AIBU to knock on the neighbour's door?

[picklesandpeanutbutter]

Context: I'm in Australia and it's winter but not very cold at all! It was about 10 degrees at the time so not icy.

I went for a walk this morning at about 8 and walked past the next door neighbour's house. They have a longish driveway but a car park on the side next to the footpath and next to my driveway. As I left, I walked past their parked car in the small car park. It was on which was a bit odd and I couldn't see if anyone was in it but I don't think anyone was. However, on the way home an hour later the car was STILL on, and there was nobody in it! The doors were closed, it was fully parked but running.

I knocked on their front door and let the neighbour know that the car was on and his response was "oh, I must have left it on! I'm just about to leave." He didn't leave until about 15 minutes later.

AIBU to think this is really odd behaviour? Does anyone do this themselves?

I used to in the 80's with the cortina, is it an old car?

Nope, it's a new VW

Probably bonkers then.
Watch out for escalation

very odd. waste of petrol & the car could get stolen.

Weirdly there’s some Australian parents at my kids nursery and they always used to leave their cars running when they went in to collect their kids (back when we were still allowed into the building), so a good 10-15 minutes just leaving the engine on while they were out of sight of the car. Is it an Australian thing maybe 🤔

It's not super common but it's definitely noticeable that people do that here! Especially in pick-up/drop-off situations. So weird, turning a car off and on takes two seconds lol

I suppose when for a lot of the year it can be unbearably hot maybe it makes sense to leave the car running for the aircon and they just get used to it so still do it in winter

I reckon your neighbour just got totally distracted though and forgot they’d already started the car (to warm it up inside maybe?)