"I think on various forums around here I have stated that my house must have some strange presence about it that says pull in my driveway and ask me stupid questions, questions that are none of your business, etc. I have never experienced anything like it before. This is not a crowded area and a short driveway where people are practically saying hello from the sidewalk. There are no sidewalks. I think I have also mentioned that I want to get driveway gates (even though it seems silly and I have not actually called on it yet) and that I keep the outside lights on to deter people from pulling in the driveway at night.

The "front" driveway starts out by going to the front of the house (which isn't terribly far from the road) with a circle you can pull around/turn around in in front of the front of the house (which actually does not face the road) then it goes behind the house to the garage and continues around the house and to the edge of the property leaving a yard in the middle and out to the road on the otherside. Kind of a really long circular driveway. it is unpaved- just gravel.

sorry this is so long - I swear there is a point!

So last night at like 2am DH who is a night owl hears this Beeping noise like a truck backing up. looks out the window and can see (because all the outside lights are on) a flatbed truck backing down the driveway stopping in front of his car. DH freaks out - grabs a sharp weapon and runs out the back door yelling as this guy is getting out of his truck and approaching DH's car. they guys mutters something like OK man - I am outta here. and jumps in his truck and tears out of the driveway. DH then calls the cops (OK that was totally silly to do in that order, but who am I to say what i would have done) He tells them what direction the truck is going in. They say - maybe it was a repo man. Fair enough - they don't know us. DH assures them it is not. They say they know where it is and there is someone nearby who will check it out.

I call back this morning and the dispatcher is acting like I am nuts to be calling them back. She puts me on hold and says the officer on duty drove around and didn't see anything. The guy was probably just turning around in your driveway. YEAH RIGHT. Backing all the way along the driveway to the BACK of the house and then getting out of his vehicle! I don't think so!!!!! I ask if there are any similar occurances etc, she basically says no - call us if you need us again. I know they don't know me and probably get a bunch of crackpot calls all the time. I really strongly doubt this was someone turning around or lost. It was an expensive (read midlife crises - ridiculous car that he got prior to our meeting) i would be happy if it was just someone lost. But i think that is just not the case.

Now to be fair - maybe the automatic bill payments are not getting to the right place and I don't open the mail very frequently. So we call on the cars to make sure and they are all current.

I am totally freaked out by all of this. I called gate places today. I just really feel like it isn't safe there. I dont' know if I am overreacting or not.

Sorry for the long post - I can't think about anything else today!!!!

Just wanted you all to know - I would have never thought it would happen! I always leave my car unlocked!

I can imagine the frustration of the police not getting back to you, and acting odd that you called back for a follow up, to see if they found anything out. You may want to pursue it with the officers directly. ( They work shifts, so maybe the dayshift didn't know how they made out) Hopefully you asked the officer's name and if they made out a report. I honestly am not that familiar on how they conduct their reporting. The few times I had to make a police report due to theft, they did not get back to me one way or another. Maybe if there is no news, they leave it at that. I did find that our town police did not question or alert anyone in the neighborhood regarding either incident. These incidents were years ago, but I did know that I wanted them to put a little effort into finding out who did what. ( The first incident for me, someone actually broke into our house three weeks after we closed on it and stole some things.) Imagine my uneasyness and the fact that they didn't even ask any questions of any of the neighbors to see if anyone saw anything, or alert them to be aware for themselves. I didn't know anyone in the neighborhood yet, and when I did tell them about our incident, they were surprised that they weren't notified. I had to practically beg the police to take fingerprints of the door that was broken into and the sliding glass door that was broken too. They told me it was a 'messy procedure'. Like I cared about a little more mess. I understand it is difficult to get a good usable print, and maybe I watch too much TV, but to tell me it is too messy to do seemed like a lame reason to me. To them it may have been nothing, but to us it was a security issue, especially when you have young children in the house. We never heard anything further either. Maybe this is a public relations issue that might need to be addressed somewhere in the local political forum. I still appreciate the job the police do, they surely don't get paid enough to see what they see, and do what they do, and put their lives on the line everyday. I am sure it changes them.

Either way, I wish you peace and security. Try following up with the police and maybe ask around and see if anyone else in your local neighborhood saw anything. It did seem mighty nervy to show up with a flatbed, if they weren't there legitamately (?). Wonder if it was a case of mistaken ID... Good Luck.

The cottage garden forum is great, isn't it? Hopefully you will be able to put some of your frustration aside while you garden..it is definitely theraputic. Breath the fresh air, smell a fragrant flower, pluck a pesky weed and thank God that your incident didn't turn out worse..you never ever know. Give DH a hug and kiss, things may have turned out different. Peace in gardening ...JoAnn