For not telling the police

[Changymcnamechange]

Sorry if this is long trying not to drip feed.

So on Saturday I called the police round to my neighbours late at night because I thought I heard either an aggravated burglary (our other neighbour had been burgled earlier this year) or potentially DV as there was lots of crashing and screaming which stopped after about 10 to 15 minutes.

Neighbour is husband and wife and 2 kids. The husband has form for being a bit of a dickhead (he's made passive aggressive threats to my husband before and is generally unpleasant if not slightly insane) and I wouldn't put it past him although not heard anything that was concerning enough to call the police before In 10 years and never seen any bruises.

I have actually put my house on the market because husband neighbour is a dickhead and also uses power tools excessively (although I've never made a complaint) he has also made the street so uncomfortable that 2 other neighbours have left either because of him or partly because of him.

Today I had a knock on the door by the police as they got a call from a "passer by" (I live on a cul de sac of 10 houses) that there was a child screaming in my house, my toddler was happily playing when they came round. The officer actually looked embarrassed and was apologetic and within a couple of minutes seemingly satisfied that everything was fine.

On the Saturday the wife of my crap neighbour came straight round after the police have been to ask if it was me that called as it was only her and the teenage kids in and said basically the kids had just had a massive barny. I can't lie (and it was obvious I had called) and said I was worried there'd been an aggravated break in citing the burglary on the other side, (I was also worried she or the kids were getting a hiding but didn't say that) she also said her husband was out and after we spoke thanked me for my concern but not to worry and apologised on behalf of the boys.

i suspect dickhead husband on learning about my call to the police has decided to arrange a revenge call. I didn't share my thoughts on this with the police as I'm worried this will become an official neighbour dispute if they're making malicious calls rather than out of genuine concern.

My AIBU is should I have told the police? Was I being unreasonable for withholding that it was likely malicious? I hate that I don't want to mess up selling my house in an already crappy sellers market and feel its so unjust that he can get away with being such a shitbag.

What would you do/have done?

Thanks for reading and sorry in advance if I fall asleep and don't reply till the morning... X

The Police have a record of your report and then the one about you. If it was him and becomes an on going issue the evidence is already there. If it was not him then it would be you looking like the one making malicious complaints.

The Police would not do anything about a malicious complaint anyway - they would only act if it became a regular thing.

Let sleeping dogs lie - hopefully it is all done and dusted now with no real harm done. If not then you can make a decision on what to do then.

I would just leave it. Get in with selling your house and leave it all behind you.

I don’t think this is a big deal tbh. The police saw your toddler is safe and happy. They are clearly taking no further action. You are moving and selling so will soon be rid of these people.

Yes, it could be seen as giving you a taste of your own medicine if it was them calling. But it could have been a genuine call, just like yours was, you’ll never know for sure.

Also the police are intelligent enough to make their own conclusions. They might have thought already that it was a malicious call, or that maybe your toddler was simply being noisy earlier (ie normal household noise) therefore nothing untoward happened requiring their presence but a loud noise may have occurred. They will have a record of the call made. They won’t be inclined to investigate a hoax call here, they get called to petty things all the time.