Should I worry?

mzonas

mzonas

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Hi all,

So this happened about half an hour ago. I called my mum (because why not?) and then I see this guy is staring at my roof. So I hang up and pop out ask this man if I can help anyhow ... since he was in my driveway.

He asks me if I have any cameras and I said no and asked him why he needed to know. Then he said that his sister got in trouble with a man at 5 AM and he's trying to see if any cameras caught anything ... I told him that I don't have cameras (again) and said sorry that I couldn't help ... then he quickly disappeared.

If I had camera(s) I certainly wouldn't have shown him without police warrant because I have no idea who this guy is (although he seems to be a decent bloke) and it could be privacy intrusion unless requested by authorities ...

The strange part is that he quickly disappeared and nowhere to be seen. I have these thoughts that he might plan on robbing my place so he asked if I had any cameras in front driveway and his sister's "accident" was a total bullshit story. The thing is I was still up at 5 AM and heard nothing. Should I call police and report this or what?
 
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I think the good thing is that you caught him doing this so if he has any sense he will know you are already suspicious. What is the set-up on your road? Since you're from the UK I'm assuming the houses are conjoined like terrraces? Is it an end terrace or near one? If so that's potentially higher risk. I would alert the authorities to be on the safe side (not sure what the number for it is though if it's not an emergency). Check if there's been any burglaries in your area recently.

I'm inclined to believe he's telling the truth but burglaries have been on the rise in the UK unfortunately and also most people would usually knock on the door first instead of staring.
 
coolbreez said:
I think the good thing is that you caught him doing this so if he has any sense he will know you are already suspicious. What is the set-up on your road? Since you're from the UK I'm assuming the houses are conjoined like terrraces? Is it an end terrace or near one? If so that's potentially higher risk. I would alert the authorities to be on the safe side (not sure what the number for it is though if it's not an emergency). Check if there's been any burglaries in your area recently.

I'm inclined to believe he's telling the truth but burglaries have been on the rise in the UK unfortunately and also most people would usually knock on the door first instead of staring.
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My house is semi-detached. We only share it with our neighbours (1 family) and the house is corner house. We have nursery school around 30 metres from our house. There have been 400+ burglaries/offences in May which is way more than I expected (I just checked).

Also, I don't think I made myself suspicious in any way - I just asked him why he needed to know.

Thanks for advice.
 
You guys may be reading into this too much, how stupid would someone be to reveal their face and identity and later try to rob the place of the person they asked about...? Still, you could work on securing your apartment. Good luck.
 
That sounds awfully suspicious op, definitely seems like he was just checking if the place has cameras and you caught him so he made up a story on why he needs to know if your place has cameras. The way you described he said "my sister got into some trouble" doesn't sound like it was something serious, if it was serious you should have been able to find some news story or an article about the incident on some local news site but he made it sound like a small thing, and if it was a small thing, why would he go around trying to look at cctv footage.

I'm just saying if someone was genuinely looking to find some footage to help their sister or whatever, they'd probably give you more details about what happened just in case you saw something, the way you described the interaction with him, it sounds like his goal wasn't to see some supposed footage, but rather he just wanted to get out of there when you saw him, when you told him you had no cameras he just disappeared, instead of asking further questions like do you know if there's any cameras on this street etc.


deedee1whoa said:
You guys may be reading into this too much, how stupid would someone be to reveal their face and identity and later try to rob the place of the person they asked about...? Still, you could work on securing your apartment. Good luck.
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It's possible that he was just casing the place and op caught him, or he isn't a robber himself, just some guy whose job is to find potential places to rob with no security. I remember when my dad's car got stolen years ago he said he remembers someone walking a dog up and down the street where he'd park it in the morning and the guy would still be within the vicinity when he came back to the car hours later, the guy was probably checking my dad's routine to know how much time they're gonna have when they steal the car. It's pretty common for criminals to monitor things before they rob/steal it, and they can't be wearing masks for that, the guy whose monitoring is most likely not a robber anyways, just someone who gets paid to monitor places and give info to the real robbers.

Anyways, if I was OP I'd definitely be paranoid, not sure what security measures you can take just in case your place is going to be a robbery target in the future god forbid.
 
Think about it, if someones sister actually got in trouble, do you think he really would walk around a strangers house and check for cameras? No, he would go straight to the door and ask the homeowner if he had any installed because of XYZ - That this guy was standing in your driveway without talking to you first makes him very suspicious.

If you really don't have any cameras, now is a good time to get some.
 
deedee1whoa said:
You guys may be reading into this too much, how stupid would someone be to reveal their face and identity and later try to rob the place of the person they asked about...? Still, you could work on securing your apartment. Good luck.
Click to expand...

I think you are fine. If he was staking out your place to potential rob it - the fact that you confronted him and saw his face probably will throw him off...
 
I'm very vigilant with things like this so here's what I would do.
What he asked you doesn't sound that unreasonable. Not all public confrontations reach serious police investigation.
You can call up the local police and tell them what happened, and if they have a reason to be suspicious then you can give them that guys physical profile. They would know if there have been recent robberies in the area.
It's true most robbers scout the place out days/weeks beforehand. I had my place robbed THE DAY I went on vacation. He must have known somehow. And it was a private trip that I really didn't share with anyone around me.

Thought a red flag is that he didn't immediately knock to ask you, but was instead looking on his own. That seriously doesn't feel right.
 
Will be seeing you tonight!

giphy.gif
 
mzonas said:
Hi all,

So this happened about half an hour ago. I called my mum (because why not?) and then I see this guy is staring at my roof. So I hang up and pop out ask this man if I can help anyhow ... since he was in my driveway.

He asks me if I have any cameras and I said no and asked him why he needed to know. Then he said that his sister got in trouble with a man at 5 AM and he's trying to see if any cameras caught anything ... I told him that I don't have cameras (again) and said sorry that I couldn't help ... then he quickly disappeared.

If I had camera(s) I certainly wouldn't have shown him without police warrant because I have no idea who this guy is (although he seems to be a decent bloke) and it could be privacy intrusion unless requested by authorities ...

The strange part is that he quickly disappeared and nowhere to be seen. I have these thoughts that he might plan on robbing my place so he asked if I had any cameras in front driveway and his sister's "accident" was a total bullshit story. The thing is I was still up at 5 AM and heard nothing. Should I call police and report this or what?
Click to expand...

This is what happens when you don't add privacy to WHOIS.

On a serious note, write down everything you can remember and let the local police know what happened. If anyone else has reported it or has info they can help.
 
You should report to the police non-emergency line. It's possible other people reported similar things, or will make a similar report. If nobody reported anything or the police have no record of increased breakins they should let you know and that will help ease your mind.
 
8 cameras, 6 visible, 2 hidden.

3 different signs on the property indicating they are being recorded.

Spend the money and protect your family.
 
May be if his intention is to rob, he wil not do today because you are already awake today.

So you should call police now and install the cameras in the morning and make sure to protect your family as much as you can. He may come next day or some other day (if his intention is to rob).
 
ContentExpert said:
How is that relevant?
Click to expand...

Well, considering you're not the person I asked i should just ignore you.

But, since I am from the UK. Like OP.
I know there are particular cars which draw the attention of thieves.

They're not always bothered about cctv though.
 
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