Carly_Roach
Carly Roach
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2007
Most of the time people taking pictures of houses are likely to be insurance adjusters, banks/title companies or realtors looking for comps. And when asked these people usually identify themselves as such. Then you have people who might like the look of a house in a particular light and want to capture that image (that would be me).They didn't exactly lie... it could have been a misunderstanding, a wrong address, anything!
I actually had this happen to me a few months ago, and I posted a thread about it.
For two days, two different cars with two different people came and parked on the street and took pictures of our house. Well, actually, the second guy did a drive-by, and then sped off!
I never saw anyone again after that. Everyone on here told me they were probably taking pictures of my house because another house sold and we were a comp. Lo and behold, a few houses DID sell around that time, so I totally believe that is what it was.
As the wife of a police officer, I know I wouldn't have called the police unless they harrassed me, came on my property and wouldn't leave, or broke into my house. Because, what are they going to do? Both men were brown haired, taller, driving I couldn't even remember what kind of car... as for license plates? The police could do nothing since I had nothing to give them to work with.
I am still alive to tell you about it, too!
What the OP was concerned about was that a neighbor reported to her that someone was taking pictures of her house and said "that" house (which I'm presuming to mean her house) is in foreclosure, which the OP knows to be not true. If the neighbor hadn't said anything to the OP and forgotten the incident, they might have remembered if the OP came home to a decimated interior with all her appliances, electronics and jewelry gone. To the neighbor, however, they had heard the house was in foreclosure and when the moving truck came up to the house it seemed normal.
My DH is ALSO a PO and it was from him that I learned of this particular tactic that theives use. Especially in Michigan where foreclosures and moving trucks are common. The OP did the right thing by alerting her PD.
Exactly.Our police department asks that we report suspicious activity. If someone told one of my neighbors he was taking photos because my home was in foreclosure I would consider that suspicious.
I wouldn't call 911 but I would probably call the non-emergency number.
Probably because you have never heard of thieves using this ruse to rob people's homes while they are away. Now you know.I guess I'm in the minority because I would not be the least bit alarmed. I'm stunned that people actually call the police over things like this
So what you are doing is lying about someone you don't know in order to save yourself a little inconvenience. Now that neighbor can tell the rest of the neighborhood that whomever lives in that house is behind on their bills to the point of being in foreclosure and it's no wonder the way they live high on the hog and can afford to go to WDW every year because I guess they've declared bankruptcy.Photographer did not say "your home is in foreclosure." He said, "that home is in foreclosure." Which can be taken simply as an attempt to disengage or prevent a confrontation with someone who may be butting into photographer's business.
Ok, so now the police are aware. What does that do? No one did anything against any laws. There is nothing police can do about anything currently.
I'm only trying to show it in a different perspective. As a photographer, when I'm taking a photo of something (can be anything), I don't want the hassle of someone coming up to me and giving me a hard time because they are suspicious. If I say I'm photographing this house for whatever reason, there is a possibility of a confrontation that I don't want. If I tell them the house is being foreclosed, it is done with and I am left alone by some stranger that I don't know who came up to me not from the subject that I am looking at.
Again, just another perspective I'm putting out there.
And all along the innocent person in the house (the one YOU are photographing BTW) has no clue that your lie has just turned him or her into someone who may be ashamed to find out that their neighbors are gossiping about a non-existent foreclosure. There would be no way they could stop any rumors, even if they tried to put things right and not everyone in their neighborhood is going to believe that these people were NEVER in danger of foreclosure.
All because you, some stranger who wanted something - even if it was something as simple as a photograph - from this person you've never met, didn't want to be inconvenienced.
To me, that's appalling and shameful.