Hi,
l’m new to this forum and responded this in the anonymous neighbor thread, but I think it seems it may have not been best to add to another poster’s thread ?
This was the message (I can’t find a delete button) :
Not sure it applies, but we got one in our tiny appartement flats common parking space, very bold plain sight.
Really dramatic one saying I witnessed from my ground flat the police arriving in our parking, I was so panicked and still am, I’m desperate to know if there is any safety risk, someone please reassure me. I saw them leaving a good hour later, that seems so long and not reassuring doesn’t it ? Something along those lines, you get the general tone.
Bit of background : my mum is psychologically fragile, I’ve been living with her here since September. She does tend to fall easily into scams. As she’s ill, she doesn’t have a car so her parking space is unused. This neighbor who posted the note apparently ‘befriended’ her and convinced her to rent her the parking space for a tiny sum (think 20 vs 200/month). Another neighbor told me this recently, to put a stop to it, so I told her to. Obviously parking neighbor was aghast. But she’s not well off, which is why the other neighbor told me it was such a ridiculous loss of income.
All this to say : several of the neighbors, including my mum, have perfectly normal interactions, they’re nice, they try to support, they mind their own businesses. It was so obvious that they came because she was in a crisis (suicidal ideation, never violent or anything, has happened several times previously). Ambulances were way overbooked and police happened to be in the neighborhood. Other neighbors reacted as if nothing happened (she’s mortified when it does, so they tend to wait a couple of days before sending a little Hi how are u btw message). But now she’s not coping well at all with this note. She didn’t even take it down, it’s the other neighbor who had told me about the parking space situation who did and messaged me about it and should he contact her. I have no clue, she just confirmed she’d seen it when I asked. Fwiw none of the neighbors care in the slightest as they know there’s no violence/substances/etc, she just can’t seem to see it.
Sorry, that was very long ! So yes, anonymous neighbors letters can really suck…’
I’m adding in this one a question : would this situation have bothered you ?
They don’t put sirens on or anything, you’d really have to be looking out of your window, there’s never any noice included, much less anything remotely related to violence/substances. Usually the couple of neighbors who end up knowing someone came only do because they’re lovely quiet and nice people who suggested I could call them if needed. I’ve never had any expectations though for them to do anything, I usually just don’t really. Mostly they just take it upon themselves to ask her over for a cup of coffee or something.
They also have a common WhatsApp which maybe could have been used to ask if anyone had any issues at the time maybe ? What I would have done - maybe - it might have felt intrusive ?