boiling oil poured from a window over kids playing knock down ginger? Shooting someone with an uzi for scrumping apples from your tree? Of course not. That is why you owe anybody who enters your property, legitimately or otherwise, a duty of care.

olidora63 · 27/07/2021 11:39

So if in your garden for 6hrs where do they pee/ Pooh etc? Am surprised no one has seen them getting into your garden! Do you have neighbours you could speak to ? The neighbours could conveniently walk into your garden when you are at work and tell them to leave . They are obviously not the kind of people I would want to mess with if they are so thick skinned to do this risking that you could appear any time . Also on your days off do ,they come to your garden then ? How do they know you are going to be at work?

GU24Mum · 27/07/2021 11:53

Can you get a friend to wait in when you drive out then do that Catherine Tate hysterical scream when she sees them in the garden?!

lorca · 27/07/2021 12:17

Even as trespassers, you have a duty of care to them (I know, it's daft but that's the law)

Yes, you do. It’s the Occupier’s Liability Act. It is not daft. Do you think it would be OK to set man traps in your field if you thought that people were using it as a cut through? How about boiling oil poured from a window over kids playing knock down ginger? Shooting someone with an uzi for scrumping apples from your tree? Of course not. That is why you owe anybody who enters your property, legitimately or otherwise, a duty of care.

Yes I know. That's why I said it was illegal.
However, my DP is South African, and it is common, in fact I'd say near-universal, to have broken glass, razor wire and fishhooks embedded in/on your 10foot high perimeter wall. Along with alarms, burglar bars on windows and doors, large dogs, guns and entry-phones and cameras.
I would hate to live there. But equally, I think it is getting to the stage in the UK where home-owners need to be able to defend and protect their own land/house/family.

SirVixofVixHall · 27/07/2021 12:17

@lorca

Yeah you can't cover the top of the wall with broken glass like they do in South Africa Hmm Even as trespassers, you have a duty of care to them (I know, it's daft but that's the law)

Anti-climb paint, sticky stuff, manure under the wall where they jump over - all legal.

My cat almost died from jumping onto a wall with broken glass embedded in concrete, he had an enormous wound to his abdomen and he was very lucky to live. Barbed wire, razor wire etc, all very dangerous to animals. I am shocked at the police not coming out for a pp who had a mannin her street with a machete !!!! I would call and say there are intruders in your garden, or get a friend to call and say that she has seen a burglar climbing into her friend’s garden. I would also get Pyrocantha. This is what the police advised when we had people climbing in. They also advised flimsy wooden trellis attached to the tops of fences/walls. The officer showed me a big scar on his hand, he got it when having to clamber into a garden after a criminal, the trellis split and jabbed him. He said it does deter intruders for this reason, along with Pyrocantha which is very unpleasant to land on.
lannistunut · 27/07/2021 12:23

That Helix Law site suggested Put up ‘Private Property’ or ‘No Trespassing’ signs that state trespassers will be prosecuted to deter entry. - I would try this first, you can buy trespassing and CCTV signs quite cheaply, you will be able to see from your camera if this makes any difference.

I would also alert the HA.

I would do both these things before involving the police, for the sake of not escalating a neighbour war. The police can be kept in reserve for later if they don't stop.

time4anothername · 27/07/2021 12:27

My neighbour has one of those cameras, like a nanny/pet cam for outdoors, that you can also turn an alarm on remotely that they turn on when people hang about outside their garage. The garage looks like a public area but is private. They had to put a sign up that the area is under CCTV.

So you could just put up a sign that the area is under CCTV and alarmed for movement, then set it off if you see they are there.

Alternatively you could leave them a note that you have seen them there, they can use your garden so long as you are out and they don't leave mess. Sounds like great burglar protection, if they can get over your wall when you are out, who else can?!

BadLad · 27/07/2021 12:30

You don't think it was maybe, just maybe, a joke...?

Well, you never know. This is the site where giving away houses, giving i-phones to intruders, giving Cream Eggs to people who yell at you in the street, phoning hotels to complain about being uninvited from a wedding by a guest, asking a friend to sit a driving test for you and getting a cat of your own to stop a neighbour's cat coming into your garden to shit have all been suggested. So assume nothing.

QuimReaper · 27/07/2021 12:38

I'm flabbergasted by the number of people suggesting OP speaks to these people directly. Not to mention that she risks repercussions, if she does that and it isn't effective, calling the police on them subsequently will be viewed as aggressively escalating the situation and they'll take it personally. She won't be able to claim ignorance and say she thought they were burglars.

To me the narrative is quite clear:

  1. OP's noticed disturbance to her garden. Suspects wildlife. Installs motion-activated camera to see what's going on.
  2. OP's new camera is activated, she accesses it, and sees trespassers in her garden, so naturally immediately calls the police to come and apprehend them, assuming they intend to burgle her.
  3. Horrified by the discovery that her garden is not secure, she installs anti-climb spikes and uses vandal paint to deter future potential burglars.

No need to directly engage the neighbours at all, and, having been caught red-handed, knowing she has a camera, and once they can't physically climb the wall, they almost certainly won't be doing it again. It seems pretty clear to me that they're only doing this because they think she'll never know about it (although leaving the fag ends was phenomenally stupid).

Horst · 27/07/2021 12:41

Put up cctv signs. Add cat spikes and anti vandal paint along with said signs about paint. Perfectly legal. However do all the walls/fence that way they won’t know you know it’s them you will just be doing all the boundary as you’ve noticed things moving.

Mrstreehouse · 27/07/2021 12:41

Crying at someone suggesting to dig a moat. 😂

Smackthepony · 27/07/2021 12:45

WTF! How awful for you OP! You are right, you cannot let this go but they are clearly scumbags from what you’ve described and sorting this is not going to be pleasant. Save all the video footage for later use. As PP’s have suggested, when the camera notifies you, call the police immediately to say intruders have broken into your garden. I hope it’s sorted quickly for you.

Batsy · 27/07/2021 12:46

Some good advice, some bad, and some absolutely crackers xD

I would first put up a sign letting them know there is a camera recording your private property.

Then i would try and make it harder to get into your garden, anti climb spikes...etc

I would call the police and ask for advice, letting them know you think someone has been trying to break into your garden, and where you stand legally with recording/preventing access.

I would also once you have put up the notice about the camera, and the continue to trespass, send photo's of them doing so to the HA.

i would also consider if you get notice of activity in your garden, calling the police about intruders breaking into your garden, because when its locked, its beyond trespass.