More a WWYD: re thieving neighbour

[theDudesmummy]

WWYD? (sorry if a bit long). We are renovating an old farmhouse, and live in a rented house a few minutes away at the moment. Part of the work we have done on the farmhouse has been to cut down several large dying or dangerous trees in the garden. My DH (South African) loves barbequing, and he spent weeks cutting up the wood with a chain saw to provide us with BBQ wood which should have lasted us several years at least. He proudly stacked it all up in an outhouse which, as yet does not have a door (stupid in hindsight but real crime is rare where we are).

We live in a very rural area, but have a close neighbour, who we have been friendly to since buying the house (we even bought him an expensive new chicken coop because we did not like his chicken shed being as close as it was to our wall). The neighbour asked some time ago if we would give him our "scrap" wood as he has a wood-burning stove (we don't). We said no sorry, we want it for BBQ wood. We thought it would just be left at that.

The weather is now getting better and so DH went up to the farmhouse to fetch some wood for a BBQ. To his shock the pile of wood has severely diminished, about half of it has gone. Literally about three large trees worth. He looked over at the neighbour's woodshed (which also has no door) and although most of the wood was not there (presumably already burned), he recognised some pieces that he is sure are ours (some had distinctive moss on them). When he went and asked the neighbour about this the neighbour did not reply and just ran away into his house.

Here is the question, what do we do now? DH is spending most of today driving to a quite distant town to get the best security cameras we can, so this should not happen again, but do we also tell the police? This house is our retirement project and once it is finished we are likely to live in it for the rest of our lives. The neighbour's family have lived on this road (in various houses) for over 200 years. So we are going to be next door to each other forever, basically. We keep changing our mind about this, being hopping mad but wondering how we would live next to people who we have reported to the police. In a tiny village where the neighbour is from here for many generations back and we are very much not.

The fact he ran back into his house shows he did it and at least is not that evil. I would leave it , make sure I have cameras around and if i need wood, would just buy pieces for the next barbecue. Or if you plan a wood business, make a business arrangement for it, proper structure etc

I would keep cold and silent when i see them and never engage with them.

When you’ve installed cameras make sure you have signs saying CCTV in use so he knows you’re watching when you’re not there.
I’d be tempted to say he has the choice of returning it or you go to the Police. I wouldn’t give a shiny shit about neighbourly relations as he clearly doesn’t value good relations with you.

A very good point about wood not being dry enough. He has probably stashed it somewhere.

I think DH should add a super noisy motion detector to his shopping list and put it the threshold of the outhouse. That should scare the bejesus out of the next rotten thief. The camera will give you a nice shot of the reaction. At least you'll get a small amount of revenge and entertainment for your trouble. Theyre unlikely to do it again.

If everyone knows who it was and you were already warned he was a thief then you were a bit daft to leave the shed doorless. Wood isn’t cheap these days! There’s an old saying “good fences make good neighbours”. You’ve lost your wood but you’ve learned a lesson, so I’d chalk it up to experience. Beef your security up and crucially, keep said nasty thieving rat neighbour fully in the loop about future security and the response any further thieving will bring forth on his nasty head. Call it a shot across the bows, sounds like anything freely accessible will be just too much temptation for this guy. And yeah, you have to live with him and his large family so he gets strike one free. Strike two will not be nearly as pleasant or gainful for him!

Are you living near me down in West Cork, lol?

Yes, thefts like that usually get blamed on Travellers (!) but in reality we all know who are the thieving bastards locally and basically, they can only get work through relatives or from new people who don’t know their reputation…yet.

For instance, when I realised that Barry was doing some odd job work for my new neighbour, I told the neighbour not to trust him with a key or leave him alone for any length of time.

I wouldn’t confront them as you have no real proof that the wood they still have is yours and you don’t want bother from any of their extended family.

Go down the camera route, electric fencing etc. and lock up your property more securely. Also, get a big dog when you move in. Mine is great at alerting me and seeing off dodgy trespassers when I’m home alone.

I have had a similar problem with a neighbour years ago. In my case, it was water they were stealing from an outside tap. We had a few hefty unexplained bills and started reading the meter thinking it was a leaky pipe. Another local tipped us off to the fact a neighbour was taking a lot of water from our outside pipe for their market garden venture next door. Piping it through to their garden with a hose for hours per day. Outrageous. A CCTV and a big sign on the gate put a stop to that. I also added a tap lock and it taught me to keep everything locked up. It is awful not to trust neighbours but justified in some cases. The price of wood logs has gone up like everything else, so I am not surprised yours got pinched. It is very cheeky of the neighbour but now you know the character of the person, you can be vigilant. Please get a sign stating CCTV recording and get the wood remaining under lock and key.

@AbbaG12 no, it is dry, it's been three years now since we cut the trees down!

@CraftyIrishMamma no, in west Galway...

Cameras have arrived, busy connecting them to an app on our phones...

He got signs too...

Ah, sorry misread how long ago it was cut. Definitely get a loud motion alarm.

I don’t see how you can prove anything. It’s all hearsay and speculation. I’d get the security cameras set up asap and put a sign on the locked door pointing out the person is on cctv. It might also be worth seeing if you can get any motion sensitive lighting and alarm - one of the alerts that comes through on your watch or phone so you can then speak on a speaker might be quite effective. They are often sold as house alarms but also used as baby alarms.

Rural Ireland here as well.

Your wood is gone. What I would do is tell the neighbour you are installing the cameras due to the thefts, and secure your property - Guards advise this anyway due to rural burglaries.

We've neighbour couple exactly like this. They stole from a terminally ill relative while she was at a funeral. Anyway, everyone knows what they are. Literally the whole village. They are universally disliked and distrusted and have been caught before snooping around people's property after dark. .

For the sake of neighbour relations we've waved and smiled while muttering "cunts" as we pass by. We also plan to get night vision cameras and I'll have no hesitation in sending them clips of him prowling around our property if needed. Meanwhile we've planted saplings in the shape of a dick pointing at their house, in memory of our relative. A few years from now we are going to have some very funny drone footage.

I remember reading on here that a poster who had a nightmare neighbour used to toss an oxo cube into his garden and the neighbour dogs would go digging for it, drove the neighbour bonkers that the dogs were destroying the lawn.

That revenge is also up my sleeve if they ever fucking dare with us. I'll get a squirty gun and pew-pew beef stock morning and evening out the car window at their flower beds.

This is a brilliant idea. 😂

@Turfwars 😂😂😂 at the beef stock pew-pew!

There's a thought....soak the wood in his shed....

What arseholes! I think you'll need to let the wood go without any further action. It's clear he took it and it's clear he knows you know he took it, so hopefully that together with the cameras will put paid to any further theivery.

Once you're truly settled in the village and have a few good friends (and identified the nicest gossip), drop it in to conversation how weird it was that some of your wood went missing before you moved in, and let the village jungle drums do the rest.

@Turfwars I think I have a new hero...!

The motion-detection cameras are set up and DH has gone to install them. They seem great, work with an app on your phone, I'm still playing with the settings so I don't get a notification every time a sheep walks past the back fence! Thanks for all the input. Some of the suggestions I'd love to try but am going to try and keep the peace and just prevent any further theft. Love the beef and dog story and the rude trees.

We've been here for three years and know that everything thinks this man is a c**t. His is pretty much one of the original families of the village (and of the county) though. They've been here for centuries.

*everyone thinks...

Could you spray some distinctive paint over the remaining wood (and anything else liftable)? An identifying mark like that might deter them?

Once you're truly settled in the village and have a few good friends (and identified the nicest gossip), drop it in to conversation how weird it was that some of your wood went missing before you moved in, and let the village jungle drums do the rest

A fortnight before we were due to move into our rural cottage on the outskirts of a tiny village, we had our entire fitted kitchen and bathroom stolen. I joined the local WI/coffee morning group and was actually introduced as... 'this is nightsky, you know, the one who MC nicked the kitchen and bathroom from'.

Well yabu for calling it a bbq and not a Braai! 🤣
I don’t think much can be done over the already missing wood, can you store the rest elsewhere and pop a lock on a door? Otherwise hopefully your cameras will do the job and deter him from taking anymore, the spray paint idea above is good as well! I’d want to go home alone style and figure out how to hide some sort of paint/glitter bomb in between the wood!

@thenightsky did you get it back? 😳

Cameras with motion sensors, alarms on the wood shed and slightly more illegally, set up shotgun cartridges on wire to go off (away from) when the door is opened at night. Will scare the absolute shit out of them. And, as he knows you know, tell him you know he’s a thief and he will seriously regret ever crossing you again…

And get a big dog.

No. I was told on the gossip grapevine it was installed in another house MC was fitting out about 8 miles away. We claimed on insurance.