That this is weird as hell - car - is it for sale?

[Balibo]

So DH and I have moved to a more rural location down South. We're both originally from a big city up North. We have a fairly large house, on a main road with a large driveway. We park our cars on the driveway obviously. We have 3 cars. 1 car though we've just acquired. It belongs to a family member who recently passed away.

Twice in the last few months (once today and once a few months back - when we only had 2 cars) two seperate men have come to the door, knocked and asked if one specific car is for sale.....it's not a fancy car. It's a Ford.

The first time I thought that's weird but didn't think much more of it. Today though I think it's really weird. I was caught off guard because I'd decided to have a shower and wash my hair in the middle of the day. So I'm there with wet hair in my dressing gown having dashed from the shower to get the door (assuming it would be a parcel or something). Not very relevant but just setting the scene that I felt blindsided.

So today I said - you're the second person who has asked that, why do you think I'm selling my car? And he said because it doesn't look like it's being used.

We live on a main road with a high fence all around our driveway. We have neighbours opposite us - it wasn't them asking and then it's quite a distance to the next house. We aren't overlooked by anyone.

How can anyone who is just driving past - know whether we are using the car or not? He said I have a friend just up the road..... but i was thinking so your friend up the road is tracking how much I drive?

It's really weirded me out. If you were looking to buy a car - why not fb marketplace, auto trader, or a car show room - surely not just knock on a random person's door??

I don't understand at all. I said to my DH I feel like reporting this somewhere it doesn't feel normal - he said no I'm being daft but it is weird. Who is tracking our house/my movements to know whether we use the car.....if it matters I don't use the car.....but that's what's freaking me out - like they know I'm not using it but I'm not overlooked by anyone. It's a country road, an A road. Our driveway is private. Yes you can see the cars if you walk or drive past our house but how would someone know we werent using the car? There's only one house who could feasibly track our daily movements and it's not her. The car is in good repair. It doesn't look like a heap of crap on the driveway.

Just to clarify I have rarely used this Ford even before I got the other car because I generally drive my husbands car. But we've always needed two cars incase he's out for the day with work etc because I still need to do nursery runs etc

IABU? Is this just us with a big city mentality being suspicious over something we needn't be?

Also if this matters they both came at a similar time during the working week. Rather than say a Saturday.

Yabu - happens all the time
Yanbu - that's really weird

My colleague has had two similar age fiestas stolen - one in Nov 21 and its replacement in Dec 22. Report to the police online and get a steering lock. She was advised they are reasonably easy to break into so if you can put a visual deterrent in that may frustrate that, it might help.

Interesting what lots of people are saying about Fiestas as I know someone whose Fiesta was stolen from directly outside their house which is within the grounds of their workplace ( a workplace that has people there 24hrs and where you'd expect CCTV). It seemed odd that thieves would target that car as, although quite new, it wasn't high-spec. There were also lots of other cars on the surrounding streets that wouldn't have been so risky

My husbands car was on the drive for a couple of years as his project he never got round to doing. In that time we had lots of offers to buy it but I never imagined it was something dodgy 🙈 just that they wanted the car! It's a quiet cul de sac but there's probably more people than you think walking/driving past... Postmen, delivery guys, window clean tax leaflet deliveries.. We had a takeaway delivered once and the delivery guy asked us 😅

Yes, you would, and maybe also think they might just notice they were standing by a security camera that was recording them. Seems not.
There are lots of mentions of the stickers in the news. The phone no's don't work.
www.itv.com/news/london/2017-05-20/council-warns-fake-locksmith-stickers-could-be-signal-for-burglars

I’ve told this story before but some years ago a guy came round with a clipboard supposedly doing a survey of local trees. Wanted to look in our back garden. I said no way even though I was sure he was genuine (socks with sandals, beardy middle aged nerd etc). A few minutes later he rang the bell and asked if I wanted to sell my car, which was SORNed at the time due to not having got round to sorting the MOT. I told him to get lost again. Was a bit taken aback but DH pointed out that it was pretty obvious it wasn’t being driven as they get a bit mossy and sad. We had a couple more enquiries after that. I think it’s quite common and people who are in the used car trade or who do a bit of buying and selling on the side have an eye for a car that’s not being used.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24994148

Might pop my rarely used Ford Fiesta out the front of the house (as opposed to our back drive) with a cheeky for sale sign. See how much interest I can gather 😂

But in all seriousness, sounds like they are checking the house out to see who’s there, what’s there and security.

You can buy the gadget to steal them, transits and new defenders on eBay for not a lot (at one point under a tenner). A physical deterrent is the best thing, steering locks and boxes over the pedals are great.

500 arbarths are huge targets at the moment as well.

“could” being the operative world

I'm not sure I set much store by a news organisation that can't spell check its articles

It could be a scam but used car market is bonkers and has been for a while. Used car sellers have taken to knocking on peoples doors for cars they are after for buyers on the off chance as they were extremely hard to get hold of for a while. Still are but less so.

This has happened a lot where I live and nothing to do with casing the house as was the original thought.

Or the BBC?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24994148

Or any of the other places it has been published?
I don't take notice of the chalk marks stuff, but I still have the sticker from the door.
I don't usually post in AIBU, and hadn't noticed where I was at first, so will leave you to it.
Have a pleasant and argumentative evening.

Don't think they even need to go to the effort of what three words, as it's a minor wonder of the world that every house in this country is uniquely identifiable via a numerical digit, a street name and a town name and on the basis that they will be working an area of a town then number and street name will suffice - 8 High Street, 3 Station Road, 16 Green Avenue etc will more than suffice for their purposes.
I can't believe people think someone is wandering about random streets in the dark looking for chalk marks on a gate post (in a country liable to pissing rain, chalk isn't the cleverest)

@Balibo
Sometimes it's also if it's got historical value or £ value for e.g. Modifying ect

A few years back the local church organised an Easter egg hunt. They put posters on the lamp posts with wire ties, I watched them do a few in my mother in laws Street. Egg hunt went well, posters were taken down but they were torn off, not cut leaving a whole, black cable tie on the lamp post.

it took about six months before the conspiracy began on the local Facebook group, dog theft, markers for burglary. All the usual drama. They genuinely believed that gangs of whoever were roaming the area marking out their homes by the rather primitive methods of a wire tie around the light outside.

So when I read stories like Lock smith stickers my mind instantly goes to that and the hysteria created from absolutely nothing at all. I’ve read the BBC article and it does seem genuine, so I apologise for being flippant.

burglary is, for the most part, an opportunistic crime. Generally a burglar will walk past a property, spot a weakness and go for it. Very rarely is this kind of thing organised enough that they are scouting out neighbourhoods and putting signs outside. This is from an ex burglar who now does security.

As PP’s have said. They are casing the joint. If you hadn’t have answered, they would have started snooping around. Install some CCTV.

Any interest here in a 2014 Nissan Micra?

Joking aside. You’ll sell that for good money every day of the week. Micras are pretty bomb proof and one of the most desirable little cars out there for new drivers. They tend to hold their money quite well.

This is reassuring although in reality I have no plans to sell her as we’ve bonded too much tbf.

It can be people casing the property. Seeing when you're around, who is around when and what sort of security you have. It's been known to happen a bit in countryside and in villages. They could also be eyeing up cars to come back and take expensive parts off it too. I'm in North and in a village lol so we are more wary.

bravo 😂

I think you're overthinking it personally - my husband is the type of person that notices EVERYTHING car related and is also the sort of person that would (and has!) knocked on a door asking if a car is for sale if it has suddenly appeared/not moved for ages/looks knackered and he thinks he could fix it etc.

Ooo are they? I find that interesting news.

Happens more often than you think. We have had this whenever we’ve had a car not used much. Also our camper van. Same happens to friends and family. We are also in the south. It’s normally local traveller families. No issue with them but they don’t mind knocking on the off chance. They’re just chancers to be honest. Nothing in it and we’ve never been burgled or anything as a result. Don’t worry about it.