‘What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve seen your neighbour do while they thought no one was watching? – 22 very odd people who live next door

As a wise Australian soap opera once said: everybody needs good neighbours. But, unfortunately, they seem to be hard to come by and many of us end up with neighbours who are annoying, stressful, or just plain weird.

They’ve been discussing the oddities of the people next door on the AsReddit page after TenderRompz posted this:

What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve seen your neighbour do while they thought no one was watching?

And lots of people chipped in with stories that will make the curtain-twitchers and obsessive bin monitors on your street seem boring by comparison…

1.

‘Neighbor lady every night at 7pm, went on her front porch and yelled ‘Yabba Dabba Do!’ at the top of her lungs. Turns out she was calling in her three cats Yabba, Dabba and Do. Absolutely made me smile every time I saw it but people who didn’t know thought she was bonkers.’
–DragonflyMomma6671

2.

‘Growing up my neighbour did something that always made me laugh. He had an old riding lawnmower that always backfired when he turned it off. He got used to the timing of the backfire and would do a double finger gun shooting motion at the exact time of the backfire.

He passed away many years ago but he was always a very good neighbour to us and my father always spoke well of him. When my father passed away last year, the neighbour’s daughter came to pay her respects and I told her that story and she had no idea, it was really nice to give someone a new story of their father.’
–bama83

3.

‘My neighbour used to practice salsa dancing with his vacuum cleaner every Thursday morning around 6am. I could see him through the kitchen window doing full spins and dips with that poor Hoover – guy had some serious moves though. The dedication was actually pretty impressive, he never missed the Thursday sessions.’
–Little_Ad6736

4.

‘Neighbour cutting his grass in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. Like, the biggest storm that season. Just out there. Push mowin’ his lawn.’
–Ankylowright

5.

‘He was clearing his roof from snow. He even wore a harness and was secured by a climbing rope… that rope was held by his wife who was standing on top of the roof and weighs like half his weight. I don’t know if that was intentional but to me this looked like a ‘if you die I want to die as well’ situation.

When I talked to him about it a few days later he basically said his wife insisted on him being secured so he agreed to ‘this nonsense’ to ‘make her calm’. Lovely couple, still married, still alive, lol.’
–Wundawuzi

6.

‘I live in a condo complex, and for one summer, every day around 430-435ish, a woman driving a small Honda Civic would honk her horn furiously for about ten seconds or so, stop her vehicle, and then she would roll down her window and let out a primal scream before driving off at a normal pace. I always felt as though it was directed at one of my neighbours, but never knew which one.’
–EzoffohGUS

7.

‘My friend told me this story: they had a nice neighbour fella growing up who would regularly get high on drugs and transform into an orchestra conductor on his back patio late at night. He’d get really into it, from the quiet lows to the dramatic highs amongst each pretend instrument section. Then, completely drenched in sweat and once the song completed, he’d take a bow and retreat indoors. She said it was the funniest thing to watch.’
–Shhhh-Im-Asleep

8.

‘I live in an apartment complex and one of my neighbours whistles nursery rhymes while walking around late at night. Normally The Wheels on the Bus. I can’t be sure but I think he does it just slightly too slow so you can’t tell why it’s creepy but it really is, especially at 2 am.

I do know him, and he’s nice, I think he just babysits his grandkids a lot. I do keep an eye on the local news in case the only lead is that the suspect whistled nursery rhymes when leaving the scene. I would be straight on that shit.’
–RedditJustTheOnce

9.

‘I went out for a cigarette at 3 in the morning to find my 82-year-old neighbour wandering around her yard with a flashlight. She had pink rubber gloves, kitchen tongs, and a full gallon size freezer bag, of what I thought was dirt. I asked if she was okay and why she was out so late. She joins me for a cigarette and proceeds to tell me all about her slug hunting adventure. That bag was full of slugs, lol.’
–Grande68

10.

‘Saw a neighbour a couple houses down walking in their backyard while talking on their phone and then just flip out and start flailing their arms and run then spin and run again. Saw them a few days later and they said they had walked through a big spider web and that was the reason for the episode.’
–potatochainsaw

11.

‘Not a neighbour, but my mom and I watched my 18-year-old cousin outside of our grandmother’s house playing in the flower bed with a toy farm tractor and wagon while making engine noises. He finally looked up and saw us, quietly got up and left, and it was never mentioned again. And no he’s not ‘slow’, just apparently caught up in a moment of childhood joy.’
–False_Ad_555

12.

‘Older neighbour across the street when I was in university would walk to the edge of the road, lean her head over her next door neighbour’s driveway, pull a hair brush out of her fanny pack and brush her hair onto the driveway.’
–racer_24_4evr