Hijack: Actually, in the snobby suburb I live in, an average sedan probably would get the person highly questioned by and probably moved-along by the cops. My husband essentially got pulled over for driving a 10-year-old Taurus (with a nice paint job/body) on a non-main street, while on his way home after work. The cop told him he looked lost. Yeah, a guy who grew up in this town, went to school and church here, delivers mail here - lost?
My guesses would include (with increasing time spent) carpool, divorced parent waiting for child outside other parent’s house, person waiting for neighborhood business to open, contractor waiting on colleagues, owner of landscaping business waiting on crew, someone waiting to serve notice to appear in court, PI, plainclothes detective. Wouldn’t do anything, I don’t think.
Now I’m going to call the cops again myself. And this time I’m going to ask to speak to a supervisor and file a complaint. While I’m waiting on the complaint to filter through to the on-duty sergeant, I’m going to go start knocking on my neighbors’ doors. (Small street, I know them all). I’m going to tell them about the creepy guy sitting on the street and ask them to call the police about him. So now we have a veritable shitstorm of complaints. And yet, I get the feeling it will all be futile… but I will wait and see…
When I come home from work (or school), I pull up a chair right in front of him and see if I can make him uncomfortable enough to leave. At the very least, I’m blocking his view, so he might have some incentive to move.
Is a booming bass stereo blaring? No? Then probably nothing. He could be investigating the neighborhood for house-buying purposes. Realtors suggest that you go to the neighborhood in which you intend to buy at several different times of day for a good length of time to see what it’s like (for instance, are there a lot of noisy parties? People mowing their lawn every Saturday at 7am? stuff like that).
Disclaimer: If he’s parked in my neighborhood for more than two hours in the same spot and he doesn’t have a sticker, he’s parking illegally and his car will be ticketed. I don’t think it matters if he’s inside the car the whole time.
Other than that: Close my curtains. Get my binoculars and see if I can see into his car. After a few hours, knock on his window and ask if he wants some brownies.
Actual thing: Years ago, I walked my son to his kindergarden, around 1130am. We passed a green space where lots of people park to eat their lunches. A guy was in his car, apparently sleeping, but with all the windows rolled up, and it was a warm day. On the way back (without kid) I tried to see if I could see him breathing, but decided he was just taking a nap.
On the way to pick up the kid, three hours later–guy still there, windows still up, he’s in the same position. As I said, lots of people get fast food and park there, sometimes they nap. They’re never there for three hours (aforementioned parking restrictions). I called the cops, and walked the kid home down another street. And I assume they checked it out, but I never knew what happened.
If the car is legally parked, what business is it of yours what the guy’s doing? There are far too many folks in the world who don’t understand that it doens’t revolve around them and some things simply are nothing to do with them.
Parking for that long around here is illegal, plus I live very near a primary school and daycares, so anyone just sitting all day in their car is immediately suspect. Any car just parked more than 24 hours *will *get moved by the neighbourhood watch without me doing anything - I’ve seen it happen. He can keep sitting in his car while it gets towed, if that suits him.
Mine is a walkable town, and parking is very limited and zealously protected. I’m unusual in that I don’t use the garage for parking, so I have a sign up that says people who work in the office block over the way are free to block it. But if someone parked there all day and stayed in their car, they’re getting towed.
My windows are not able to be seen into, and where i normally hang out I have padded roman blinds that I can push further into the window frames to dampen vibrations. I also have a cement brick under cedar shake shingles house.
I would grab the tripod and camera and move it to the living room window, pull back the draperies and assorted window covers and set it blatantly up aimed at the guy in the car, wave at him and set the timed shutter function for 1 picture per 15 minutes. I would then grab the spare web camera, set it and its little desktop tripod up out on the front porch rail, aiming it at the car, and run the cable in to the spare laptop set inside the door, and set it up to stream video onto the web.
I would then go about my business. Periodically I would flip screens and watch the web feed and check for comments in the comment section on the web page. I would send selected screen caps to the local NIS agent and ask them why we were yet again under surveillance.
I would also probably discuss the idiot with various people I chat with all day online.
My first reaction is to be amazed since finding a parking spot that you can do that in is pretty hard around here. (For example, there is no parking in front of my house from about 6:30am to 9:30pm. If he is stopped on one of the side streets, I probably won’t notice him. I live in the city and there is a lot of both foot and car traffic in my neighborhood. Somebody will notice him and keep an eye on him.
I’d probably not notice. But I live in a city, and it’s not like I have a window that overlooks the street, nor do I spend a lot of time hanging out out front. Other than that, I’d figure that he’s waiting to pick someone up.
I live in a private neighborhood. No gates or anything, it’s just not public property. The guy would really stick out. After some time, me or one of the other neighbors would approach him. In my case, the police could make him leave. Plus, you aren’t allowed to park on the streets (too narrow).
If we weren’t private, it would still be very odd to have someone sit there that long. My first action is always to make sure the person knows I’ve seen them (in case they’re planning something). After some time, I would take down identifying information. The next day, I might approach the person or call the police, not so much out of paranoia, but to make sure they’re not setting up camp in front of my house. After that, I would probably let it go, but be extra vigilant in locking the doors. If its been several days, I might actually call the police again.