This morning, I awoke to a bunch of notifications from my home’s surveillance system. Upon checking it, I see a middle-aged man in his underwear, no shirt and flip flops wandering throughout my partially fenced back and front yard, looking around everywhere, casing the place, with a slightly panicked expression. It was extremely suspicious and unnerving.
Since the notification was only 20 minutes prior, I shoot up out of bed, put on some clothes and run outside in hopes of confronting the trespasser to tell them to leave my property. But I’m unable to find any trace of anybody, it’s a quiet morning out and everything seems as usual.
I go back in the house and look at the surveillance footage more closely, watched the other camera angles, etc. and am even more unnerved to see a whole family far away in the distance on one of the backyard cameras, a mom and a young daughter, crawling underneath my wife and I’s tiny house that we have parked out behind our main house. The mom’s holding a shovel and the daughter is holding a long stick. You can’t see what they’re doing, you can only see from their shoulders up, but they’re crawling around underneath the tiny house. The wind was too strong for the cameras to pick up audio of what they were doing. You could also see them looking over my other neighbor’s fence, too.
It’s all so suspicious and creepy. What were they doing? Where did they disappear to? I showed my wife and she thought they were trying to break the locks on the tiny house door.
I went back outside to the tiny house and looked all over where the family was crawling around and couldn’t find anything askew or missing. Not even any foot prints in the dirt. WTF?
I text my immediate neighbor photos of the people and they don’t recognize them. They suggest I call the cops. Neighbors thank me for watching out for them. However, I don’t like calling the cops—so I did the next best thing: printed out a few flyers with a photo of the suspicious underwear man saying basically, “Watch out for this person in the neighborhood, he was with a woman and a young girl”. I distributed the flyers in the neighbors who share the easement where the family emerged.
I don’t think much more of it and the day continues.
Tonight, I’m in the front yard doing yard work when a woman approaches me and tells me that she’s my neighbor from 5 houses down. I’ve never seen or met her before. She says she doesn’t appreciate that her neighbors now know what her husband in his underwear looks like, that OBVIOUSLY they were trying to retrieve some pet chickens that were attacked by a hawk, why would anyone steal with their daughter with them, why didn’t I come out and confront them? She really let me have it… I apologized, tried to explain that I’ve never seen them before, that I was sleeping, couldn’t see what they were doing, from my point of view how suspicious it all was, etc. but she wasn’t having it, told me her morning was terrible and that I made it worse, passive aggressively told me to have a great night and stormed off.
Apparently I had dropped off a flyer in their mailbox-the family who I captured in 4K on my property!
I, in somewhat of a panic now, ran back and was able to retrieve the other 3 out of 4 flyers I put in mailboxes, this family were the only ones who actually saw the flyer. 🤦♂️
She really made me feel like an asshole when I was trying to just watch out for my neighbors’ properties and safety.
We have a history of vagrants roaming through our easements, where they emerged from mind you, and I really thought that was what happened today. We also don’t live out in the country, this is in a metro area of Tucson, Arizona. Seeing an underwear man on your property is something anyone else would call the cops over.
I’m honestly horrified and feel ashamed but at the same time feel like I did the right thing. It’s very conflicting. Wife thinks I shouldn’t have made the flyers. I kind of agree, but 99.9% of the rest of the time, it wouldn’t have been a false alarm.
I may have started a neighbor feud. Fuck my life. AITA?
Comments
You’d rather print high def flyers for your neighbors than like, talk to them? From your description it seemed obvious they were looking for a lost animal
As another nw tucsonian, your nta. That man don’t need to off his property in his underwear. Yes, let your neighbors know. He doesn’t need to be on anyone’s property other than his own , with or without pants on. And if his wife is embarrassed, get the man some mental health help.
This is pretty funny 🤣🤣🤣 I wouldn’t think too much into it. What happened, happened already & if my husband did that & we got one of those flyers, we’d laugh.
I actually would have called the police. The footage described sounds freaky.
ESH. They should have knocked on your door instead of just entering your property like that. I think your confusion and suspicion was perfectly reasonable.
Taking that suspicion and turning it into high-definition memorabilia was less reasonable, however. Are you sure there is no local social media group? I have never known anywhere to not have one. You could have asked around more neighbours than just the ones directly next to you – someone would have known this family.
Edit: OP has now edited their post to remove the below issue.
~~In any case, this is likely a fictional story. You have an inconsistency:
> I distributed the flyers in the neighbors who share the easement where the family emerged. Neighbors thank me for watching out for them, I don’t think much of it and the day continues.
Oh, so your neighbours saw the flyers and were grateful? Ok, so then how does that work with this:
> I, in somewhat of a panic now, ran back and was able to retrieve the other 3 out of 4 flyers I put in mailboxes, this family were the only ones who actually saw the flyer. 🤦♂️
…?
And you have the classic em dash hallmark of AI.~~
One of the funniest things on Reddit yet 😂 NTA. Geesh, dude could’ve at least gotten dressed. What did they think would happen especially when going on other peoples property like that.
ESH. People should notify you if they’re on your property, even if they’re looking for lost pets (which, to be completely fair, is exactly what I thought was happening when you described the footage. Didn’t guess chickens, though.) Making the flliers was a step too far, and putting them IN the mailboxes is actually a federal crime, assuming you mean the boxes their mail is delivered to. Taking them back out was probably a second felony. Basically, don’t touch a mailbox that isn’t yours in the US.
Imagine for a moment that you’re just living your life, taking a nap or maybe even asleep for the night, when suddenly you awaken to the sounds of your child yelling. You run outside to where she is, not even thinking about the fact that you’re in underwear, and end up in a chase for a pet chicken. Twelve hours later, when you think that nightmare is finally over, you open up your mailbox to see your underwear clad self in all your glory, on fliers that you fear have been distributed to the entire neighborhood, not only embarassing you but also hinting that you are probably a criminal.
The next time you capture something concerning on your camera and want to ask your neighbors about it, make ONE flier. If the person is improperly dressed, zoom in out their face or otherwise cover their unclad body. Then carry that flier to your neighbors’ houses and knock on their doors, or post it in a neighborhood SM group.
And if you’re truly this interested in ‘watching out for your neighbors, maybe throw a barbecue so you actually know who your neighbors are.
Hindsight is wonderfull, you tried to watch out for your neighbours and now you know what was really going on
NTA.
I mean… I would have assumed it was a family trying to retrieve a lost pet…
But it’s a hilarious situation.
I’d be less quick to make a flyer – that’s a level of dedication I feel is going half a step too far this early in the piece. If there was a second instance of weirdness sure, but a one off, that looks like someone hunting a missing cat? Eh, let that go.
And if I was feeling very wigged out I’d door knock, and talk to those four neighbours, not just shove a home made flyer of a half naked man through their letter box.
You aren’t the AH, but man … you’ve shown your curtain twitching anxiety! Chill out a bit man.
Apologize for the issues but they should have asked before coming on to your property in the middle of the night setting off the security system. Then exclaim how happy you are that you didn’t follow your instincts and call the police. Why didn’t he put some shorts on??
Don’t be ashamed, it’s not YOUR FAULT!!
NTA.
All I keep picturing is a dude wandering and crawling around my yard in his white underwear.
I can’t stop laughing
It won’t go away
Why was he in his underwear?
That’s just odd.
You did nothing wrong but they did – they should have knocked on your door and asked if they could search your yard.
NTA.
Ignore it.
So funny. It’s a comedy routine. You can leave a message in her mailbox that no one saw the flyer so her secret about her husbands nakedness is safe from the neighbors. Lol
NTA. Dude was on your property in his underwear. His people were poking around your tiny home with sticks. They’re lucky you didn’t call the law or worse!
This is the most hilarious AITA story ever. NTA. Why couldn’t your neighbor put clothes on to chase his chickens? No good deed goes unpunished, OP. Bet your neighbor puts clothes on the next time he chases his chickens. You were trying to be a good neighbor and your far away neighbors were acting sus. Don‘t lose sleep over it. I’m sure the other neighbors are getting a kick out of it.
NTA chickens or not, that’s no excuse to be in their underwear roaming your property. I would’ve thought he was a creep and called the cops.
NTA
Catching chickens in his underwear? Really? He couldn’t throw on sleep pants and a tee? And his wife thinks it’s okay to just go creeping on other people’s property in the middle of the night because their chickens are loose and to drag their daughter along on this trespassing adventure, without bothering to knock on a door or even pen a sticky note? You should have called the police and let them explain the trespassing and indecency to a legal authority.
You must not have pets. Or you’ve been lucky enough to never have one escape. My immediate thought was they’re looking for a lost pet. You over reacted, did something hastily in poor taste and it backfired. I would go to the family, apologize again and maybe bring them some chicken feed or a gift certificate to tractor supply or something. Give them your cell phone number and ask them to reach out anytime the chickens get loose and they need help finding them. Try to make amends. You’ll feel better and also let them know not everyone saw the flier and they will feel better. It sucks, but trying to make amends and own it will relieve your (and their) anxiety about it.
Also FYI it’s illegal to stuff anything, even fliers, into mailboxes.
NTA. If she didn’t want people
Knowing what her hubby looks
Like
In his underwear she should have brought him some pants and even if they were looking for their chicken, they don’t have automatic permission to go into other peoples property. They can either knock at the front door and ask for some help or wait till
Morning THEN knock on the door.
In some places, their actions could well have gotten them shot.
They trespassed on your property. Why was the daft sod in his pants, unless the ‘hawk’ is a slang term for his penis? NTA, I’d make posters
You are NTA! They should have asked if they could be on your property. You rolled over to easy for her.
Tbh honest with you halfway thrww describing what they were doing my very first thought was they were looking for their cat or dog which is why someone would run out in their udnerwear and look all in those places especially not even at night and with the type of people doing it.
NTA but the only real way forward now is that you’ve gotta distribute embarrassing pictures of yourself.
So on the off chance the guy was dangerous and had issues or a weapon, wtf would you have done? Let him attack while you scream & panic?
ESH. They should have asked, and at least had on pants, but you and your wife immediately thought they were trying to break the locks on the house? From underneath?! Even when you found nothing amiss??
Then you jumped straight to putting out fliers instead of considering any other explanation for why they were there. From the description my first thought was they were looking for a pet, not try to break in.
Find some chill and don’t be that super paranoid neighbor.
It was obvious they were looking for an animal. Totally obvious.
Next time, just call the cops and let them deal with the tresspassers?
If they’d behaved NORMALLY – y’know, by coming to your door and ASKING if they could try to gather their chickens – it wouldn’t have been a problem.
And they wouldn’t have been embarassed.
And YES, people DO steal with their kids present and even teach their kids to help them steal, ALL THE DAMN TIME.
Why partially fenced? Did the chickens steal the fences? Are the chickens the real AH here?
It’s against federal law to put anything in someone else’s mailbox
In some parts of this great nation one or more members of that family would very likely have been shot. They should be happy to have suffered no more than a little embarrassment for what was entirely their fault
Maybe instead of snooping around your property, they could have alerted you that they needed to look on it.
Let me get this out of the way first. 🤣(sorry)
I could not stop laughing as I read this. I’m trying to figure out if I’m, the one running in my underwear, in the dark, looking for chickens. Or the one passing out flyers of said, someone in their underwear.
Now to the AH part-
NTA- there really could have been some freak chasing a woman and kid into a tiny house in the middle of the night. You just don’t know. We can’t even call her TAH because they were so frantic that the poor dad was just about streaking the neighborhood, running into people’s yards.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
NTA. If that guy had been some kind of creeper pervert, you’d be a hero.
NTA. They trespassed instead of knocking on your door and explaining they were searching for the chickens. Plus, why couldn’t the man throw on some clothes? They’re lucky you didn’t call the police.
I am still side-eyeing this family because “looking for escaped chickens” and taking the girl along is good cover for casing a property and they live five houses distant from your home. I would tell my neighbours the story anyway as it’s funny and a heads-up warning.
Edit: Thieves do take children with them for cover and the children can slip through partially open windows.
Honestly, the last time I had a semi naked man wandering around my property, I rang the police on them. So I would have done and given them the footage rather then printing out photos. He should have thrown on at least pants
This made me laugh so hard 🤣
NTA. You did the family a favor by not involving the police, if anything. Tbh, if it had been my family caught on camera like that, I’d have died from mortification followed by asphyxiation in minutes from laughing so hard at the situation.
If they were so worried about it he should get dressed before he goes looking for the chickens