Weird neighbour keeps moving our pram.

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For the past few months, someone in our building of 12 flats has been moving our pram around which I take downstairs every morning and leave next to the front door of the building, on the inside of the security door. We've lived here for 5 years and never had a problem with leaving it there in the morning when we had our first son. This is so my wife doesn't have to carry it downstairs (we live on the upper ground floor).

First someone took it through the security door and left it by the flat post boxes, which was quite a shock since we thought it had been stolen. When my wife found it there we thought it was a cleaner or someone needing to move something large through the hallway, but then it happened a few more times.

Lately the person just moves it away from the corner where I leave it, and actually into the way of anyone who wants to go downstairs to the lower floor where the car park is. At first we thought it was some teenagers next door, so I waited downstairs for them a few times out of view to catch them, but they didn't move it. Then this morning I saw a middle-aged guy from another flat go out and I heard him move the pram, but by the time I got downstairs he had gone.

What do you reckon I should do about it? Like I said, it's in the corner and not in anybody's way, so I don't know why he just moves it away from the wall all the time and more into the hallway. I am planning on waiting for him tomorrow and when he moves it I will quickly try film him on my phone so he can't deny it and I will ask him WTF he is doing moving our pram all the time.

It's not criminal right, so nothing much I can do besides speak to him? It's bizarre behavior, so I thought I would check if there is anything I should say to make sure he stops. I'm not big, so I don't think I can intimidate him. Is filming and confronting him a smart move?

I'm vetoing nuke him from orbit/stand and bang/boxing stance/poo through his letterbox.

UPDATE: To save people reading the whole thread, I confronted the guy this morning, and after initially denying it, he admitted moving the pram and told me to stop leaving it there or he would write to building management. From now on my wife will have to take the pram down.

 

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why would you need to film him?????????

Just ask him politely if its an issue, I'm assuming that if you are both adults you shouldn't have to 'confront' him, and he should give you a reasonable explanation. If he thinks its getting in the way or whatever you should both be able to come to a agreement about where to leave it.

e: I should clarify, if I was being 'filmed and confronted' for moving a pram a few feet, I certainly wouldn't be the weirdest person there

The reason I am filming him is because otherwise there is nothing stopping him from saying "Mate I didn't touch your pram." when I ask him what he's doing. I agree we are both adults, but there is clearly something weird going on in his head if he thinks it's OK to unlock someone else's pram and move it into an insecure location on the other side of the door. We even found dried leaves in it once.

tbh people probably get fed-up that you think you can have your possessions spill out into the public areas of the block.

Next will be bikes, and crap that people can't keep in their flats. Moving it is weird, sure, but people get pee'd off by things like taking liberties with public spaces...

Like I said, we've lived here for 5 years, long before this guy moved in, and no-one ever had a problem with it before. It's just in the morning so my wife can take our 3 year old to school. She takes it back upstairs at lunchtime when she comes back from picking him up. We use the pram for our 4 month old baby.

 

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I take the pram down on the way to work, so I leave it there for her since she has to carry our baby down 2 flights of stairs so she can't carry the pram.

Thanks, I won't film this guy, I will just speak to him when he moves it.

*** No Personal Attacks *** - Will Gill

 

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Anyone who can't carry a few kg needs removing from the gene pool.

There is something seriously wrong with you. Going to ignore you now.

The pram isn't some foldable Mclaren, it's a heavy one with a proper wheels so she can walk with the little one to school and the shops. There is no way I would allow my wife to walk down stairs holding the baby and a pram, even a folded Mclaren, it's not worth the risk. Like I said the pram is completely out the way, this guy just pulls it in the way, perhaps to annoy other residents.

I already said in the OP that I was going to confront him, so no need for MTFU comments, I just wanted to hear some other people's thoughts, especially on the "should I bother filming" thing. Just wanted to cover my bases, I have no idea what he's like.

 

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If it's not foldable then I think what you've described is perfectly fair.

Do you have a noticeboard in your block of flats? If so I'd put a note up on there explaining the situation to all residents. That way everyone will know you're being considerate and trying to keep the pram out the way, and the guy who's moving it might stop.

No, it's a small new build development of only 12 flats, so it's basically just a small area at the entrance where the postboxes are, and there's no lift. I know what you mean though, my bro lives in a high rise block of flats and they have a notice board and a facebook page for the building

If the guy has a problem with walking past a pram in the corner in the morning, he can walk directly up to my front door at the top of the stairs, it's directly opposite his fire door. I don't know his exact flat number since I saw him walk out of the fire door which leads to 3 front doors. This is why I have to wait in the morning to catch him doing it so he can't feign ignorance and we can just sort it out there.

 

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OK I spoke to this guy this morning. He is an utter coward and a liar. (lots of "he said", "I said" below before I forget).

I waited at the bottom of the stairs and heard him move it, so I walked up and asked him why he keeps moving it and he said he didn't move it, he just brushed past it. So I said how did he brush past it and move it when there is such a big gap. He repeated he just brushed it, then he said oh he moved it 5 inches. Then I said he has moved it into the way of people walking downstairs, and why does he keep doing it every day. Finally he started saying, "This is a communal area, it shouldn't be here", so he finally admitted he has been intentionally moving it.

I explained that I only bring it there in the morning to help my wife who has to carry our baby and he said "Not my problem". I asked how else is she supposed to get the pram down, and it's only there in the morning and completely out of the way and he said not his problem, I must keep it in my flat. Then I asked him if he moved it out past the security doors and he denied it, but then started saying the pram was making the hallway dirty and bringing in leaves, so I said what leaves, and he said "oh it's not too bad today" and we both looked and saw the tyres were clean. I said loads of people trek in dirt on their shoes since there is no carpet.

Whether the pram is sat there in the morning or not, we need to get it in and out the flat, so it's going to go through the hallway. Clearly this **** moved the pram out and put leaves in it as some kind of message.

I don't know why he didn't leave a note there or just wait there to talk to me personally instead of moving it around for the past few months. And putting leaves into a baby's carrycot??

There's nothing much I can do about it now, he says he is going to write to management and have it removed. I think he just got a bee in his bonnet about it being there and started exaggerating things in his head. Now my wife is going to have to leave the baby and our 3 year old alone and carry the pram down herself (even though she leaves about 20 mins after me). She already started holding the baby and pulling the pram upstairs with 1 hand when she gets back since we didn't want to leave it downstairs in case someone messed with it. I used to carry it back upstairs myself when I got home from work.

 

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Yup, they'll just state health and safety, in fact it's probably in your contract that you can't leave things around.

He was being passive aggressive as I said, but putting leaves in it is completely out of order, that's vandalism.

However...are you not being just a little bit over the top yourself?

If the baby is so young put it somewhere where it can't roll and leave it there to gurgle for a few minutes.

Your three year old should be able to keep them amused for two minutes without destroying something or themselves.

Just leave them in a safe environment, in different rooms if necessary, let your wife whizz the pram down, and shoot back up for the kids.

The guy may be being a complete twonk but technically he is right in saying it shouldn't be left there so if he does write a letter to management you won't have a leg to stand on.

Yeah like I said, there is nothing I can do about it now. I was just trying to make my wife's life a bit easier by taking it downstairs for her 20 mins before she leaves, but it seems like this is a massive inconvenience to this guy who has to walk past it for 2 seconds every morning (not even every morning, when the mother-in-law comes round, she stays with the baby and my wife walks my older son to school without the pram).

I still thing it's bang out of order for someone to keep moving it around and putting leaves in it instead of having a conversation with the owner.

And the people calling me weird for wanting to catch him on camera - just like I said he might do, he initially denied doing anything, so the fact that I didn't film him meant he could have just walked off, but luckily after I pressed him a few times he admitted moving it.

 

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Wow, never seen so much passive-aggressive BS in one thread before!

OP - get a grip on reality. Instead of lying in wait for people (were you waving a smartphone camera around at the same time?), why didn't you just knock on the chap's door and ask him what the problem was, politely, and offering or discussing a compromise solution? This is something normal adults would do.

Whether you realise it or not, you're probably not allowed to leave your pram where you've been leaving it, perhaps for access or fire safety reasons. Obviously your neighbour is not dealing with this situation in a sensible way either, but I fail to see why that means you've resorted to asking the internet.

Jeez.

Why are you trying to turn it around on me? I already said I didn't know his exact flat number, I just saw him yesterday come out of the fire door leading to 3 flats. My plan was to capture him on camera moving the pram so he couldn't deny it, and talk to him about what the issue was. I just posted on GD to see if anyone had a better idea, and I took the advice on board about not filming anything. I tried to have an adult conversation with him and he lied to my face repeatedly instead of just telling me he didn't like it being in the communal area.

 

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Oh yeah, my wife made a good point - if he didn't like it there, and he really didn't want to speak to me, he could have written directly to management in the first place.

 

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Pro tip: Move.

It's been the plan for a long time, we are saving for a deposit for a house, these new builds are far too small.

Edit: Also, the neighbors were broken into a few months ago, so I had to put a London Bar on the door and new stronger locks, since they just forced the security door and flat door in. The burglars even walked past our door to get to the neighbours whilst my wife and son were at home.

 

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The op says he takes pram down for his wife its there for 20mins before being used - then says he used to bring it up after work how long would the pram be there in the past if allday I can see it being a pain to others
id get a smaller lighter pram * we had to do this as we lived in flat's * or like has been said put children in a safe places for the 60 seconds it takes to move pram

Yup, like I said, for our first son no-one had a problem, and everyone is at work all day. Since this business started my wife started taking it upstairs when she got home, so it was only there for the 20 mins before she left. And yeah, she will now have to carry it down herself so as not to offend this **** as he walks past in the morning.

 

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OP shot himself in the foot for raising it really. if nothing had been said then the guy might not be writing to the management company now.

He should have done that in the first place if he didn't like it. I would rather no-one messed about with the pram, so I won't be leaving it there anymore even if the management say nothing.

 

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To be frank if i was the in the guys position you'd find the pram up-side-down a few minutes later. Selfish people like you need to be out in there place. Seriously, give an inch to some people and they'll take the ******* mile.

You have a flat. use it, too small? Move

Try reading the thread next time tough guy.

 

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I have. you're still being unreasonable

I'm being unreasonable after I've agreed to stop leaving it there in the morning? And your first reaction on seeing someone's pram in the hall is to tip it over? And why are you talking about my flat being small when I've said several times I only take it down to help out my wife.

 

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*stuff*

I know what you mean about people taking the pee, but I also believe in live and let live if it's not harming anyone. For example, we have a tenant parking area at the back, and someone often parks on the walkway next to the parking (I presume a friend/family of someone in the building). Technically they shouldn't park there, but they aren't inconveniencing anyone, so I never took issue with it. Suddenly last year a sign popped up there saying "Residents parking only", so someone must have complained.

Similarly, we have a large bike shed at the back which has like 10 racks and only 2 bikes in it. Someone from Royal Mail used to park their bike there sometimes, but there is so much space, who cares. Again, last year a sign appeared saying "Attention Royal Mail: Do not park your bikes here". So someone must have said something, even though there are literally only 2 bikes in there.

So there are rules yes, but it would be nice if people could exercise some common sense about them. And no-one else has ever mentioned anything about it, and everyone has been very pleasant in the 5 years we've been living there, and it's only 12 flats. We are friendly with the neighbours next door (they are the ones I mentioned earlier who got burgled). They even bought our baby a present. My wife is still friends with a woman upstairs who moved out a few months ago.

If there was really a problem, they would have said something. Last year we had some nightmare neighbors living above us who would scream at eachother every day and the guy would chase the woman around the flat. One day they were suddenly gone, and then we found out the other residents had gotten together and had them evicted for anti-social behaviour whilst we were on holiday. Apparently both the man and woman had been swearing at people, the woman pushed an old man over and they were making loads of noise.

 

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*stuff*

You're right, I didn't know anything about the law around it until I made the thread. If the guy had left a letter in my post about it being illegal/against the lease I would have stopped putting the pram down there. My main issue was his despicable behavior. When the people upstairs were being noisy in the early hours every Sunday, I just slipped a letter under their door asking to please be aware we can hear them below.

 

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Well it's fair enough, it's communal area, you have literally no right to leave your pram there. I know I wouldn't want to come in from work and walk past some pram covered in feces, urine, snot and usually an inexplicable amount of raisins.

No way, kids are incredibly unhygienic, I don't like walking past one in the street.

If I left my collection of used toilet seats strewn about the hallway, would you be happy about it?

It's the ones with toddlers in you have to be careful of! Ours is currently pristine since the baby is only 4 months old, he just sleeps in there.

Anyway, it's resolved now, so thanks for the constructive comments to those who gave them. I already updated the OP with the outcome, so could a mod please lock the thread? I don't think there's anything more to discuss, and I'd rather avoid any more comments like android guy's.

 

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It's the ones with toddlers in you have to be careful of! Ours is currently pristine since the baby is only 4 months old, he just sleeps in there.

Anyway, it's resolved now, so thanks for the constructive comments to those who gave them. I already updated the OP with the outcome, so could a mod please close the thread? I don't think there's anything more to discuss, and I'd rather avoid any more comments like android guy's.

 

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Sad to see so many angry and selfish people in here

OP is in the wrong for being inconsiderate and leaving his pram in a communal area.
Old guy is in the wrong for not leaving a polite note on the pram the first/second time it annoyed him.
Robgmun is in the wrong for stealing and vandalising other people's property.

Essentially what we've established is that everyone is a **** and if they stopped being such ****s and actually communicated with each other, then everyone would be a bit happier.

Hang about, I wasted time on several mornings trying to find out whoever was doing it since they wouldn't leave a note. Once I was sure I spoke to him, and decided my only option was to stop leaving it there. How does that make me a ***?

 

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That BBC article is bizarre. Someone would actually do that?

WTF is that real or are you taking the pee?