Caught a stranger IN my house this morning. Joys of living in a previous commercial premises.

[sumi]

I was thinking about last minute grocery shopping for Xmas this morning when I bumped into a young man in my entrance hall on the way out to the supermarket. I was so surprised and so was he, we stood staring at each other for a few seconds before either spoke. All I could come up with was "Who are you?!?" LOL There was no bad intentions from him, he was just lost, but my goodness, I said to him as he left, "You scared the sh** out of me!"

My house was used as a hair salon by the previous tenants and he walked in here expecting the salon, not a private residence. The salon have since moved about 4 doors down from me, but twice now people have walked in, looking for them. He was horrified and very apologetic, but we had a good laugh about it afterwards and I pointed him to where the salon now is.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I think I would be locking my doors!

 

[baymule]

Hang a sign, Salon with an arrow pointing the direction.

 

[Chic Rustler]

no joke. Same story on Texas news "a man was shot today for breaking and entering, and here's tom with the weather"

 

[NH Homesteader]

I think I would like Texas.

 

[Joel_BC]

The salon have since moved about 4 doors down from me, but twice now people have walked in, looking for them. He was horrified and very apologetic, but we had a good laugh about it afterwards and I pointed him to where the salon now is.

Sumi, I can definitely understand that you'd have felt shocked and scared. Glad the fellow wasn't any sort of scoundrel.

How situations are interpreted and dealt with depends a lot on where they happen, I think. The region where I live is probably quite a bit like where you are, in a way. We don't tend to lock our house doors here unless we're going to be gone for a few days.

Why? Because burglaries, home invasions, and vandalism are things that only happen very rarely here. So rare that when something like that does happen, the story makes the local newspaper and people write in to the "letters" column to discuss it.

Drive to certain communities 200 miles to the east or west and vandalism or a burglary (usually when the residents are not home) can be more common there. But you'd have to get into a big-city area for it to be what I'd call "common".

Sounds like you've had a couple of bumblers, sumi, not villains

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Geeze Louise! That would've scared the life outta me! I agree with door locking and sign hanging!

 

[sumi]

I'm actually considering putting a sign up! We had a lost visitor walk in just after we moved in, which was understandable, but I thought by now everyone knows we live here and the salon moved. I guess this one was from out of town.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I don't think Ireland's gun laws and culture are quite like Texas, lol.

We do have a sign that says something like, forget the dog, beware of owner with a pic of a revolver. You can see it from the front door. Maybe that's why the jehovahs stopped coming....

 

[Britesea]

... or it makes a believable story. Lock your door, girl.