Okay, now this is just getting creepy. - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

KAdams4458 · #1 01-07-2009, 07:58 PM

Several months ago, my wife and I purchased our first home. About a week after moving in, I heard a car stop in front of the house, and when I looked out the window, I saw a man take a photo of the driveway end of our house, then drive away. I figured it was just somehow real estate related, and thought nothing of it. Then it kept happening, so I started keeping track of things.

Between the two of us, my wife and I have caught someone taking a photo of our house at least once a week. In every instance that I was able to visually confirm, it has always been one of three different individuals that have stopped, snapped a single photo, and then left.

Here's the creepy part... Just ten minutes ago it happened again, and it was one of the same people I've seen taking photos before, and I recognised the gold minivan as having been here before, but one of the other individuals was driving it when it showed up last week.

What the heck is going on? Why are the same three people taking pictures of our driveway just about every week, and why are they apparently sharing cars now? I'm beginning to fantasize about throwing out a tack strip so that I can capture and then interrogating them.

johnathan1 · #2 01-07-2009, 08:02 PM

Write down the license plate numbers and call the police?

Pooka · #3 01-07-2009, 08:08 PM

Go take a photo from the same angle and see what they are looking at.

You can also contact the Police on this and they can set up a 'camera sting' like they do when they are trying to catch graffite writers.

By the way, didn't you say you just moved in? Maybe they are looking for the previous owner.... They may be looking for a car to repo and the address on the title is your house.

Pooka

vwbuge · #4 01-07-2009, 08:14 PM

You can buy one of those trail cameras for fairly cheap. Put one of those up and see what happens, then if you get them on film you have something to take to the police.

OR

If you know about what time they show up just be standing there at the end of your driveway and ask them what the hell they are up to.

Chad300tdt · #5 01-07-2009, 08:17 PM

Creepy. Sounds like a scene from "The Lost Highway".

Call the cops.

Simpler=Better · #6 01-07-2009, 08:18 PM

Go the police/sting route. If the police are unwilling to help, run out into your yard waving a shotgun(Note waving not aiming) and see if they come back.

KAdams4458 · #7 01-07-2009, 08:30 PM

Well, they are taking photos from the street, which is public property, and there's no crime in photographing someone's house. It's just creepy when the same people keep doing it over and over. Also, it really is just the driveway that they are photographing. Where they keep taking pictures from, you can't see anything but what's in the photo.

The though that they may be looking for someone that used to live here, or their car might make sense. For a while, we saw a lot of mail come in from the county and state government for one guy in particular, some of which was clearly sent out from a family services office as well as the highway patrol, as well as a few bills and junk mail. Finally got the Post Office to put a stop to that, but maybe they are looking for the guy, or want to impound his car, or something. Does anyone send out scouts for that sort of stuff?

cudaspaz · #8 01-07-2009, 08:35 PM

Shotgun, flamethrower?

WVOtoGO · #9 01-07-2009, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pooka

By the way, didn't you say you just moved in? Maybe they are looking for the previous owner.... They may be looking for a car to repo and the address on the title is your house.

Pooka

That’s exactly what I was thinking.

Many repo outfits will hire a third party to actually go get the car.
They (the third party) are base paid, plus a percentage for the returned vehicle. Many of these repo outfits will require proof from the third party that the car actually was not there when sent to retrieve it.

KAdams4458 · #10 01-07-2009, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cudaspaz

Shotgun, flamethrower?

Depends... Can I still use the tack strips?

79Mercy · #11 01-07-2009, 08:45 PM

Just go ask them what they're doing when you see them next time. Hows that for an idea???

Chad300tdt · #12 01-07-2009, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 79Mercy

Just go ask them what they're doing when you see them next time. Hows that for an idea???

Just don't ask when they have the van. They might bag your head and pull you in.

KAdams4458 · #13 01-07-2009, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 79Mercy

Just go ask them what they're doing when you see them next time. Hows that for an idea???

I didn't mention it in my original post, because it was so many months ago, but I did try that once. I was just about to go fetch the mail when one of them stopped and took a photo. We live on a dead end street, and they headed to the end of the street to turn around. I was at the end of the driveway by the time they passed by. No eye contact from the driver or any acknowledgement that I was even there. That's actually when I first started to wonder what was going on.

Pooka · #14 01-07-2009, 09:02 PM

Repo story:

A fellow I know sold a car. About seven or eight months later he got a letter from the Oklahoma Turnpike folks saying he had run a toll gate and the letter included a photo of his old car.

He called them and told them he no longer owned the car. They said OK.

Then he got more letters. Then the phone calls started. Then a collection agency called and said to pay up or they would come to his house and tow the car away.

He knew that the car was sold to a guy in Oklahoma City. Since he lived in Tulsa he told them if they could find the car they could have it.

And he never heard from them again.

The end.

Pooka

KAdams4458 · #15 01-07-2009, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pooka

Repo story:

A fellow I know sold a car. About seven or eight months later he got a letter from the Oklahoma Turnpike folks saying he had run a toll gate and the letter included a photo of his old car.

He called them and told them he no longer owned the car. They said OK.

Then he got more letters. Then the phone calls started. Then a collection agency called and said to pay up or they would come to his house and tow the car away.

He knew that the car was sold to a guy in Oklahoma City. Since he lived in Tulsa he told them if they could find the car they could have it.

And he never heard from them again.

The end.

Pooka

Nice! That's sort of like the last cell phone number I was provided with. The phone rang constantly for three months, and I mean constantly - all hours of the day and night - all collection agencies and what I'm guessing were meth dealers that some woman named Lisa owed money to. A few of those collection companies were so bone-headed, they called multiple times even after I told them her number had been reassigned, and that it was a cellular number. At one point, the sheriff's office called for her.

Ah, good times.