Mystery at Four A.M.

hearlady

hearlady

Homebody
Location
N Carolina
At four AM this morning, the door bell rang. I woke up. Did I hear it? One minute later it rang again. Both of us got up but didn't rush right to the door. We gathered ourselves then went together. No one was there. There was a footprint. Looked like a small shoe.
We didn't open the door, go outside, or turn on any Inside lights. The porch light was on.
At one point two cars drove down the road, seemingly together.
We nervously went about looking out windows. We saw the cars again stopped in front of the house next door. They appeared to be police cars. A man was outside the car but they got back in and drove off. Our neighbor is a police detective. None of his lights were on. No other neighbors' lights were on.
This morning all seems calm. Nothing amiss.

So....... all the things running through our brain.
If a neighbor needed help they would have called. If there was an emergency they would have banged on the door and waited.
Seems a strange time for teenager tricks.
Were the police called because of door bell complaints? Or did they ring the bell?

It's a mystery at this point. We will be asking around today.
 

I think we have the story.
All the Sheriffs Dept. would say was that they did not knock on our door and that they were called because a neighbor reported someone knocking on doors asking for a ride. With the small shoe print it was likely a woman. Fight with boyfriend, husband? Drinking involved? He said we were not in danger.
That's a relief.
We did receive a recorded message the other day from the Sheriffs Dept warning of car breakins and requesting the community be on the lookout and lock your cars.
I think about stories of people knocking on doors in the middle of the night looking for help and getting shot.
Crazy people these days, things can happen. Luckily, this was benign.
 

hearlady said:
At four AM this morning, the door bell rang. I woke up. Did I hear it? One minute later it rang again. Both of us got up but didn't rush right to the door. We gathered ourselves then went together. No one was there. There was a footprint. Looked like a small shoe.
We didn't open the door, go outside, or turn on any Inside lights. The porch light was on.
At one point two cars drove down the road, seemingly together.
We nervously went about looking out windows. We saw the cars again stopped in front of the house next door. They appeared to be police cars. A man was outside the car but they got back in and drove off. Our neighbor is a police detective. None of his lights were on. No other neighbors' lights were on.
This morning all seems calm. Nothing amiss.

So....... all the things running through our brain.
If a neighbor needed help they would have called. If there was an emergency they would have banged on the door and waited.
Seems a strange time for teenager tricks.
Were the police called because of door bell complaints? Or did they ring the bell?

It's a mystery at this point. We will be asking around today.
Click to expand...
So awful, when something gets you up in the wee hours. Everything seems so much scarier then. It's good to have two together in those situations to figure out what to do. You made great decisions not to open the door or even turn on a light.

It's been quite awhile since anything happened here in the night 🤞 but I sure have missed my husband when it did. We would have done the same things you did (after I argued him out of answering the door). :)
 
hearlady said:
At four AM this morning, the door bell rang. I woke up. Did I hear it? One minute later it rang again. Both of us got up but didn't rush right to the door. We gathered ourselves then went together. No one was there. There was a footprint. Looked like a small shoe.
We didn't open the door, go outside, or turn on any Inside lights. The porch light was on.
At one point two cars drove down the road, seemingly together.
We nervously went about looking out windows. We saw the cars again stopped in front of the house next door. They appeared to be police cars. A man was outside the car but they got back in and drove off. Our neighbor is a police detective. None of his lights were on. No other neighbors' lights were on.
This morning all seems calm. Nothing amiss.

So....... all the things running through our brain.
If a neighbor needed help they would have called. If there was an emergency they would have banged on the door and waited.
Seems a strange time for teenager tricks.
Were the police called because of door bell complaints? Or did they ring the bell?

It's a mystery at this point. We will be asking around today.
Click to expand...
Oh dear, delicate way to say this, but as I live and breathe paranormal, I'd say it might be a ghostly visitor. Keep a record and if it repeats for a certain period of time, then it might be a repeat in time of something that happened long ago.

Worst case scenario, something like an area might have been disturbed recently and the spirits aren't happy...so sorry!
 
Supernatural said:
Oh dear, delicate way to say this, but as I live and breathe paranormal, I'd say it might be a ghostly visitor. Keep a record and if it repeats for a certain period of time, then it might be a repeat in time of something that happened long ago.

Worst case scenario, something like an area might have been disturbed recently and the spirits aren't happy...so sorry!
Click to expand...
My late FIL's birthday was today. That was one of my first thoughts. 😯
I don't think he'd be mad anyway. Just saying hello.
 
Glad you got to the bottom of it. I don't blame you both for being cautious because there are some sinister people out there and just watching what happens to some innocent people, even those who acted as good samaritans, is enough to make us be especially careful.
 
At the last house I owned, I installed a "wireless" doorbell with a battery-operated button unit and a "receiver/ringer" that plugged into a power outlet inside.

It would chime but nobody at the door. Again and again, sometimes in the middle of the night. That got old REAL fast.

It turns out that there were other things that could set it off, including the guy across the street's garage door opener.

I tried setting it to other frequencies, but it didn't stop the occasional false ring.

I took it off and put a note on the door..."KNOCK LOUD!"
 
I'm glad everything turned out OK.

But please, when something like this happens, call the police immediately. It's better to call & have it turn out to be nothing rather than something. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. Even if others have already called, you may be able to give more information than the others had. Don't ever feel you are wasting anyone's time. It's what we get (or in my case got) paid for. We would rather prevent something from happening than have to investigate it.

So many times in dispatch, I had received calls from people who didn't call in when something happened only for them to find out that something really did occur & they should have called at that time. The sooner a call is received & an officer can respond, the better it is if something is wrong & the perpetrators caught. If they haven't committed an offense yet, at least an officer who has come in contact & in what circumstances with their information as potential suspects. I know a few times, subjects who were identified hadn't done anything in our area yet, but turned out to be wanted in adjacent communities for what they were trying to do in ours.

Other times they may be checking out areas or seeing what kind of reactions they will get from residents. Only a few months ago, a teenage male who didn't live in my SIL neighborhood had been walking around during daylight hours for several days. Most people work with only a few retirees are at home, but no one called in when they kept seeing him. Then about 1 AM, her neighbor seen two people standing behind her house on the patio that had the motion light on. He thought it was her & a guest because one was smoking. The next day we were visiting & he told me about it. I told him she doesn't go out at night & no one was visiting.

I called the local PD & one of the officers came out. We gave him what information & description we had. They did extra checks on all shifts for the next week. This kid wasn't seen again & there had been no break-ins or thefts, so hopefully it was due to the extra patrols.
 
A few years ago, the lovely lady across the street installed (without me knowing) a huge doormat, and underneath it was a sensor that triggered a shrill witchy, cackling laughing type sound to both sides of her door.

Because this lovely lady collects all kinds of offer coupons, I saved all mine for her, and, because I'm forgetfull, I have to do things while they are on my mind, so, this particular night I put all my freebie offers and coupons into a large envelope and walked over the road to post the envelope through her door............
Stepping onto her doormat, I near s**t a brick, I near jumped out of my skin, what a goolish sound, I legged it back to my house, and in the morning I ventured over the road again. From a point midway between her garden gate and her front door, I shouted for her to come to the door.
I was invited in for a cup of tea, and when I told her of the about nearly swallowing my teeth in shock at her door the night before, she almost wet herself laughing, and for weeks she only had to look at me and she burst out giggling.
Needless to say, I asked her where she bought it so that I could get one. 😊
 
jujube said:
At the last house I owned, I installed a "wireless" doorbell with a battery-operated button unit and a "receiver/ringer" that plugged into a power outlet inside.

It would chime but nobody at the door. Again and again, sometimes in the middle of the night. That got old REAL fast.

It turns out that there were other things that could set it off, including the guy across the street's garage door opener.

I tried setting it to other frequencies, but it didn't stop the occasional false ring.

I took it off and put a note on the door..."KNOCK LOUD!"
Click to expand...
No set off problems with our system, which is the same as yours. However, after unsticking the button outside to change the battery after 4 years, it's no longer sticking. Every other sticky applications tried, fails miserably.

As I'd say it gets used once in a blue moon, most people just knock, I'll send it off to charity and once I've got bit more savings, I'll invest in a RING system instead. It'll give us an extra safety layer as it has a built-in camera which records and shows into your phone.

Just hoping it works well with Android!
 
hollydolly said:
A video ring doorbell would have got you answers in a second... (y)
Click to expand...
We have one but it happened to be off at the time.
We have motion lights in the back yard and have been looking at one for the front. We leave that porch light on all night.
Lilac said:
I'm glad everything turned out OK.

But please, when something like this happens, call the police immediately. It's better to call & have it turn out to be nothing rather than something. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. Even if others have already called, you may be able to give more information than the others had. Don't ever feel you are wasting anyone's time. It's what we get (or in my case got) paid for. We would rather prevent something from happening than have to investigate it.

So many times in dispatch, I had received calls from people who didn't call in when something happened only for them to find out that something really did occur & they should have called at that time. The sooner a call is received & an officer can respond, the better it is if something is wrong & the perpetrators caught. If they haven't committed an offense yet, at least an officer who has come in contact & in what circumstances with their information as potential suspects. I know a few times, subjects who were identified hadn't done anything in our area yet, but turned out to be wanted in adjacent communities for what they were trying to do in ours.

Other times they may be checking out areas or seeing what kind of reactions they will get from residents. Only a few months ago, a teenage male who didn't live in my SIL neighborhood had been walking around during daylight hours for several days. Most people work with only a few retirees are at home, but no one called in when they kept seeing him. Then about 1 AM, her neighbor seen two people standing behind her house on the patio that had the motion light on. He thought it was her & a guest because one was smoking. The next day we were visiting & he told me about it. I told him she doesn't go out at night & no one was visiting.

I called the local PD & one of the officers came out. We gave him what information & description we had. They did extra checks on all shifts for the next week. This kid wasn't seen again & there had been no break-ins or thefts, so hopefully it was due to the extra patrols.
Click to expand...
Good advice. The police were there and we did call the next day to let them know our bell was rung.
One neighbor next door is a detective and two doors down on the other side is a retired policeman. All in all a pretty safe and quiet neighborhood.
 
hearlady said:
With the small shoe print it was likely a woman. Fight with boyfriend, husband? Drinking involved?
Click to expand...
If a woman was having a domestic issue she would have been banging on your door in desperation, in my opinion. That happened to me one time, a neighbor lady came running over, face bloodied. My[ex] wife took her in the house to use the phone. Her husband showed up shortly after, I had to 'draw down' on him with the .38 I had in my waistband. He got the message and left.
hearlady said:
We did receive a recorded message the other day from the Sheriffs Dept warning of car breakins and requesting the community be on the lookout and lock your cars.
Click to expand...
May be related to the knock on your door, to see if you're home, or to possibly victimize you...
 
Nathan said:
If a woman was having a domestic issue she would have been banging on your door in desperation, in my opinion. That happened to me one time, a neighbor lady came running over, face bloodied. My[ex] wife took her in the house to use the phone. Her husband showed up shortly after, I had to 'draw down' on him with the .38 I had in my waistband. He got the message and left.

May be related to the knock on your door, to see if you're home, or to possibly victimize you...
Click to expand...
Yes She wasn't banging which would have indicated urgency. She rang twice and was gone before we got to the door. We both said we wouldn't go outside and look as it could be a lure.
Another thought would be if they were checking to see if we had a dog.
The police couldn't give us details, just that a woman was looking for a ride and we were in no danger.
 
We live off a busy rural hwy. There have been numerous uninvited people that show up. Out of gas, need a phone, need a ride, Jehovah witnesses, even a recently arrived Russian lady in the dead of winter about 9pm (She barely could speak English)! I will rarely answer the door to anyone I don't know anymore. Everything is so volatile and I am not sure it is safe.
 

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