In which part of the O.P. did pyromyte happen to mention the man’s skin color. 
You made 2 mistakes. The first was the racist rant. The second was not addressing the thread with a cogent line of reasoning. As has already been discussed, computers can be hacked through router wi-fi signals. It’s done by parking in a neighborhood with a computer which is what the op witnessed.
There is no logical explanation for parking in front of someone’s house and sitting in the car for 45 minutes. That by itself is suspicious. The person could be acting as lookout for someone else. This is how I stopped a car theft. I observed someone behaving in a manner that had no rationale behind it. He was acting as a lookout for other people.
On a similar note I stopped a break-in by noting someone walking back and forth around my neighborhood looking at houses. He broke into a neighbor’s house when they weren’t home. All that was done through the power of observation. It’s based on the same mental process that allows us to pick up on the tiniest nuance in a conversation or body movement. Unless a person has Asperger’s Syndrome this is an ability that everybody has.
I’ve been building houses in Atlanta for years, and you must live in one crappy-ass neighborhood if you can find a house of that size for just over $100 per square foot.
Yes. This is the only possible reason there could be.:rolleyes:
Of course there are other reasons, such as the possibility that you’re exaggerating just a tad.
That seems a bit cold.
Are all the houses in ATL occupied or did the housing bubble collapse take a bite out of prices?
That’s a tip – want a safe neighborhood? Leave your wi-fi unsecured. You’ll have bored cops parking nearby hooking their smartphone to your wi-fi so they can surf the web for a bit.
By the by, someone else may have already mentioned this, but my first thought when I read the thread title was “Nothing…why should I care if someone is parted in front of your house?”
You call the police and tell them there is a suspicious vehicle and give them the address. Provide the make, model and color of the car. Then tell them you don’t want the officer to contact you because you’re going to bed.
The way this works on the other end, is that the call will be given a low priority and put into the queue. If the police in that area or sector are busy, they won’t pick up the call. Units in other areas will often grab a call from another area, just to help out if the police in that area are swamped, but they would probably just take a pass on a call like this.
If the units in your area are not busy, that call is still going to be sitting there, and they’ll grab it and roll by, just to clear it up. It’ll have all the info you provided and will also say “Caller does not want to be contacted.” The officer or deputy will come by, and if he recognizes the car (since it’s his area) he will likely close out the call and move on. You may not even notice him do this and think they didn’t respond. If it’s not someone he recognizes, he’ll likely just ask the guy what’s going on, and if he doesn’t have a good reason, he’ll tell him to take a hike and go someplace else.
Police will often talk about neighborhoods that don’t tolerate crime versus those that do. You can have someone standing on the street corner selling drugs, and no one will report it. Or, you can have some neighborhoods where lots of people will call the police if someone is in the area looking shady, and eventually the police have no choice but to respond and roust the guy. When this happens over a period of time, shady characters quickly learn where they can hang out without worrying about being hassled and where they can’t, and it’s all up to the residents in that area to make it happen by making the call.
-aB
Years ago I lived in a rental house across a short residential street from a public swimming pool and playground. One day as I left my house, I noticed a white pickup truck parked in front of the playground. A man sat in it, staring intently at the young children playing.
As soon as I came out, he turned and glared at me with hostility, the entire time I was walking to my car, getting in, and driving off. It seemed like a deliberate attempt to warn me off.
So, after driving off, I circled the block and came back. He was again mesmerized by the children, but as my car came down the street, his head snapped around and he followed me until I was out of sight.
So I called the cops. Maybe he was totally innocent, I don’t know. But he didn’t look much like he could be the father of any of those kids (they were black and he was Hispanic) and anyway he wasn’t interacting with them, just staring from his vehicle.
The police thanked me for the call and agreed they should send someone around to observe. I don’t know what happened ultimately.
Sure it hit Atlanta, though it depends on how you define Atlanta. However, the neighborhoods hit hardest were typically the ones that contain houses smaller than 6000 sf. I’m sure there are a few out there.
Ugh. What’s all this crap about a public street? A street is public for driving on. Not for random parking.
And honestly, the idea that, if something is legal, it’s inherently 100% okay is ludicrous. If you do something out of the ordinary, people are going to notice. And if it’s something like sitting out in a car in front of a house that is often a prelude to illegal activity, the cops are going to care about it to.
It doesn’t have to be illegal to be stupid.
I have had a pickup truck come into our neighborhood every day at 5:30 a.m… pull over to the opposite side of the street…sit for exactly 4 minutes headlights still on, then go to the end of our street where there is a turnaround…sit for another 2 minutes, then speed out of the neighborhood. The street he sits on t’s into mine, and points directly at my house. I am up smoking a cigarette with my door to my garage open, and he has seen me numerous times. Then…after 6 months of this, he doesn’t show. Well, I got up with a sick child yesterday, and stood in my garage at exactly 4:30 a.m…and guess who shows up?? He had still been coming, just at an earlier hour. I reported this to the police, who basically patted me on the shoulder (I wanted to knee him) and told me it wasn’t against the law to “sit in a parked car” and that there had been no break ins in the neighborhood, so “not to worry.”
I am a single mother, and it is freaking me out!!! I can never get his plate, just the make and color of his truck. So when he saw me yesterday…he immediately sped out of the neighborhood. Something is definitely wrong about this!! What can I do?
Yeah, it’s cold enough for fresh snow, but he opts to stay outside in the car with the engine off for close to an hour? If he needs to cool off after fighting with his wife, a diner would be warmer. I’d be dialing the phone after 10 minutes.
FWIW, in similar circumstances where I thought to save the 911 operators some trouble by calling 311 for what I figured was a not-emergency police matter, I was directed to call 911 anyway. This is Chicago, YMMV.
And for all the MYOBs, it is possible that the car’s occupant might be having a medical emergency, too, and might appreciate some help. I remember a TED talk where a woman described her experience of having a stroke in her left hemisphere. She was alone at the time and it took her hours to dial the phone for help, because her ability to read the numbers kept coming and going.
I don’t think it’s out of line to be concerned about something that unusual. The minor safety checks are part of the police’s job too. If everything is fine, then cool.
Oh, God DAMN it. Another zombie thread?
Stoppit, people! Make your own threads!
Despite the zombie thread and the one and only post by the poster…
This guy sounds like he’s probably delivering newspapers. The same time, 7 days a week, frequent short stops… that sounds like newspaper delivery.
And now I’ll go look for a nice breakfast of brains or something 
So in this story, the parked car and occupant were apparently innocent of any wrong doing. A poster says ‘the occupant gave a nonsensical answer’ when asked why he was there. What?
The guy in the car said he had to be there. How is that nonsense and what more information would a stranger asking what you were doing on a public street deserve?
Sure the guy drove off after being interrogated, but i wouldn’t be surprised if he figured the police would be around to roust him soon thereafter, and innocent as the driven snow, who needs the armed and nervous with the power to arrest the innocent confronting them?
It is described as a “suspicious vehicle”. What made suspicious other than its presence parked on a public street? Unfamiliarity?
It’s what the gun owners and the media and the government want - they want you to be frightened - and apparently it’s working.
I know this is a zombie, but I LOL’d at this. “A public street is not for parking!”
Uh, yes it is, dude. Streets are for driving and parking unless there is a sign that says “no parking”.
Oops, zombie
Am I really the only one who noticed that this happened in the winter, at night, when it was cold enough for snow, with the engine (and therefore the heat, and for that matter the radio) OFF? Do YOU regularly sit outside in a freezing cold car for an hour doing nothing? Do you do it preferentially over finding a warm building to do nothing in?
I don’t, and so if I saw such a thing I’d be thinking either the driver is in trouble, or one of the neighborhood residents are about to be. What made it suspicious is the abnormal behavior of the car’s occupant.
Suspicious does not equal fear, either. It’s just as possible that the driver is having a medical emergency, or got lost, pulled over to check directions, and now can’t get his car started again. In that case, he may welcome a little help.