Neighbour has stolen my clogs

[MongoAkimboAGoGo]

I had a decorative pair of clogs outside my front door and this morning they have disappeared and a pair of old trainers put in their place. I only have 3 neighbours - I messaged the one I thought had done it saying “haha great joke, can I have my clogs back now and you can have your trainers back” and she read the message, put a laughing face on it but never replied. I went around kept it friendly, said my kids had found it very amusing but seriously, can I have them back now and she made out she didn’t know what I was talking about but was clearly trying to hold in laughter. I just want them back. I never found it funny to begin with, I was just trying to stay light hearted but I’m getting annoyed now.

@SpiderinaWingMirror

Super glue her manky trainers to her car, it's all bants innit?

OP doesn't have the manky trainers anymore. CF has now taken them too

I would find this so annoying. Tell her they were a gift from someone and special to you.

I had an elderly neighbour that used to do mean things to my property like putting weedkiller on my newly planted shrubs and break my Christmas lights and make up lies about me to other neighbours 'I heard her and DH screaming the place down last night, they're headed for a divorce I think' this was no where near true DH and I are very happy and rarely row. Neighbour thought it was all very funny and would laugh when I told him to stop and leave me, my family and my property alone. He would say 'it's just some plants, you can get more' and 'it's just a string of lights, go buy another' 'you're getting awfully angry when I talk about your divorce so there must be some truth to it' I was angry because I felt I was being targeted and harassed relentlessly. He thought it was amusing. I ended up phoning the police in the end and they questioned him and told him to stop. He was fuming and claimed to be the victim and that I was 'being mean' to him because I 'couldn't take a joke'. I don't think these sort of things are pranks I think it's bullying OP and if you've told her to stop and she continues then I don't see how it can be seen as anything other than harassment. Have a chat with her and say clearly 'I feel I'm being harassed. I'm not finding it funny. Please stop.'

Its bullying and she sounds like the sort of person who would turn it round and accuse you of being miserable, she is just having a bit of a laugh etc. Its very childish, it's difficult not to rise to it but just let her crack on, no one is finding it funny and she is clearly extremely bored if all she can do is sit at home planning her next little trick, she may have been up all night waiting to swap the clogs over.

If she has form for this sort of thing you need to get a CCTV camera to capture her next "joke"/theft/criminal damage.

Good ways to retaliate include putting superglue in the keyholes to her front door or slipping a few cockroaches through the letterbox.

I wouldn’t return the pranking - it’ll just escalate the situation as she tries to outprank you for the lolz.

Just be firm with her - no more pranks, leave your stuff alone. If she tells you you can’t take a joke remind her you can when the joke is funny - what she’s doing isn’t funny.

I would clog it with 101

she sounds like the sort of person who would turn it round and accuse you of being miserable

This without a doubt. OP will be called Miserable, no sense of fun/humour, it’s funny/only a joke, harmless etc.

Stuff that, she’s awful. She needs to stop touching your stuff.

Our other neighbour has cctv pointing at his driveway, doesn’t seem right to ask him to trawl through all the footage for something so silly though does it. He’s probably want to though as they had a big falling out and no longer talk

My kids are 9 and 11 for whoever asked.

@WorriedWishingWell

I would clog it with 101

That would be a mildly amusing pun IF the OP wasn’t upset.

@MongoAkimboAGoGo

Our other neighbour has cctv pointing at his driveway, doesn’t seem right to ask him to trawl through all the footage for something so silly though does it. He’s probably want to though as they had a big falling out and no longer talk

My kids are 9 and 11 for whoever asked.

Ask him to look and see who took the trainers back. He wouldn’t have to trawl through hours of footage as it happened within a short timeframe whilst you were at the gym.

Sounds like he’s help as he dislikes this person too.

I wouldn't like it either, it's very odd, bordering on bullying, is she one of those "I'm mad I am!" types?

I’m going to ask other neighbour to look through the cctv for this morning between 9 and 11am

This is Classics material

It's really not 🙄

I think I'd be asking the neighbour with the. Cctv to have a look before I did anything else. It seems most likely its the neighbour the OP believes it to be but as yet she's only assuming it is. It might be someone else (probably unlikely) I'd want to know for sure though

She's a nasty bitch , calling it a prank doesn't change that. I'm not surprised your neighbour doesn't talk to her, I bet she falls out with people all the time.
I wouldn't engage , she is getting a kick out of your reaction . Get a Ring doorbell for evidence of future theft .

It's a shit 'joke' she probably laughs at Mrs Brown's Boys too. She wants to get a reaction from you, knowing you would go round straight away this morning. If that's how she gets her kicks, she is an imbecile. Don't say anything else today. They will probably miraculously turn up before the day is out. I know that doesn't help in the long term with this cretin but she wants a reaction. So she can laugh at you. No reaction = no laugh= she won't bother with her shite jokes anymore.

So unfortunately other neighbour doesn’t record during the day but he said he’ll look through last night’s footage as he started recording at 10pm. A few months ago he caught her messing with his plant pots and confronted her

Curiouser and curiouser.

Hopefully it will show something on the CCTV overnight or early morning, agree with getting a ring doorbell. If it is her I would block her number, just tell her that you know it was her as someone saw her, she might kick off if she knows it was CCTV and accuse people of spying on her.

Get a hard faced friend to go around and knock on her door saying it was a gift from them to you and they want it back

It was a gift, from my parents in Holland 😢

@MongoAkimboAGoGo

Because that is her sense of humour. If they had just been stolen there wouldn’t be a pair of old trainers in their place

Well there might be. I'm sorry to say I was childishly amused when a notoriously difficult woman down the road had her most gruesome gnome replaced by a sign that said 'Gon Away. Bak Soon'. It wasn't any of the near neighbours who were responsible.

What if it wasn't your neighbour? Just sayin'....

Can you hear her going clip clippity clop?

I'm so glad I don't live by people like that. It's telling your kids find her 'pranks' funny. I bet most adults just find her tediously annoying.

OP I think I remember you posting about the tree thing at Christmas.
This kind of crap would really really piss me off. I’d get CCTV yourself in case it happens again.