Last night I found a note stuck in my front door. It said that early in the morning (when we were still asleep), the note writer(s)’ truck was “flippend on the field property on the left of your house” and that “of course it was us that had our truck flipped”. They left a phone number to call because they “wanted to speak to you about the situation assuming it was your guy’s property”.*
At first I thought they meant there had been an accident and they were looking for witnesses or thought we were in some way responsible. Then I decided they must have meant that someone “flipped them off” while they were driving, and they figured it might be us. I have this dynamic duo (couple of scowly-looking young guys) on doorbell video. They hung around in front of my house for at least 8 minutes according to video time stamps waiting for someone to show (the bell isn’t working properly so we never heard them).
If you were in our situation, would you:
ignore the note and go on with your life
call the number and explain that it wasn’t you
document the incident with local law enforcement and let them handle it
warn your neighbor(s) in case these two go looking for them
hide under the bedcovers
track down the phone number and go over to their house for a friendly visit
My immediate assumption is their truck was in an accident and rolled onto your property. They may have got the truck out of there, but they are concerned about potential damage to your property. Have you inspected your property?
Was it light out when the idiots were at your front door? I have no idea what these morons were trying to convey in that note, but I would most likely ignore it assuming you don’t see evidence of a truck flipping on your property.
Also curious, they were there for 8 minutes and never once thought to knock? Just tried to ring a doorbell?
This was also my impression from my intital reading- someone rolled their vehicle. In that case I would absolutely go to assist, even with my weak skills.
But instead it seems someone made a hand signal to suggest that they drive differently.
The arrival at the house is a bit disturbing, but when they wake up, and have the first beer of the day to resolve the hangover, they probably won’t recall the address, let alone the incident.
They were drunk and flipped their truck into your field. Fortunately it rolled an even number times back onto its wheels and they managed to drive home. However, they are looking for compensation for their damaged Trump flags, since you negligently placed your land in the way of their flipping truck.
It’s weird though if it doesn’t seem like there was any accident.
I didn’t at first buy the idea that it could be about somebody flipping them off. Someone getting into road rage because of that doesn’t seem consistent with going to the nearest residence, waiting 8 minutes and leaving a note. But maybe it was someone on the road driving in the opposite direction, they did a U-turn to chase them and somehow got the idea that the car that flipped them off turned into your drive? They got to your doorstep, the road rage adrenaline wore off, they realized that they couldn’t see the car that they were looking for, so they weren’t sure enough to smash up your porch and ended up leaving a note as sort of face-saving mild aggression?
I picked warn your neighbors in addition to call them. Not that I think they need to be warned that they are in danger but just to inform the person that does own the property that something happened and that the two guys want to contact the owner of the “field wot flipped our truck”.
Another odd and somewhat disturbing thing is that they said this happened early in the morning, but they showed up at my door late in the afternoon to “discuss the situation”. They stewed about this for most of the day?
I didn’t realize they were at your front door in the afternoon (I read it as it all happening early in the morning). They tried your doorbell for 8 minutes but never thought to try the old fashioned method of knocking?
Maybe the two goons were on their way to work, saw “you” flip them off as they drove by, then returned after work to have a discussion?
I think you should call them and suggest they go back to high school and focus on the class called “English”.
The real options are call the number or don’t call the number. Police, neighbors, and ‘track down the phone’ aren’t going anywhere without evidence that anything happened like torn up turf, scattered truck parts, more notes, etc.
Disagree about your claim of the lack of alternatives.
The number itself is potentially useful information whether the OP calls it or not. I’d tell the cops what I know, show them the vid, etc. The police may well have that number, or those faces, on their list of known hothead problems.
Of course in a big city you’d never get the police to bother coming out or talking to you. But in comfy-class high end suburbia or genteel gentry semi-rural where Stately @Jackmanii Manor is probably situated I bet the OP can get a more useful response from the local police. The knowledge gained may be valuable.
At a minimum I’d retain the note and the vid so that if my mailbox was destroyed, or my lawn was donutted this upcoming weekend during the wee hours, I’d have a potential suspect ID to deliver to the cops.