Looking after neighbours suitcase

[ShakyBake]

Neighbour of ours, friendly known her for about 7 years is off on holiday next week.
We were talking about it over the wall yesterday and informed me she will be taking 3 cases and would it be ok if I keep the suitcases (packed) in my living room until the morning she gets picked up. I said yes of course and didn't ask why. My husband doesn't understand why we need to keep them here. I said don't be silly we are neighbours and it's the right thing to do. That's not unreasonable is it?

Unless the “people” is her husband…

Because that’s what people-pleasers do, trying to be extra accommodating to outsiders while being inconsiderate to their partners/ families.

People pleasers don’t think of those they are closed to. It’s mostly about impressing outsiders.

Ooh, a mystery!

As someone with a people-pleasing mother, this is spot on in my experience. Exhausting.

Next time she should explain and the suitcases go with her before taxi arrive. Just look at the people in prison for handling luggage with illegal things inside. It’s not worth it.

Exactly. Of course it's for anything they shouldn't be carrying. Drugs being a key one. And if she did have drugs it would be the perfect ruse to say 'oh well the bags were at Lisa's house for x number of hours'. And OP and her whole family is in the frame.

Ok , neighbour is Chinese 🇨🇳, she’s going to Sydney 🇦🇺 for several weeks and she’s taking a supply of 100 year eggs and some random herbs and tea in one of the suitcases .
When she’s stopped by Australian 🇦🇺 customs officials she’ll say you put them in there .
( I have watched too many Border Security. Australia’s Front Line 🤣)

Your explanation does make sense now as my extremely paranoid husband would love to ask the neighbours to get involved in a ruse like this.

when we travel to the airport by taxi he books the taxi from two doors down and if we’re travelling by public transport he splits the family into two groups and we have to leave the house 10 minutes apart.

he genuinely thinks the house is being surveilled and that there will one day be a dodgy minicab driver who will let on to his dodgy mate at the pub that we’re away .

in his ever so slight defence, we live in a high crime part of London, all the houses on our road are £2m+ and there are constant burglaries day and night.

Yup. My husband would run over me twice if it meant he could help someone else, or avoid them being put out.

Our neighbour once asked if he could buy a pile of scaffolding boards he could see down the side of our house. My husband said he could have them for free.

He then told me that next door would be coming round for them because he said they could have them, and I was like, no. We are going to use them for that garden project, remember? It's why we kept them in the first place.

My husband was furious with me. "But our neighbour is going to use them now! We won't use them until next summer!"

And? It means we won't have to buy a load of timber next summer.

"But I told him that he could have them!"

UNtell him then - it's not like you didn't know why we were keeping them.

"Am I supposed to remember everything?"

No - but remembering why we have to walk round a pile of planks on our side path at least twice a day every day doesn't feel taxing.

"It's easier just to give them to him."

Yes, I suppose it IS easier for a people pleaser to give things away than have to repurchase them at twice the cost.

Definitely the first part; but are they really going to believe that you live at the departures section of the airport or on the railway station platform?!

@Bloozie we have a spare fridge/freezer in the garage, I actually use it quite a lot. DH offered it to one of his mates. Not sure why. When I told DH that it wasn't available, DH was mortified. Not mortified that he'd made a gaff, but mortified that he'd have say no to his friend. It was me who ended up texting him.

Maybe we're married to two brothers??

But she might hsve had good reason last time to link the burglary to her taxi driver, so may not be paranoia at all. My PIL are really similar about anybody knowing they are away for similar reasons and so wo t ever get a taxi, they pay a member of the family to take them every time.

You hope!

Apparently. It'd be a lovely quality if it came with an ounce of nous and backbone. But the only thing running through their heads is, I must make this person's life easier, at all costs.

There is just no defensible reason why she would need to ask this of you, so that in itself raises a red flag. I can think of various reasons why ranging from outright illegal to indicative that she needs to hide her whereabouts from visiting friends/family - all come with their own concerns that someone should be questioning.

That's because it's all about appearances to outsiders. Screw the family member who has to go without so their spouse can look like the Big Man or Lady Bountiful.

Here, OP is storing suitcases for a while and they're in the way. And that's beside the point that it's a batshit ask and the reason doesn't hold up. For all she knows she's storing drugs. It's dumb and sketchy as fuck.

My son gave away his new, spare gumshield for rugby because his mate forgot his. On one hand, sort of sweet and kind - on the other, I now need to go and buy a new one to keep as a spare for when he forgets or loses the original one!🙈

It's not a bad idea in principle – pretending it's not your house and you're leaving to go home – but a bit convoluted in this case with multiple suitcases taking up residence in the OP's front room. There's easier ways of doing it. We've been going to the corner of our road to get the airport pickup taxi for years now. Hardly a hassle; they don't know exactly which house we've come out of => peace of mind.

Are all those crying 'paranoia' aware that it actually is a thing, houses getting burgled when the occupants are on holiday?

Are all those crying 'paranoia' aware that it actually is a thing, houses getting burgled when the occupants are on holiday?

Older/Elderly women acting as or being used as drug mules is also a thing.

And why does this woman need to leave the three cases in OP's house the week before her trip?

Mine too. We didn’t have many possessions growing up but my mother would always give our things away.

Not that far fetched. I know someone who was burgled twice after using the same taxi company both times. Was a good few years ago but am sure it still happens. It seemed far too much of a coincidence to be unrelated. Taxi drivers nowadays (not sure if they did then) often have a group chat or video call going with other taxi drivers as a sort of personal safety measure and I have also heard of people sharing a taxi driver account (they’re not meant to do it but it happens). You don’t know who is going to overhear where you’re going from or to. Nor if the local chancer billy burglar, rather than having the property under surveillance (though it does happen for high value properties) may be walking down the street as the whole family is leaving the property with a bunch of suitcases. Probably walk around the corner and come back and burgle 5 mins later!

I avoid the taxi driver knowing where I live issue by always getting a taxi from the corner shop or another easy landmark (and usually get dropped off there too, coz taxi companies keep records of where all your journeys have been to/from so just in case it’s someone with access to that info being the criminal, I’d rather them not know where I live when I’m being picked up from the corner shop with enough luggage for a fortnight - “him at home asked me to get milk for his morning brew tomorrow as apparently we are out so please drop me outside this shop”) - but that does not negate billy burglar happening to walk past looking for an easy target, and clocking me leaving with my bags to stand a 2 minute walk away around the corner clearly waiting for a lift or taxi.

And that part makes the OP’s neighbours plan all make sense… it doesn’t just protect them from dodgy taxi driver associates, but also from chancers walking past … because they might see the neighbour taking the suitcases next door but that doesn’t really mean a lot, and besides which the neighbour is then visibly at home for the next week whilst OP is storing suitcases.

I just wish the neighbour had explained this to the OP when asking, rather than causing a whole mystery - but maybe it was obvious to the neighbour and didn’t cross their mind that OP’s hubby and half of Mumsnet would apply a far more sinister reasoning!

I don’t know, you might live abroad? Surely if you’re going to lie to a stranger’s face on the premise that they’re some weird criminal, you can tell them whatever you want. “I live in Spain and just come back for a few weeks each year to stay with my 2nd cousin. I fill these suitcases up with marmite and Wensleydale cheese because I can’t get it over there.” That would also explain the weird smell in the taxi which is actually the sweat you’re producing as your body can’t cope with all your lies = win-win.

My parents' neighbours were burgled after taking a taxi to the airport. OP's neighbour may be more cautious than most of us, but it's not ridiculous

Pity that it led to a "blazing row" between OP and her DH. If my DH disagreed with me about something like this, he'd just roll his eyes, perhaps tease me a bit

But why is this "the right thing to do"? It's a seriously bizarre thing to ask and even more bizarre you agreed!