About an hour ago (9pm) we heard a shockingly loud knock on the door to the flat. We live in quite a rough area in London so me and my partner were instantly in fight or flight survival mode.
I went to the front door and spoke to him through the letter box. I asked him what he wanted but I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. I asked him to leave. He continued knocking as we spoke and muttered angrily. He eventually said something about a charity, saying he had a text that had directed him to my flat. His vibe was just off and he had this intimidating, aggressive tone as if I was wasting his time.
At this point I was feeling pretty nervous and told him to fuck off. He swore back at me but just stood there. Then I threatened to call the police and he still didn’t budge. So I phoned the police and he stood there while I did so but eventually skulked back to his car and just sat in it. I couldn’t see the number plate through the window and didn’t fancy opening the door to find out, otherwise I would have given it to the police.
He drove off about 15 minutes later.
Still feeling a bit shaken by this ordeal but thanks to the 999 operator who made me feel at ease.
Anyway, has anyone else had an experience like this and do I need to worry? It felt a lot like we and our flat were being targeted.
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This happened to me once. A guy who looked to be from central Africa and who spoke no English walked straight into my living room when I opened the door to him. I was shocked. Didn’t know this man from Adam. I asked him what he was doing and to please get out. I ended up pushing him physically out the door and into the street. I have my suspicions that he got the address mixed up and came to the wrong house. He really wanted the house across the street where “gentlemen” often turned up then left exactly 45 minutes later… 🤷🏼♀️
This on the outskirts of Birmingham some 15, 17 years ago. Bloke hammered on our door late at night. He’d clearly had the absolute shit kicked out of him and had crapped himself, like he stank of shit.
Kept him talking while my mrs called an ambulance out of earshot because he’d asked us not to. When it turned up with a police car in tow, we left them to it.
Only other time we’ve had a late night knock was the police telling us our back gate was open and they’d had reports of a bloke hopping gardens.
You live in a shit area of London, some guy buying drugs more likely had the wrong address. Yes it happens but rarely, move out of London if you you want less chance of this happening or move to a nicer area, end of story really
“His vibe was just off”
Fucking hell.
I’ve seen people having similar experiences on r/London
I’m sorry this happened to you OP. It really sucks but I wouldn’t start worrying until it happens more than once within 6 months and demonstrates a pattern.
I had my home broken into which was the scariest thing a few years ago
As others have said, unless it happens again you will just have to dismiss it as a random one-off. It’s easy to speculate what it might be about but we’ll never know. Someone given the wrong address for drugs or some other dubious activity? Or a scam to taunt him and you just got accidentally picked? I’ve hear stories of people tracking stolen property with GPS trackers, so if might be somewhere else in your block and he got it wrong. Could be any number of things.
Let’s hope it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
Never had it happen to me as an adult but as a kid some drunk knocked on the door and barged their way past me knocking me to the floor. He didn’t expect an 8st rottweiler with fangs out to bolt around the corner, lunge at him and pin him to the floor nose to nose. Needless to say it was a sobering experience for him as he froze stiff at the prospect of having his face literally torn apart.
She was very restrained and never bit him, but she was super protective of me.
She (Dasha) was my saviour that day bless her – and I learned a valuable lesson that you don’t open the door to anyone, no matter your age unless you are expecting them.
Nowadays I have security cameras covering the front and voice comms via the doorbell. The mere presence of cameras seems to be enough of a deterrent.
Just a shame that life has to be this way now.
Not in the uk but a man was forcibly trying to sell us a bottle of cognac that we did not want . He saw us at the liquor store a few moments before and was yelling at us to buy his bottle and not what we got from the store.
He apparently followed us back and wedged himself before we could close the main door and was not budging, demanding $38 bucks for his bottle. We tried to talk him down and to just remove himself off the doorframe but he was trying to still come past while we were blocking him and attempting to shove his body out.
Then he accused us of covertly calling the police when just by coincidence a police van happened to stop right in front of the apartments. He yanked himself out back into the street but he didn’t count on which way the main gate opened to get out and dropped his bottle which caught the cops in the vans attention who thought that guy had thrown a bottle at a residence. That was the end of that guy.
I lived in a houseshare Salford, way before they started the gentrification of the quays.
The post office a couple of doors down was regularly robbed, a few times at gunpoint. It was that kind of place.
Anyway, middle of the night, someone starts pounding on our door. Like fuck we’re answering that at 3am!
Eventually, they stop, and we go back to sleep.
In the morning, there’s police tape all around the carpark over the road.
Some bloke owed the wrong people some money and they’d beaten him to within an inch of his life.
They’d also raped him. The person hammering on our door was the one that found him, trying to get someone to phone an ambulance.
I moved to a different area not long after that, I decided the cheap rent wasn’t worth it anymore.
Not entirely uncommon in the student area of Leeds, couple of characters (ie – local addicts) are known for aggressively banging on doors and trying to get £20 from residents ‘for a taxi to get to my dad in hospital…’ and there have been other instances of people seemingly having a mental health crisis banging on doors demanding to see someone who doesn’t live there etc…
Back in the late 90s, a random drunk guy got in my car and insisted I drive him to a pub in a town miles away. He refused to get out of the car and became quite aggressive. I ended up man-handling him out on to the pavement, which nearly ended in a wrestling match, i then , jumped back in the drivers side and drove off whilst he was trying to get himself off the floor.
Had it happened today, it would almost certainly have ended up on r/therewasanattempt
Do you have a place outside your door you could plausibly leave a pair of old boots? Get some in size 12 or up from the charity shop.