Should I tell the police?

[PonyPals]

This is more of what would you do..
So my dad is in construction and he started a job today where he has to replace a floor in a garage.
Whilst ripping up the floor he found a semi hidden door behind a big mirror that was hanging up on a wall at the very back of the garage.
The door was half the normal size and when he looked in he saw that it was a small space with no windows but a mattress a tv and a book. It also had a vent leading out of it and the tube was across the garage roof.. we think for air (does that makes sense?)
So what do you think the room could be for?
Client is a man maybe in his 70s. Lives alone.
Should we report this to the police or are we letting our imagination run away?

Sounds dodgy to me. I'd take photos and report to the police. Up to them if they want to then do anything with that information.

What was clients job? Maybe he was some sort of spy who had to keep low.

"But presumably the perpetrators didn't invite workmen in who would then be able to easily find their hiding places?"
No But John Wayne Gacey had people in under his crawl space spraying for bugs/laying down lime etc while he had bodies buried under there.

Maybe he TOLD women that's what he did, to lure them back to his secret hideout, like the secondhand car salesman in 'True Lies'. "If not for me, do it for your country"😂

I have to agree with this, as well as if someone was being kept there against their will surely neighbours would be able to hear screams/shouts given there's a tube that leads to outside?

I would still report it though. If nothing comes of it then no harm done but I don't think I could leave it if there was even 0.01% chance that something bad had been happening there.

I would definitely do an anonymous report just at the thought of it could be an unsolved case of something awful and/ or involve a child, ive watched too many documentaries yes but better safe than sorry! You may always wonder if not

What exactly would the OP be reporting to the police?

Why doesn't he just ask the guy about it? See what his response is.

That there's a suspicious unlocked room in the house of a man she's never met...

It’s a strange one. The mattress and the air tube get my nose twitchin’! There could be a completely innocent explanation and the fella has used it as a private room for his own reasons.

Maybe it’s a now defunct bdsm room? Or willing gimp’s bedroom?

I agree with just asking the guy directly tbh (not using examples of what it could be though 😅)

Sit about laughing?

Personally I would report it , even if it’s as they are finishing the job . Yes it’s probably nothing but it can also be something sinister

Asked my DP who is "civil servant" he said take pics and ring 101 to see what they say. The address might already be known to them.

EVERYONE STOP.

THE OP HAS HAD ADVICE FROM A CIVIL SERVANT

Let's all bow down our gratitude that we have a "civil servant" giving an opinion...

Wtf difference does him being a civil servant make? 😂

The police might arrest you for wasting police time.

Where a person causes any wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making to any person a false report tending to show that an offence has been committed, or to give rise to apprehension for the safety of any persons or property, or tending to show that he has information material to any police inquiry, he shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for not more than six months or to a fine.

www.bestcriminaldefencebarrister.co.uk/criminal-defence-barrister-blog/2021/wasting-police-time-s5-2-criminal-law-act-1967/

For those who love this sort of thing...

In the 1970s a relative worked in the court system in London. He said the local police had just done a search of garages for stolen property & had discovered 2 bodies. (In 2 different garages IIRC.)

Was there anyone in there? Sounds like there wasn’t but seems like the sort of place someone who had been trafficked would be living. I think it would be worth telling the police.

In his younger years he probably used to tell his wife he was going out and then bugger off to his man cave and knock one out over a photo of Sophia Loren.

if the room hadn’t been used for ages, why was there a book in it

I think you’ll just have to ask and gauge his response. Maybe he has a grandchild who goes their for peace and quiet

@girlmom21 · Not a civil servant, a "civil servant" ...

But indeed 😆

Seriously? Do you really think that the Ops dad opened up the door and saw someone in there and then shut the door and left them there?!😂

with the whole neighbourhood hearing him out of the air tube? 😂

WTF now that is creepy!