A guy shining flashlights on porches at 5am (Woodbridge)

I live on Avery toward the South end of Woodbridge. Around 5am this morning, I thought cops' lights were flashing and peeked out my window to check it out and saw a guy walking off my front porch with a flashlight and saw a dark Ford Fusion [[black, maybe dark maroon or blue) in the street with its lights still on. So I got my weapon ready and flicked my front porch lights to let them know someone was here. The flashlight guy sort of casually stopped on a couple of other porches, shined flashlights, and hopped in the car, which then went to the intersection at the end of the block and chilled for a second with both guys in the car. With the immediacy of the situation somewhat relaxed with neither guy on foot on our street anymore, I went to get my phone and call the WSU cops. Once I got them on the phone, the guys were gone.

So anyway, Googling "flashlights in windows" says it might have been substitute newspapermen looking for addresses. These guys sure weren't discreet about it, especially since they didn't cut out when I flicked our [[pretty bright) porch lights a number of times. But at the same time, it could have been about the worst neighborhood casing job ever [[if so, really? Leaving the car lights on, that illuminate your license plate?).

Anyone deal with something similar? I'm gonna give my neighbors a heads up in any case, but just looking for some feedback here.

Thanks.

Eber, first off thanks for being a vigilante neighbor. Do tell all your other neighbors about your experience, this could be some criminals looking to do a home invasion. While that is a strong possibility, it is also possible it was just some paperboys [[Free Press or Wall Street Journal).

Quick funny and embarrassing story that happened to me once upon a time when I used to deliver the Free Press. I used to drive to a block and then take out all the papers for that block and just walk them up to each house. Don't know why, can't remember, but I never did just drive up to every house. Anyhow, I used to always take the keys out of the ignition [[again, can't remember why - probably because I was prone to locking myself out the car) each time I stopped on a block. Some kind of odd way I dropped my keys during my last stop. I kept going back to each of the last houses I put a paper at looking around to see if I could find them. No such luck!

Anyhow, one of the neighbors called the police because he thought I was casing houses. The police came [[image that, but this was decades ago) and the neighbor told the officer that I was casing every house but I wouldn't come up to his because I saw him standing there. I didn't come up to his house because he didn't get the Free Press so it was nearly impossible that I dropped my keys in front of his house.

Anywho, I didn't get in any trouble, just felt embarrassed. I had to walk home and get another set of keys. Humiliating! That is probably one of the reasons to this day I carry two sets of car keys on me at all times. LOL.

So again, it could be a bad casing job like you said or it could just as easily be paperboys looking for an address. Continue to be vigilante regardless, and thanks for the update!

^^^ Welcome to DetYes EBW. That IS weird - do you have a patrol that was checking the area? Good you 'checked' the folks by letting them know you were aware of their unusually activities and good you were prepared when you inquired. Criminal count on folks not acknowledging their presence or not be ready to respond should that be required. I gather WSU response was prompt? It was when I lived in Woodbridge years ago....

I am glad there is a potentially innocent explanation. The address thing is often a problem in my neighborhood. It's usually pizza guys doing the flashlight or spotlight thing. Good they have those signs on their cars, or we would be all nervous, too.

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Eber, first off thanks for being a vigilante neighbor ... Quick funny and embarrassing story that happened to me once upon a time when I used to deliver the Free Press.

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I'd prefer to be "vigilant" rather than a "vigilante". :) If "vigilante" was intended, though -- while my wife and I are prepared to defend our house, we hope that we never have to.

Funny story. Hope the walk home wasn't too bad, but even if it was, sounds like you at least learned a couple of good lessons.

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Zachas' post

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Didn't see a WSU or DPD patrol at any point. As to WSU swinging by after my call, I hopped back in the house because my wife was asking why the dog was growling and I was on the phone and at the ready at 5am. That said, I did tell them that the car was no longer on Avery and that I didn't see it leave, so they may have been driving up and down.

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I am glad there is a potentially innocent explanation...Good they have those signs on their cars, or we would be all nervous, too.

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Yeah, that would have put me quite a bit at ease, but the side of the car was blocked by the cars parked on the street. As it stands, I'll holler at the neighbors after work tonight and try to get the word out. We only recently moved in, though, so that's just a handful of folks, but no doubt they know more folks and so on.

Does Woodbridge have a community message board or e-mail list or community meetings? This would be good to spread to the neighbors on a macro scale.

As nice as Woodbridge is they never seemed organized like that. I lived in Corktown [[which did a good job getting organized) and now East English Village [[which is essentially a self-governing city-state) and the ability to reach a network of neighbors in this city is invaluable.

I'm guessing these were either Repo Men or bail bonds men

They definitely weren't delivering the newspaper--the Freep and Det News only have home delivery on Thurs-Fri & Sunday.

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Does Woodbridge have a community message board or e-mail list or community meetings? This would be good to spread to the neighbors on a macro scale.

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Not sure. The "Safe in Woodbridge" and "Live in Woodbridge" websites seem pretty outdated. That was one of the first things I looked for this morning.

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I'm guessing these were either Repo Men or bail bonds men

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We thought that for a minute this morning, but then usually a repo man just goes to the address they're looking for and not every one on a block. So if I live on the 2000 block of a street and they're looking for the 2200 block, they wouldn't bother with another house on my block once they hit their first 20xx, instead moving a couple of blocks up to the 2200 block. They kept on shining past my house, and I bet they came from down the block before I heard them on my porch and my dog growling.

But with the other guy sitting the car in the middle of the street with the lights on and the flashlight guy sort of casually doing his light show, if this was smoe sort of a case job, they'd have to be awful dumb or have some huge cojones to do it like that.

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They definitely weren't delivering the newspaper--the Freep and Det News only have home delivery on Thurs-Fri &

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Good to know. Easy to knock out the "substitute deliveryperson" theory, then.

Thanks all for the responses.

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Originally Posted by wardwood

I'm guessing these were either Repo Men or bail bonds men

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I agree, or process servers, or even plainclothes or out of town cops trying to serve a warrant. My guess is that it is someone who isn't from around here though.

When I worked as a process server in the city we were sometimes sent out very early to try to serve people who had been giving us the slip, since nearly everyone is home at 5 AM. Oftentimes though, the court papers would have indefinite or hard to read addresses, and, of course, you would be working in the dark in places where the addresses were difficult or impossible to read from the street.

Still, I never would have been as much of an amateur, or a fool, as to walk up on someone's porch with a flashlight. But then I'm from Detroit.

It was probably just my dad looking for open windows to crawl into. He is a pervert.