Someone's following me..

[mouettoi]

I'm writing this here as I don't really know who else to speak to about it. I keep thinking maybe I'm going mad..

This morning at around 3.30am, I had an alert from my ring doorbell to movement outside of my front door. We live down a private track, so nobody would come to visit really; unless for a reason. We don't have passers by and we are a stand alone house, no neighbours.

I watched in real time as a man (?) walked up to my ring doorbell, looked straight into it, and then walked slowly away (backwards) before turning around and disappearing out of view.

Although they didn't do anything wrong as such, I feel really unnerved by this activity. My DH is away for work at the moment so it's just me in the house.

Has anybody had anything like this happen before??

It's correct French, the only thing that stands out is that strangers use "vous" instead of "tu" (meaning "you") as a sign of respect, but I don't know if that means much given the situation. I find "I can see you all the time" to be a weird phrase anyway (both in English and French) as I would've expected something more along the lines of "I'm watching you" instead.

No indication as to whether it's a French person or not though, could be either.

Oh ffs 😂😂

Yes this may be a fake thread.

But as someone who has stalkers over the years, this sort of thing does happen.

And there’s nothing worse than when people don’t believe you or down play it.

I'm really not sure I want to continue this thread. I have no reason - let alone any time to be making up what's going on. I'm grateful for the translation.

Having said that, whoever wrote it knows OPs name, so maybe "tu" isn't so strange to use. If it's a small village then it could be anyone, it's the norm in rural French areas (in my experience) to know people's first names in my experience.

Ignore the people who are troll hunting, there are plenty of people here offering support. If it turns out you have been a big fat troll the whole time, I can't say I'd care at all, I'll still help you in the meantime.

Please ignore the sanctimonious troll-hunters.
I currently have a stalker, I know these things can and do happen. Unfortunately these people believe that as it hasn't happened to them personally in their small bubble, it can't possibly happen to anyone anywhere else in the world, or they seem to think they'd know about it.
Please keep posting if you need support.

Just get yourself to, and then keep, yourself in safety OP. And remember that your personal safety is more important than that of your home and possessions. If you need to go and get or feed the dog, though, take someone (preferably male and big or scary-looking if you can) with you at the very least and do it in the middle of the day. The police should be able to advise.

I can't understand why or how someone would get a note and put it on my windscreen in a busy, open and public car park let alone know my name and my car. I'm truly spooked.

No need to apologise OP 🌺

I'm glad you have contacted the police.

If you can, please let someone at work know - manager/security/trusted colleague.

I'd be unnerved too!

It's awful to feel you are being watched/followed.

Is there CCTV covering the carpark or any nearby areas?

Best wishes OP I hope the police can help you.

OP it might be worth checking if the carpark has any surrounding cctv - hopefully that will have picked up something. Definitely take that letter to the police (maybe put it in a plastic bag incase there are fingerprints on it).

Definite police again. And don’t stay alone.

Someone trying to be intimidating would almost certainly use the "tu" form. It does strike me as something an English--speaking person would translate literally into French, though - I think a French native speaker would be more idiomatic (I could be wrong...). Could it be someone connected with your work, OP?

What do you work as?

I’d put money on it it is related to your work somehow.
Especially if you’ve seen them twice now near your place of work.

You say you don’t recognise them though?
Maybe they work close by and see you go into work everyday.
Which would account for the - I see you all of the time type message.

I wouldn’t say that message is from a French person as it doesn’t make much sense.
But if they’re English, they can’t know you are English.

I do work in an environment where I'm helping clients personally.. but again since I WFH most of the time I don't see the same faces often at all..

Just seen your update - I really feel for you 😢

I had a stalker when I first went to uni and it was awful. Not as spooky as yours but I was only 18.

Can you and the dog go and stay with a friend or relative until DH gets back?

Or, do you have a friend/relative who come and stay with you?

Someone would use tu if they felt they knew her…

I'd also recommend taking this to your local Mairie, I know my mayor would be absolutely horrified at this and would help as much as he could.

Report the thread and stop trollhunting - it's against the rules!

I have plenty of friends over here who have job descriptions such as the above, because they work mainly with expats - no french needed.

Right. This is very important now, OP.

Are you still out? I'd call the police to your current location, show them the note, explain the circumstances and get them to escort you to a safe location. Do you think you can do that?

@CockSpadget op has already says she works for an English company there! Not at all uncommon!

@CockSpadget
Please see my below message..