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

I do not think yabu to feel uneasy

If you live in an area with very little police activity and this happens it can change how you view where you live. We do try and make sense of what we do not know and invariably out mind goes to the worse scenarios

Best to remind yourself it could be for a number of reasons, have been no concerns fr yourself before and no reason why there will be in the future

I think it's understandable to feel unsettled by this if it's something you're not used to seeing.

The thing is, none of us knows.
Whether it’s genuine concern or nosiness or a combination of both, maybe go chat to some neighbours and see if they know anything about it. Or wait to see what happens next.
I presume by the description you’ve given you are hoping someone will come along with oh if the police had gloves on or something bagged or whatever that means it was drugs/ he’s a murderer/ bank robber etc. But we just don’t know. There’s no way to tell from what you’ve described without psychic abilities.

Depending where you live, I imagine that your whole road or street has many nefarious characters.

Every time you go shopping you could be in close proximity to criminals.

You may be seated next to a wrong ‘un whilst using public transport.

OP, bad people are EVERYWHERE.

Stop worrying until something directly happens in front of you or to you, and don’t pass on your anxiety to your children.

For this sort of thing:

Police apologise for arresting former special constable over Palestine march social media post

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/kent-police-apology-julian-foulkes-palestine-tweet-b2749128.html

Initial reaction was to say stop being nosy and you won’t get scared.
Upon reflection, be as nosy as you desire but there is still no logical reason to be concerned anymore than you were before you saw this incident.

So that's the sort of "crime" that is bumping up the stats ?

So many judgy posts on here calling me nosy. I stepped out of my own front door to walk my dog. Nope, I wasn't curtain twitching, I'd been working at the back of my house. And I came across a slightly unsettling scenario that I don't see every day. I'm not panicking, scared for our safety or planning to move house. I'm concerned and feeling uneasy as to what a nearby neighbour may or may not have been up to close to my child's bedroom window and may continue to do when they get back home. Yes, of course, all speculative and hypothetical.

FWIW, I've lived in dodgy parts of London and haven't lived a sheltered life by any stretch.

We used to live in a neighbourhood with rampant drug-dealing and burglaries. Our house alone had three break-ins. Over time, evidence was accrued and the police vans arrived to haul the miscreants off. Far from being disturbing, the atmosphere seemed to lighten as vans full of scrotes left our street and the two leading off it.

You're no more at risk from criminals now than you were before the police came calling. The only thing that's changed is that your neighbour is spending time with the local constabulary and the reasons could be anything from sectioning (something that only happens when you're very unwell) all the way up to horrendous crimes against children. Rarely are mad axemen involved, because there are very few of them around. You'll be fine:-)

How did affect you though?

other than Oh My God I was once in the same street as someone who did x type of hand wringing.

Move home 🤣 are you ok?

I’d be more reassured that if one of my neighbours was a badun the police were aware.

They live among us!

@Whosenameisthis

This is potentially outing but

We all had to leave the house that night as they found bomb making facilities on his premises

So we were really scared and damn right upset about it all

Human nature haha
Probably a paedo OP. They’re everywhere

I'm concerned and feeling uneasy as to what a nearby neighbour may or may not have been up to close to my child's bedroom window and may continue to do when they get back home.

What on earth does your kid's bedroom window have to do with anything?

And how close is it, considering this was a couple of doors down on the opposite side of the road.

Even if you lived in a block of flats, so it really was close to his window, it still has nothing to do with anything 🤦‍♀️

They don't. Stop talking crap.

I'm a cop OP.

When you say he was 'got into the van', do you mean into the cage in the back or in the seats in the actual van?

If its the former he was under arrest if it was the latter he almost certainly wasn't.

I usually cuff regardless of how the detainee is appearing at the time as things can change rapidly and so long as no issues I remove them when we arrive at custody, but many don't especially if they're compliant so him not being cuffed doesn't mean anything.

Yabu.

@LookingAtMyBhunas interesting when I saw something like this they got the individual into the cage at the back, with a second policeman in front of him.

thanks @LookingAtMyBhunas The neighbour got into the cage in the back of the van, and one of the policemen got into the back seat of the van. When they came out of the house, one policeman (possibly two of them) was carrying clear plastic bags with something inside, and wearing blue disposable gloves.

Try your local FB group.

Mine's full of gossips so you might be able to find out something there.

This attitude about gossip is really interesting. I don't think of it like that. I see it as valuable information if about a neighbour who lives close to your permanent home - especially if it's a serious or sinister crime, and particularly if it involves abuse of any sort of another person.

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this is a different situation to unknowingly passing a criminal fleetingly in the street or sat by one on a bus?

Oh come off it, the nosiness is eating you up and that's fine, it'd eat me up too but I own it! 🤥🤣

If it's anything serious it'll be in your local paper soon enough.

Until then, put it out of your mind and get on with your life.

You want us just to say he's a paedo right?

Yeah he's been arrested.
The exhibit bags could've been anything but probably devices.

But I agree there isn't anything you can do. Count yourself lucky it's not a regular occurrence that doesn't even warrant acknowledgement anymore 😂