Please could someone provide some clarity to this situation?

Posted by Odd-Complex1287@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 28 comments

Our camera system captured a couple clips of three lads stood at our front door at 9:30 tonight, talking about losing their ball and trying to show a message to the camera (the glare and light meant you couldn’t see).

A strange thing they said was ‘Acquired Password’ and then they laughed? What password? They also looked directly in the camera and said ‘we are just here for the ball we aren’t robbing you’

They may have knocked we aren’t sure but we did catch them in the garden. The one lad who went in the garden couldn’t get back out or close the gate or something and he panicked when we appeared asking what he was doing and he quickly proclaimed we are just here for the ball, and another lad appears holding it up from the other side of the fence.

All seems somewhat genuine however I’m not sure how a ball may of got in though as our garden is connected to other houses, not streets or parks. And who is playing ball games at 9:30pm?

They also can be heard saying on the camera when they leave something about ‘we’ll come back’ which was said a couple times.

Not sure what to make of it all, is this some sort of scoping technique or am I being too paranoid?

[-]

Odd-Complex1287@reddit (OP)

Maybe attempting to get in my WiFi, the camera system, devices that were available to them

And maybe scoping out the house to see if anyone was home so they could get in

[-]

mr-seamus@reddit

It must be exhausting to live with this level of paranoia.

[-]

ThrowAway9753128@reddit

Have you been reading the Daily Express

[-]

turntricks@reddit

My god, we're seeing the evolution of the paranoid neighbourhood curtain-twitcher in action. Somebody call Attenborough for the documentary!

[-]

IansGotNothingLeft@reddit

Be rational about this. If they know how to get into your WiFi and use it in a nefarious way, they're certainly smart enough to not do it in front of a camera whilst laughing about it.

Just change your WiFi password and turn on 2FA for things if you're concerned.

[-]

P2P-BSH@reddit

I couldn't live with your level a paranoia.

[-]

Normalscottishperson@reddit

Jesus mate. Get a grip

[-]

blind_disparity@reddit

You checked your WiFi logs then?

It's not any of these things. If someone was going to break in then they just do it. And they definitely don't deliberately get your attention on camera. They wouldn't even care if you were home.

[-]

CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

Yes. But is it likely and would they show their faces to your camera. Someone who knows how to infiltrate your network is unlikely to be surprised about a ring doorbell.

On a side note, this is one of those times where I believe those camera doorbells create more anxiety than they solve.

This sort of stuff was normal when I was a kid. You kicked your ball over the fence and had to go grovelling, but if they're not in, then you see if you can get it. It's just normal kid stuff, and now people are scared because they can see it on cameras.

ukbot-nicolabot@reddit

Your post from /r/AskUK has been removed by a human moderator.

While your question has been removed, it would probably be allowed with a bit of tweaking.

Repost ensuring you've not asked;

Basic throwaway questions which put most of the effort on our readers to figure out by parsing the body or having to ask you questions themselves (i.e. "What do I do?" - be more specific in the title).
Closed questions that prompt people to answer with a simple yes/no response (i.e, "Are you saving into a pension?". Instead ask "How much do you save into a pension, and why?")
Anything which is overtly obvious or is basically a survey (i.e. "How much do you earn?" or "Are trains free?").
For reviews/recommendations of a product/service without sufficiently detailing what you've already found and discounted. Use Google Reviews and Trustpilot first. Then if you still need help, come back with something specific and the research you've done so far.

As well as being interesting and unique, questions must -

Have a genuine, clear, and concise question in their title - including a question mark.
Ensure you can say your question title to someone at a bus stop and have them understand what you mean. So for example, no "Overseas Territories?", instead it should be "What Overseas Territories have you been to?".
Enough information in the body of your post to allow users to give good answers. Specifically, don't just repeat the question in the body. Provide an elucidation, example, or explanation.

If this still confuses you, contact modmail, and we will try to help!

If you believe this post should not have been removed, first read our rules before messaging the moderators. See our guide on common issues with posts and how to overcome them!

gander8622@reddit

I get the feeling they were trying to show you a photo of the ball in the back garden but the phone screen was too bright and washed out the picture?

As for the 'password acquired' I would say this is probably because they held up a phone to your doorbell that looks abit like one of those RFID readers that businesses have for access control. You see it in the movies/TV shows all the time they hold some amazing self built tool that will hack the control panel and allow them access. I think they were just joking around.

I'd do that.... I mean I still wave my hands and pretend I'm a Jedi when walking in to Tesco's and the doors open automatically and I'm almost 40!

I think it was just kids/teens trying to do the right thing and let you know they were there for a ball and not scoping the place out.

mronion82@reddit

I mean I still wave my hands and pretend I'm a Jedi when walking in to Tesco's and the doors open automatically and I'm almost 40!

I'm 42 and I will never, ever stop doing this.

Hahah! Yes!

MrMonkeyman79@reddit

Sounds like some kids wanted to retrieve a ball from your garden, noticed the camera and tried ti demonstrate their motives weren't sinister while also being kids and joking around with each other.

pikantnasuka@reddit

They lost their ball, got it back

They made sure you could see them on camera

This is not what people do when they are planning to return to your house and slay you, relax

Sounds like they kicked the ball into your garden. Came and asked if they could go get it. You weren't there to answer so they decided to go get it themselves.

But what’s with the ‘we’ll come back when they left’ and banging on about some password?

Did you hear what they said just before that?

Maybe "we should apologise", or "what if it happens again?" Or did you mishear "Welcome back" from the guy who was outside the garden welcoming his mate back after being stuck...

You're right. People on reddit live in a very silly fantasy world. Like you say, these would be shit burglars.

MrHistoricalHamster@reddit

In my experience burglars are shit. The chavs that did my house in had their face on camera, were told by my neighbour to fuck off. They they then hung around for 2 mins which gave me enough time to get home, nearly run 3 over, chase the runt of the pack and get him pinned down for the police to catch up 5 mins later. He squealed and gave up his friends as soon as the police came. Partially because I told him I’d burn his house down. All 4 charged and on the system. All I wanted is their prints and saliva on file so at least they have less chance of getting away with it. Although they never found any prints on my property entry/exit points. So fair play, they remembered their gloves at least.

Top-level comments to the OP must contain genuine efforts to answer the question. No jokes, judgements, etc.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.