The irate woman took to forum Mumsnet to vent her anger after the neighbours enjoyed the cigarettes on her patio. The woman, who chose not to reveal her name, said she no longer feels safe in her own home as she’s “concerned it’ll escalate”.
The woman, who is single, was at work when the neighbours scaled the wall and spent around six hours in the garden, Liverpool Echo reports.
Writing on Mumsnet, she said: “I have a block of flats next to my house and I thought for a while things have been moved in my garden and it seemed a bit weird. I’ve got a lock on the gate and it’s always locked. So, over the weekend, I’ve installed a small outdoor camera under my guttering which records the whole back garden.
“I’ve come home tonight after work (I work the late shift) and found two cigarette butts on the path by my seating area. So I checked the camera and the neighbours have climbed my wall and been sitting in my garden from 2pm until 8pm using my seating and table.
“To say I’m annoyed is an understatement but how [do] I confront them as they aren’t the friendliest of people at the best of times. So I guess they’ve been doing this since the nice weather began.
“Unfortunately it’s not difficult to see I’m out as I have to drive to work and so once my cars not there they obviously know I’m out.
“I just don’t know how to approach this as I’m a single woman and just concerned it’ll escalate but I can’t allow this what would you all do? I thought maybe a note through their door asking them to not use it anymore. They haven’t seen the camera but now I wonder how long it’s been going on.”
The woman hasn’t posted where exactly in the UK she lives but people from all across the country have offered advice.
Many Mumsnet users were shocked by the behaviour.
One posted: “I would actually make the camera very obviously visible in the hope that they see it’s there and don’t ever come back. Then you won’t need to worry about interacting with them. I can’t believe the nerve of some people.”
Another wrote: “I would make a sign to put on the table top. “You are trespassing, you are being recorded, and the police will be called.”
Others even suggested the woman install spikes along the wall to prevent the neighbours returning.
“Spikes on the top of the fence, or anti climb paint. Report the trespass to the police. They sound like scum,” a comment reads.
Another states: “Get one of those cardboard cutouts of a police officer they put in Home Bargains doorway to deter thieves. Have that staring out at your patio.”
Replying to some of the comments, the woman added: “They live in the flats but have no garden or courtyard, there is a park literally the other side of my house with large grass areas for them to sit. I’ll definitely look at spikes or something similar, they are climbing the wall as the panels of the gate make it very difficult to climb over.”
She also revealed her garden furniture was “made by a good friend” who “designed it all himself and it cost a lot to make”.
The row comes after another woman took to the same forum to seek help when strangers used her garden last month.
It was believed that woman lived in a large farmhouse adjacent to a public footpath and tourists to her area mistook her garden for a park.
