A woman was left feeling disturbed after spotting some unsettling behaviour on her Ring doorbell camera. Video doorbells are more and more popular, with an estimated one in five homes in the UK now owning one.
A video doorbell allows homeowners to see and communicate with visitors remotely, while also keeping an eye out for any suspicious behaviour in the vicinity of their property. One woman has been growing increasingly tired with people using her lawn as a “cut through” to get to another street.
She said it’s “not an obvious or well-traveled path to cut through” but has still found a number of people “lurking” on her property, which has left her spooked.
Her home is located near a “dead end” but many cars often mistakenly come down her road and end up having to turn around and go back. More recently, she’s spotted people on foot ignoring the many signs that state the road is a “dead end” and walking onto her property to push through to the streets behind her house.
Despite the space being “covered in trees and foliage”, these people remain unperturbed. Though a fence would keep them out, she’s unable to install one “without spending a small fortune on removing all the trees”.
This means many strangers are continuing to use her land as “their own shortcut”. In a bid to curb it from happening, she’s taken action.
On Reddit, she revealed she and her partner have “got some trip wire to weave between the trees and no trespassing signs”.
They already have “motion detector flashing lights” but found them “annoying” as their neighbours would accidentally set them off just making their way around their own properties.
Now, they’re “going to reposition them to flash in a more isolated area” to hopefully deter people.
Recently, the woman spotted a “random stranger” behaving in an unnerving manner after checking Ring doorbell footage.
She said he could be seen, “in the middle of the day” cutting across her lawn and “dragging a suitcase”. Later, another man “cut through” at 9pm.
By this time, the sun had gone down and she felt spooked. The strangers’ antics were similarly picked up by her neighbours on “their Ring cameras”.
On Reddit, she added: “This definitely sketches me out and I’d prefer not to have people lurking on our property at any time of the day.”
In the comments section, fellow Reddit users shared their thoughts. One person suggested: “Before you do anything else, you need to put up No Trespassing signs. Then look into putting up a fence.”
But the woman can’t afford to erect a fence. Another person shared their own experience: “It took me forever to save up for a fence but ultimately that was the only thing that stopped people randomly cutting through my yard instead of walking around the block. It annoyed the heck out of me that they just ignored the signs”.
A third commented: “I read a story once that had this same issue, but there were a lot more people walking [through]. Guy had video cameras and everything.
“He decided to put up a motion sensored sprinkler system. He caught it all on tape.”
Someone else added: “We have a sign ‘WARNING: Venomous Snakes in the Area’ that seems to work well to stop the cut-throughs.”
