Are my neighbours tree ‘surgeons’ allowed to jump the fence into my garden?

TheJP

eidand said:

I can't believe we're still debating this. I would have no issue calling the police. You expect people to wait and get stabbed before having enough reason to call the police?

You find strangers in your back garden then that's good enough reason. Every person with a modicum of common sense would knock on the door first and tell you what's going on. If they didn't, they clearly have none. They could be anyone, robbers, criminals,who knows.

The difference here is that the OP could see them tending to the tree. When confronted they explained the situation. Robbers and murders don't trim neighbours trees before they commit a crime unless the crime was a terribly ugly tree ruining a nice backdrop.

I have sympathy for the OP when she first saw them but it was all clarified pretty quickly, the OP has said already that they did knock on but she only answers the door for deliveries, granted she was in a towel and i doubt id answer the door in a towel as im pretty sure that would be a crime on humanity if i did.

GaleSF63

user1977 said:

michael1234 said:

turnitround said:

Im amazed at how many posters say they would call the police in these circumstances. 

Even if the police did have time to attend they would not be very impressed to get there to find someone saying 'These are workmen from next door and they didn't ask first'.

What a complete waste of police time.

I disagree and would phone the police without a doubt.

What would you suspect the four men with the tree lopper might be up to? 

It could be that well-known gang of tree thieves.

fewcloudy

Wyndham said:

I agree with this. I'm female, and know that I have to make decisions about what I will do, where I will go, how I will react. I also know that lovely as my husband is, at 6'4'' he's never even had to think about this stuff.

(*Very off topic warning)

I think if you ask your lovely husband about this, he may well surprise you with his answer.
I’m too am a large male, and most certainly have made all of the decisions you talk about, many many times.

Granted I do not do so to avoid risk of sexual assault rape abduction etc. For me it’s about avoiding getting my head kicked in, mugged, robbed, jumped etc.
And in my 30+ years as a staff nurse in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, I can tell you that these are the primary reasons why on any Fri or Sat night we can have a 90/10 ratio of male to female through the door, all year round.

I’m older now, but as a younger man I can remember saying numerous times in my life to my ma that we weren’t going up town because the fair was in town for example, or avoiding an area of the city due to football team playing at home, just based on (bad) experience. Or avoiding Lothian Road out of wariness and knowledge of the clowns that would be out looking for trouble.

So we were thinking ahead/making decisions/altering our plans/ the way we looked etc. based on sound knowledge and fear and experience, and I do think that is unfortunately a reality for all of us.
I do not say this to try to undermine your own fears, which are of course very real.

[Deleted User]

Thought twice about posting this in a similar situation to the OP, child of an immigrant etc.

A few years ago, not long after the brexit vote, we started getting racist abuse. Had some kid come to our door and start screaming at us, calling us Arabs even though we aren't. I guess racists aren't good at geography. Anyway, we had all sorts of problems. At first we only reported it to the police, who sent someone round to talk to us.

The police told us to call 999 if anything like that happened again. Fortunately it seems that having the police car parked outside for a couple of hours was enough to deter any further abuse, but the police were very clear that we should not try to engage or resolve the situation ourselves, we should call them.

999 calls are recorded so if someone does start giving you racist abuse that's a useful way to record them for later prosecution. Another handy tip is that on more recent Android phones if you press the power button 5 times rapidly it goes into emergency mode which has an option to record video and sound.

Given the OP's situation and the rise in bigotry over the last 5 years, I would strongly recommend they don't risk it.

Slinky

user1977 said:

michael1234 said:

turnitround said:

Im amazed at how many posters say they would call the police in these circumstances. 

Even if the police did have time to attend they would not be very impressed to get there to find someone saying 'These are workmen from next door and they didn't ask first'.

What a complete waste of police time.

I disagree and would phone the police without a doubt.

What would you suspect the four men with the tree lopper might be up to? 

Dunno, but why did it take four men to use one lopper?

Swipe

Definitely doing you a favour. 

TheJP

[Deleted User] said:

Thought twice about posting this in a similar situation to the OP, child of an immigrant etc.

A few years ago, not long after the brexit vote, we started getting racist abuse. Had some kid come to our door and start screaming at us, calling us Arabs even though we aren't. I guess racists aren't good at geography. Anyway, we had all sorts of problems. At first we only reported it to the police, who sent someone round to talk to us.

The police told us to call 999 if anything like that happened again. Fortunately it seems that having the police car parked outside for a couple of hours was enough to deter any further abuse, but the police were very clear that we should not try to engage or resolve the situation ourselves, we should call them.

999 calls are recorded so if someone does start giving you racist abuse that's a useful way to record them for later prosecution. Another handy tip is that on more recent Android phones if you press the power button 5 times rapidly it goes into emergency mode which has an option to record video and sound.

Given the OP's situation and the rise in bigotry over the last 5 years, I would strongly recommend they don't risk it.

This is not even close to the OPs situation at all. No way related to this forum either.

michael1234

user1977 said:

michael1234 said:

turnitround said:

Im amazed at how many posters say they would call the police in these circumstances. 

Even if the police did have time to attend they would not be very impressed to get there to find someone saying 'These are workmen from next door and they didn't ask first'.

What a complete waste of police time.

I disagree and would phone the police without a doubt.

What would you suspect the four men with the tree lopper might be up to? 

Four blokes in my garden? You're kidding right ? I'd be calling 999 within the blink of an eyelid. Contrary to popular opinion, the service is not necessarily for serious crime. It is for when you believe there is a crime taking place at the time of the call.

user1977

michael1234 said:

user1977 said:

michael1234 said:

turnitround said:

Im amazed at how many posters say they would call the police in these circumstances. 

Even if the police did have time to attend they would not be very impressed to get there to find someone saying 'These are workmen from next door and they didn't ask first'.

What a complete waste of police time.

I disagree and would phone the police without a doubt.

What would you suspect the four men with the tree lopper might be up to? 

Four blokes in my garden? You're kidding right ? I'd be calling 999 within the blink of an eyelid. Contrary to popular opinion, the service is not necessarily for serious crime. It is for when you believe there is a crime taking place at the time of the call.

Yes, a point I made myself earlier on. But in this case the tree lopper was a bit of a clue, no? 

Leggitte

Slinky said:

Dunno, but why did it take four men to use one lopper?

This sounds like the start of a joke.