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 Roslyn Byfield on
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That's what I thought too, Ruth...
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We've had a very large, very pissed man persistently ringing the doorbell then insist on getting into 'his house' at about 3am before. Had a few goes before trundling off to doorsteps new.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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This is a funny one Hugh, but if I can come from a different angle... It made me think of a story I remember from 1993 in the US. A young Japanese guy got lost in baton Rouge looking for a party and knocked on a door to ask for directions. Apparently this earned him a .44 magnum slug for his troubles. The guy who shot and killed him was acquitted.
How nice we live in Britain where the most that usually happens is a bit of confusions, possibly some irritation and usually a bit of mild tutting.
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Permalink Reply by Peter on
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Hugh, I can well understand that you opened the door thinking it might be a neighbour. Otherwise, I suppose one could talk/shout through the closed door to find out who or what the person is looking for before opening, and/or ask what address the person is looking for.
Oh, the many things I would have done differently with the benefit of hinsight...
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thank you all for your thoughts. I'm glad I opened the door, but have to admit that I may think twice another time - not because of what did happen, but more because of what might have happened.
Ruth you're right to raise the possibility that he may have been suffering from dementia or some other mental condition. It's not a possibility that crossed my mind.
Kate, your chap sounds like he was demonstrating similar behaviour. I think I'd recognise him if I saw him again, but I hope for his sake he hadn't been wandering around lost all night.
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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Hi Hugh, probably better not to open door to strangers late at night or any time really! But it's a tricky one indeed. I guess we all have to be aware of our own safety but balance that out with some degree of community-mindedness. I think it's good you raised this issue to sound out opinion and other people's experiences.
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A good friend of mine once returned home from hospital after anaesthetic used for biopsy.
he was confronted by a stranger at "his front door" when trying to get in, he left and tried re-entering the building to find the same thing. A third attempt found "the person in his flat" very agravated!
He then started thinking he had lost it and phoned me in tears. Not knowing what was going on!
Basically some sort of chemical imbalance after anaesthetic wore off caused temporary confusion and he was simply trying to get into the same flat on the wrong floor!
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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I live quite near the bottom of the street and have occasionally had people using my garden to either light up their spliff or sit on the steps and drink a few cans: they seem to regard it as some kind of park. Once there was even a woman sleeping on the path wrapped in a blanket.
When I first moved here we used to regularly get people ringing the doorbell in the night with sob stories about urgently needing to get to hospital - the first time I gave them some money, as I wanted to believe that we could still all ask each other for help in extremis. But when the same guy reappeared a couple of months later, I had learned my lesson.
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Permalink Reply by tigha on
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Well I think the least you could have done Hugh, is have offered the poor fella in for a drink. I always do if I open the door to a fella.I
Safe to say though I never answer the door to any fella or girl whether I know them or not, anytime of day or night. Unless they phone prior, otherwise I will be inviting too many strangers in to get pissed.with me.
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