Just to warn you. I might be overreacting but I thought I'd alert you to a bit of an odd caller I had this evening. Someone rang my doorbell at around 4.45 and I'm pretty sure they were not expecting someone to be in. I asked him through the window what he wanted and he asked if a Michael Perkins lived here. I think he made it up on the spot. I got the impression he was 'casing the joint' and thought I should warn other forumites. He disappeared pretty rapidly and I didn't notice him knocking on any other doors.

Roughly where abouts are you?

Not far from Fairlawn school. Down hill towards Devonshire rd .

A bit worrying - I had a similar experience just before 10am this morning. A guy knocked on our door and asked if a woman (can't remember the name) lived next door (he said he'd been trying to reach her for a few days). He wandered off when I told him I couldn't help.

I was in a rush doing other things, and didn't think clearly enough to really remember much about his appearance or even become particularly suspicious, but for what it's worth I think he was bald or shaven-headed, white, and wearing light coloured trousers or cargo pants. He spoke with a cockney accent.

Its worth keeping a look out as a number of properties have been burgled recently in East Dulwich according to their forum.

The East Dulwich burglaries sound like the same lot that were targetting SE23 recently: ground floor windows crowbarred open from front gardens where tall hedges provided cover from the road.

We had a strange call too on Monday evening. We had a ring on the door bell and my partner looked through the peep hole and being a lady opened the door. She did not introduce herself but asked if we had recieved a message on our answerphone and if we had cable. When my partner replied that we were already set up with a contract, she basically disappeard. Quite odd. I had read on other threads about people knocking on doors and burgalries [/align]so I was a little worried. Nothing has happended yet touch wood! I am probably being over suspicious but the fact that she did not introduce herself raised alarm bells.

where do approx live? Two days later they broke in to my home

My goodness. I'm very sorry to hear that. We live on the quiet part of Stanstead Road. Where are you?

horniman/london road area. We have been in the area for almost 20 years, nothing happened before, but in the last few months, there have been report of burglaries around the area.

Midi
That sounds like a classic case of someone casing. People know where one another live and dont need to knock on doors to find them. In future take descriptions (Approximate Height, Weight, Age, Dress, Accents & Time of visit etc)

Had a visitor today talking about my drains causing problems in the nearby flats. When I contacted the council they stated that there were no works planned in the flats at all. The chap was about 30 and well spoken, so probably a completely different scam

Hello there

My partner and I have just moved into the area and we installed a steel door. If anyone wanted to get through that they would make an awful lot of noise and it would take them too long to get through it with power tools even!

The area feels relatively safe but it's always good to make things harder for those opportunistic types

Pico
Its been known years by the police that the biggest problem a burglar has is how much noise he is going to make. Thats why some people put stones around their house to prevent any one creeping up without being heard. Your on the right track.

Last night I had a group of youth come to my door demanding 'treats' and threatening 'tricks' if I did not comply. Did anybody else see this group of youths last night?

They looked to be a well organised gang with buckets to make off with their loot. They were wearing fairly distinctive clothing and carrying axes and broomsticks.

Michael

Did you give them anything ?

I gave them all the chocolate I could find!

I didn't get any of those, at least the batteries in my taser should be ok for next year

All that prep with the cauldron of boiling oil poised for nothing. Oh well.