Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Late Night Mystery Man at the Door
I was going to lock up the front door at around 1.00 tonight and I saw someone standing at the door. I assumed it was a neighbour so opened up. I saw a man of about 50 who I didn't recognise. He looked at me and said "Aaah. I just couldn't get through" then started to enter the house as if entitled or invited.
"Woa", I said gently but firmly as he was coming through the door, "I think you've got the wrong house". He paused then turned away as he replied "Yeah, I think I have." He then dithered on the front path a bit and mumbled to himself, "So, where am I?"
I think he was probably harmless and had just had a skinful. But discussing it with my other half afterwards, I reflected that even pissed, I'm not sure how you'd mistake our house for another nearby, unless you didn't know it. It has a tall and unmissable hedge and a gate that shuts. So I wondered if he was looking for a house he didn't know, perhaps to collect something or visit someone. Could "I just couldn't get through" have meant that he'd been trying to call to announce his presence at the door?
After he left our property, he went off towards Wightman and when I went out and looked up the road a few minutes later he was nowhere to be seen.
With the benefit of hindsight, what should I have done when I first saw someone at the front door?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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You've not been pissed enough Hugh. I've even tried to get back into the correct hotel room in the wrong hotel.
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Permalink Reply by dubmill on
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Fascinating. It's a bit like the beginning of a Sherlock Holmes story.
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Permalink Reply by claire taylor on
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This is where a chain would come in handy. I have one but never use it.
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Permalink Reply by felix fireball on
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A chain on all the time, mine is, better to be safe. I wouldn't open the door at that time of night without it on.
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Hugh, this may well have been the Prodigal Son of a previous owner of your house. He had decided to throw in the towel and come back home to tell his da, "Aaah, I just couldn't hack it without you." You should always have a spare new suit in your wardrobe and a fatted calf in the back garden for just such eventualities. It'll be on your conscience, I'm sure.
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What would probably have been done is that his offer of servitude (for surely he had spotted the dirty dishes in the sink that Hugh is prone to leave until the morning) would have been accepted.
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Permalink Reply by Martin (Woodside) on
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Who knows?, we've had someone trying keys in the door, when challenged they'd got the wrong house from a rental agency.
"I couldn't get through", it wasn't the ghost of Jim Morrison by any chance?.
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As with others above; a door chain is a good precaution, and also a visible/audible [clunk] notice to a chancer that they'll not be able to barge past you.
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Permalink Reply by Alyson on
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Speak loudly, without opening the door. Reminds me of a time when I was up very late and there was a ring on the doorbell. I didn't open the door but asked 'who is it?' A taxi driver, said he'd been asked for a cab. I said no, not me, he repeated the address and fortunately I remembered there was a road with a very similar name not far away and redirected him.
Maybe he really had just been calling someone on his mobile - did you notice if he was holding one? You probably couldn't tell in the dark.
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Permalink Reply by Tina on
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You are very brave opening the door that time of night. Thing is if you hadn’t opened you probably wouldn’t have slept thinking who was there? Can’t think who he was or what he wanted and it’s all very odd. If it happened again do you think you would still open the door ? I was home one night we have a glass front door and glass inner door. I walked down the hall to go to bed late and saw the shadow of a person what I thought was at the front door. I froze petrified, literally scared stiff, eventually thought I am going to have to go and look at least open the inner door and see more. Getting closer to the inner door I could clearly see my husband had hung up his wetsuit by the front door so he didn’t forget to take it with him! I was so relieved.
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Permalink Reply by Kate Bevan on
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Hi Hugh,
We have a doorbell which is set off by motion outside and also picked up someone stood in our neighbours garden looking confused, then hopping over our wall into our garden looking round and staying there for a while, happened around 2am on the same evening
Will send you the video and see if it is the same chap! Although odd I think it is a one off but if it happens again was going to mention to the police
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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It's a shame that most people think the guy was drunk. Maybe he is someone suffering from dementia. It can strike at any age and not being able to find your way home is a common problem when dementia sets in. Confusion means that all houses look the same and anxiety about not being able to get in/get through. Dementia also affects language. I don't know, it's just the first thought that came to my mind.
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