To feel concerned at seeing a neighbour being taken in police van...

[ThatBreezyRaven]

Just went out to walk the dog and saw a police van parked a couple of doors down, opposite side of road. Two police officers were coming out of the house carrying clear plastic bags with items inside. I couldn't see what was in the bags. The police officers were wearing blue plastic gloves. A man was coming with them out of the house. I don't think he was handcuffed and didn't seem to be resisting - and he was going into the back of the police van, where one of the policeman was accompanying him.

I WFH alone and now feel uneasy. We have young teenagers who will be home from school later. I don't know if anyone else is still in the house where the police were, or what the arrest - if it was an arrest - was about.

YABU - it's none of your business and not necessarily for you to worry about

YANBU - you're right to feel uneasy, you don't know what has happened in very close proximity to your family home

"Uneasy" or just nosey? Nosey is fine by the way. Lots of people are! The police have been, made an arrest by the sound of things, so why feel "uneasy"?

Understandable to be curious, but I wouldn’t be particularly concerned. Even if he’s doing something illegal, it apparently hasn’t impacted you before now so why would it start to? He could also have been sectioned rather than arrested. Though they’d have had to have his cooperation to do that in the house.

Could be checking devices, we've had that twice round here. Rumour was one had CSA images, never saw him again, no idea on the other one but same thing - stuff being brought out in bags....could have been dealing and selling online... who knows.

I'm not concerned at all. People do terrible things all around us all the time and never get caught 🤷‍♀️

Well given he's been arrested I'd say that you're safer now than you were yesterday when you were blissfully unaware you neighbour was a person of interest to the police. Try not to worry. Its clearly in hand, and all will no doubt be revealed in due course.

Does he have a wife or partner living at home and do you know them at all?

If so, and they usually come across as OK, I'd be thinking it was a domestic abuse situation and be going to check that they are OK and whether they need anything.

Don't gossip with neighbours if he does have a partner or family living there as that is cruel to them!

If he's not got a partner or family living with him, don't worry about it and gossip away.

If it was something really really serious (drugs, weapons, significant domestic violence with injury etc) the house would still be swarming with police and it would be up on a local facebook page somewhere by now.

When a house in a village near us was raided for drugs and guns, the police were there all day and it took about two hours to make it to the local FB page 🙄

This is utterly ridiculous. Why on Earth would YOU feel uneasy?

You clearly have no idea how the judicial process works in the UK.

There are hundreds of people in police cells right now who are entirely innocent and have done nothing wrong. It's called being arrested on suspicion of . . .

Arrest means nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just that some allegation has been made and there are reasonable grounds for the police to investigate. That allegation may or may not be true.

One afternoon there were 5 police cars in my tiny, very quiet village. They brought several evidence bags out and arrested one of the residents.
We never found out what it was about, the neighbours have never been any trouble either before or after.

A completely different house in the village was raided one morning and it had been used as a cannabis grow for months. We had no idea.

It can be disconcerting to see events like this happen where you live, but it is honestly likely to have no impact on you whatsoever.

If a crime has been committed you will hear about it sooner or later, it will be in the local media. There is no point in speculating but, if there was crime, there's no reason to think it will affect you or your children. Nobody really knows what goes in other people's lives, my neighbours could be fraudsters or handling stolen goods for all i know :-), not my business.

Sometimes my jaw falls open at the things I read on here. I think a few MNs would pass out never to recover if they lived round my way. We have a supported house a few doors away from me that has over the years been the home of people with various substance use issues. At one time it was used for dealing, there have been fights in the street outside it and threats to kill the residents and burn the place down. A house a few streets away was a crack house and was boarded up by the police and all the residents arrested . We were all just pleased that action had been taken as it had been a source of long running problems. I would not turn a hair about someone going off with the police. It is none of your business. I have been in a police car twice, once when I was taken to try and ID someone from their database of offender photos and the second time was when they brought me home after I had been seriously sexually assaulted by a stranger on my way home from work. You don't even know why this person went off with the police yet you are having a major melt down.

You just so happened to take the dog for a walk at that precise time, did you? 🤣🤣

It's funny but whenever there's police in my road, all of a sudden everyone's bins need emptying and their dogs desperately need a walk!

I can’t see what you have to worry about, given today, you are presumably safer than you were yesterday? Irrespective, if you have had nothing that’s worried you to date then what’s the direct problem anyway? I guess if your other neighbours have been mysteriously murdered house by house over the past few months and it’s this guy THEN I’d understand you being uneasy, but even then you’re still far better off if he has been caught?

Rubbernecking disguised as concern

Overreaction much?

What an overreaction! You don't know anything about the circumstances of this event, so stop speculating madly and get on with your life. You'll find out what went on eventually, but don't listen to gossip (or start any) because that would be daft.

God knows what goes on in any house in any street.
Maybe best we don't know.
Carry on with your life, for goodness sake.

One Monday morning we had two ambulances outside the house, only because the first one called in an advanced paramedic to help. I switched off my phone and came home that evening to about 15 messages on the landline and gawd knows how many missed calls and texts on my mobile. Apparently there had been much speculation locally that one of us had murdered the other and then committed suicide. It didn't occur to me to ask which one they thought was the murderer.

😂

None of your business.

My son was picked up in a van 6 MONTHS after his vicious little ex reported a scratch on her face by him and he had a proven black eye and split eyelid from her. He was defending himself.

He knew they were coming, there was an appointment booked to interview him after all that time. He took a picture of the van from his bedroom window.
Even my friend who is a DC admitted it seemed very heavy handed.

Keep your beak to yourself. You have no idea what is going on in other people's lives.

As for feeling concerned, go ahead, panic - it's what nosey parkers deserve. It's not your life is it?

You are exactly as safe as you were last week when you knew nothing - more so even, if he's trouble at least now the police are on to him!

Gahh it feels so unfair how much people get slammed for curiosity these days, like you're not even allowed to wander what happened in the privacy of your own brain!! I feel like an amount of curiosity/nosiness is natural. But no I can't say I'd be worried.

A few years ago a neighbour was arrested in the street. It was the middle of the night and her shouting woke me up. It was just after Sarah Everard when there was a lot of chat about distrust in the police, esp with women and minorities (neighbour is both). This was followed by over an hour of shouting and door slamming plus 2 more patrol cars and more than 6 male officers gathering. With that voice in the back of my mind telling me it's none of my business and to not be nosey, I didn't want to stand there curtain twitching, so I went back to bed but kept half an ear out. It sounds a bit weird reading it in black and white now, but the mood in the country at the time made me feel uneasy that she was out there with noone else. Anyway, noone has ever mentioned it and I genuinely never saw her again!! I asked her husband how she was when I saw him a spell later and was told fine, then the next time I enquired (a long while later) he said she's 'long gone', moved up north. Am I intrigued...hell yes!! Would I ever ask? No, because I know full well I'd be told it's none of my business.

I was arrested once and put in the back of a van.

Sometimes things are not what they seem.

I'd say my neighbours had a right good gossip.

@ThatBreezyRaven - if there was still any danger to the neighbourhood, I imagine that there would still be a police presence there. So if there are no police there, then you don’t need to worry - and to be honest, if there are still police there, I wouldn't worry either, because they’re there, if that makes sense.

The biggest (potential) risk to you and your family would have been before any arrests/police action happened, because you had no idea there might be anything criminal going on.

I do understand the curiosity and maybe a little the unease, but you don't even necessarily know that your neighbour has been arrested let alone convicted.
Do you know the ins and outs of all your neighbours? For all you know you could be living on the same street as a convicted murderer who has served their time. You could be cheerfully wishing them good morning and be none the wiser.

I don't blame you for being curious, but why on earth would you be worried on account of working from home, alone?

Whatever it is he's been arrested for, and it could be anything at all, quite probably not even anything violent, he's already done it and he's been taken away. He may be free to come home later, but I highly doubt he's going to decide to come and bump you off in the middle of your working day.