Caught neighbours using my garden

[Weird21]

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.

@Yesitsbess

Grease. Car grease. Lots of it on the top of the wall....

Same with the barbed wire and broken glass. If they slipped and got injured OP would be liable

@31flavours

I used to do admin years ago for an estate agents and they agreed with you FIL
Advice to people was not to buy houses close to blocks of, especially high rise flats infact they were very Particular which properties they would market

One of the partners said to me, quite a snob he was, if we sell things that are in troubled areas it'll affect our reputation

Bit extreme really but reading this I see what he means

Totally understand your worries. A few things spring to mind

1. Make the camera and polite signage obvious
2. Defensive planting (it’s a known police tactic) and a garden reshuffle so it’s not so easy to access
3. Rent your drive way out or offer it to a neighbour when you are not there

I hope you can find a helpful and peaceful solution. Of course if you feel insecure or if anything is being defaced or stolen call the police and or local authority/housing association (whoever owns the flats if they are not privately owned.
Good luck

If you can, plant some berberis, forsythia or a climbing rose. They are all really spiky and should stop them climbing over without any confrontation. There are lots of really spiky plants that you could put all the way along.

@Somanysocks

Has anybody said shotgun yet?

funnily enough, there was a story on the news quiz/comey show a few years back about a women who reported an ongoing burglary in her shed. Phoned the police, and was told that no one was available...

waited a few minutes and rang back and said not to worry as she had shot them... within a minute, four police cars the armed police and a police helicopter where in attendance and caught burglars red handed.

police officer came to her and said: I thought you said you had shot them.

she replied: and I though you said you had no-one available...

Obviously not to be recommended, but a funny story non-the-less (and probably fiction)

I think AddsvGeorge 's suggestion is a very good one.

What on earth is going on with the people saying “let them use your garden” whilst you’re out?!?

🤯

If the shoe was on the other foot, there is no way that anyone would permit this!

Just insane.

Post a copy of the Mirror through their door.

@threatmatrix

You can get cameras you can speak through. When you see them you could say hi.

Brilliant! I love it.

@omgthepain

I thought my FIL was being a snob. His opening statement was why do I want to buy a £900k house where the grounds of flats (4 storey block) around the £300k mark back on to the garden. Being a slightly paranoid older Asian man, they tend to hold memories from the 1980s and apply them today and his thoughts were cigs/weed ends might be chucked in our garden and a higher propensity of crime.

But given what you said perhaps he was right. In the end we didn’t buy that house because of his concerns.

@waltzingparrot

Water sprinkler operated via your phone.

Water sprinkler is the best idea i think.

Why is this thread still here if the Mirror have it? op must be worried sick cant it just be deleted?

I suspect that is why the OP hasn't come back - doesn't want to increase the risks by saying what she is doing/has done to help get the CFs to stay away.

I HOPE she has reported them to the HA, as per some pps' advice, with crime number etc.

I am really disturbed though by the many posters saying that the police don't come out for burglaries any more - why on earth not? I admit the last time I was burgled in the UK was back in the early 90s, but I had police and SOCO come out to the house and fingerprint everything - has it really gone so far down hill now that they just don't bother their arses any more?

I did like the story about the lady saying she'd shot the burglars though - however apocryphal it may be!

100% call police. There is no reason for you or your neighbours to be involved and potentially victimised. Police will be all the deterrent these appalling cfs need.

[quote shouldistop]@YerAWizardHarry of course there are sheriffs! They're the judges in sheriff courts. [/quote]
And don't forget Sheriff Woody - I bet nobody called him!

@DishingOutDone

Why is this thread still here if the Mirror have it? op must be worried sick cant it just be deleted?

This happened to me once under a different username. I asked a to me...lighthearted question and it was SO contentious that it turned into a massive bunfight and the papers picked it up and then they discussed it on one of the morning shows! I left the thread where it was out of fascinated horror!

Luckily I hadn't put anything too revealing.

@ThumbWitchesAbroad

I suspect that is why the OP hasn't come back - doesn't want to increase the risks by saying what she is doing/has done to help get the CFs to stay away.

I HOPE she has reported them to the HA, as per some pps' advice, with crime number etc.

I am really disturbed though by the many posters saying that the police don't come out for burglaries any more - why on earth not? I admit the last time I was burgled in the UK was back in the early 90s, but I had police and SOCO come out to the house and fingerprint everything - has it really gone so far down hill now that they just don't bother their arses any more?

I did like the story about the lady saying she'd shot the burglars though - however apocryphal it may be!

Too busy charging women for putting photos of ribbons on Twitter.

@LastSummerHere - ah yes, of course!

Bloody hell, what a world we live in at the moment, where men are afraid of ribbons but burglars have a free pass

Wasn’t OP waiting until Friday( her day off) to try to catch them red handed?

Play the recording Kevin from Home Alone plays to the pizza guy at full blast through the camera when you see them scaling the wall.

In all seriousness, what CF! Can't believe this! Hope you get it sorted!

Them Home Bargains police cut outs always shit me up 🤣🤣 I put a cctv sticker on my door cos my neighbour keeps filling my bin. I know it’s her cos it’s right outside my window, only a few quid on eBay

How about this in your garden ? It's life size and would scare me off?

@Overdale

Why don't you make them welcome ? you don't need to use the garden when you are at work and they would be providing you with security

Are you serious? Perhaps she should leave the back door open so that they can use her house when she's not there too!

Why don't you make them welcome ? you don't need to use the garden when you are at work and they would be providing you with security hahahahahaha - security from what? Trespassers in her garden? Fag-end dropping freeloaders using her garden seating? Potential opportunists scoping out the back of the houses for open windows?

I'm sure they'd be really helpful to the OP!

^