My across the street neighbor just took pictures of the kids in my front yard. I dont know this guy at all. What should I do? When he saw me looking at him, he put the camera in his pocket and turned around. Gives me an icky feeling. -a

Don't know what you will do but I DO know what I would do call the police NOW...That's too weird and I would worry over the safety of my children.

Just a thought, are you sure it was of your kids he was taking the picture of and not your house?

I had an incident a number of years ago. As I was driving up to my house I saw a man in my drivingway taking a picture in my house and I felt like he was taking a picture of my dd's bedroom. Really creepy and when I talked to him I realized he was a neighbor that wasn't friendly at all, (although I had talked to the wife once at school), when I asked why he was taking the photo, he claimed he was taking photos to give me a Christmas present. What a stupid story! He never even waved before. It was a strange encounter (I am not giving all the details), but my husband believes he was really taking photos of all the houses to use in a property tax dispute. If he had only said that I actually would have understood. But at the time I kept thinking how creepy he acted.

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If it were me I would have DH accompany me to the person's house when you know he is home and ask. There could be a lot of reasons that he was taking a picture in your general direction.
The first one that comes to mind is home comps for real estate.

My sweetie is a photographer and buys and sells lenses by the dozens. On each of these lens he runs several test shots at all it's different settings. Most of these tests are done from our front porch and unfortunately our across the street neighbor's house (or some part of) is often the subject. The house across the street recently changed hands and the new owner was interested in why all the pictures which my SO didn't have any problem explaining or showing him what was up.
It ended with the neighbor asking for an email with a photo of his house that he could send to family and friends. Nice guy, glad we met him.

I guess what I am saying is that if you ask it will do two things.
Give you a believable or not, reason for the photography. And it will put him on notice that you are aware of his actions and not afraid to call him on them.
If neccessary, let him know that you are the dreaded neighbor that butts in and isn't afraid to call the cops if you think it's warrented.

It should make him think twice about making you uncomfortable again.

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I know someone who took pictures of 3 homes in our block.
They took them to city code dept. There are no children living in any of the homes.
City codes made the owners clean up the junk in their yards.


Made me happy they did that!

Keep us updated on this. I would definately ask. It does sound so creepy !

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I would take my husband and ask him why then tell him in no uncertain terms no more. Depending on what he said I might call the police also.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

With home values going down many people are disputing their property taxes. There's a good chance he's getting pictures of the properties that surround him.

If you see him doing it again and it looks like he's focusing in on the kids, call the police. I don't think they can do much, but they'll be aware of the situation. Maybe they'll at least go talk to the guy, then he'll know the police are watching him and there will be a record of your complaint.

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If you know his name, call the police and ask if he is a sex offender. There are online lists that you can check but I don't have the links.

If you don't know his name, then it might be time to go introduce yourselves and ask him what he was doing. Then you will have his name and can then check with the police.

At any rate, I don't think I would be letting the kids out to play without supervision, at least in the front yard.

And restrain yourself from gossiping to the neighbors, unless you find that he is going to a problem. It would be terrible to start a rumor and then find out he was doing something innocent.

I agree with the posters above.. there could be many reasons he was taking pictures. Including because he is a sicko. But I would go over and have a talk with him and give him a chance to explain before jumping to conclusions.

The law is going to vary from state to state on this one I bet. In CA where I am I actually had similar problem few yrs back. I had a surveillance camera in my yard it pointed out into the street because we are in rural area and I was home alone at night with the kids. The view would update to our webpage every 15 min where you could access weather reports and see pictures of my family. My neighbors across the street from me who knew about the webpage 1 day called police saying it was taping their teenage daughter walking home from school and putting her on the internet. They were afraid molesters would note the address and follow her home.That camera had been there for at least 2 yrs and they just 1 day had a problem with it. Not wanting problems I took the camera down immediately. I have to admit even though it was a small chance it could have happened so I just took it down, wasn't worth arguing over.The cops said I could have left it up. It is not illegal to take pictures of strange children or tape them in CA BUT you can not record them speaking. That is illegal. I think sometimes people just want to make trouble for their neighbors like in this instance. They did several other annoying things calling city out on me after that as well which I never could figure out why. Being we had did nothing, nothing ever happened and they eventually got bored and left us alone and even say hi once in a while lol. I would bet they are not molesters so much as busybodys trying to see if they can get you in trouble with the city somehow. People do that often here unfortunately with yard cleanup mostly or to many dogs in yard. I WOULD be very careful like other posters said and not let the children play out front unsupervised and keep an eye out just to be on the safe side. Any other instances I would call cops it is your right and they will investigate even if they do nothing. If many reports occur they might do something.

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I agree. It could be something quite simple and have nothing to do with the children. I would give him a chance to explain before I assumed the worst.

Unless you see him do it again, I wouldn't do anything. You have no idea what he was really taking pictures of and he certainly wasn't doing anything remotely illegal.

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Reading is Fundamental.

There isn't a law against taking pictures and I would not call the police on him for that, as others suggested. That would be a complete waste of resources even if all they do is take your call and not respond.

Teach your kids good safety issues and awareness. Too bad you don't know your neighbors, if you did, I doubt you would be having this issue.

dl

I would check to make sure he's not on the sex offender registry or has a criminal history.

I was outside taking a photo tonight, myself. Wonder if my neighbors will call the p.d. ?

What has life come to when we automatically assume so many negative things?

dl

I would have definitely walked over to him to ask what the heck he was taking pictures of.

In this day and age nothing can be assumed to be safe. I would hope that people wouldn't just accept a total stranger taking pictures of unknown children as being acceptable.If the man was truly not meaning any harm then nothing will come from the police talking to him, But if by chance this man was taking pictures to mean harm then it's a call well worth making. I personally don't think its wise to confront a stranger that just took pictures of your children what if this man is off his rocker ? attacks you or shoots you. I mean if he was bold enough to take pictures of children w/o any good reason and to me not asking a total stranger if they mind him taking pictures of their kids, then he wouldn't have any problems with attacking you or harming you or even killing you. I firmly believe that the more you say it wont happen the more likely it will happen as you start to let your guard down thinking its all good and well.

Remember the man who was taking NIGHT GOGGLE photos of the 2 Groene kids while they splashed in a pool in the yard ? He ended up killing the boy and his entire family. Idaho I believe.

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There was a guy on Oprah some time ago talking about how humans are the only species that don't listen to their own warning systems. We want to be nice. We don't want to confront the fact that that person approaching in the parking lot might be going to do harm, so we smile and take no evasive actions. After all, it might hurt his feelings. We open the front door to that man because we live in a safe neighborhood and we don't want to hurt his feelings.

If your gut told you to post on this board then listen to it. You do not have to call the police to report him but you do need to call and see if there are sex offenders in your area and where they live. They keeps lists just for that purpose. Use it.

Be alert when your kids are playing out of your sight. Give them something to carry, like a walkie talkie or cell phone, so they can contact you quickly if they need to. You can train them all day long to not talk to strangers, to not go with strangers, but unless your kids are a lot different than most, there is always a chance they will try to be "nice" to the guy who lost his puppy.

I got a new digital camera for Christmas. I wanted to try it outside so I went and took pictures of my husband shoveling snow after a blizzard. Some neighbor kids, who I don't personally know, were playing on a huge snowpile left by the plow trucks in front of our house. I asked them if I could take their picture. They said ok so I did. I asked for their email address so I could email it to them. Their mom emailed me back with a "thanks for the picture". Now I'm hoping that she doesn't think I'm some kind of weirdo.

I think that I would just go and talk to him. Tell him that you were curious why he was taking photos in your direction. He might give you a reasonable explanation (like some of the ones that are listed above). In this day and age I do not think that your thoughts/concerns are unreasonable at all. I would have done and thought the same as you!! Even if he does not give you a decent explantion at least you have approached him, made yourself feel better and he knows that you are a concerned and a watchful neighbor. Good luck to you!!

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I have to agree with this. Have your DH go with you and just ask him. I have taken pictures of other peoples houses when we were getting ready to paint our house. . .ahh I like that door color. . .oh I like that combination. . .etc. I never took pics of other people's kids though. If he is up to no good. . .at least he will be on notice now. Listen to your gut!!!!

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OP....I see you are online as I am posting this. How about an update???

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I'd like to see an update also.

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I remember seeing this episode too (long time ago). I believe he wrote a book called "The Gift of Fear".

I know that I would have a tendency to think that it is probably nothing as well. Is there anyway he could be nicely approached about this? The problem is though, if he were up to no good, he's going to lie about it.

Keep us up to date.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

I just had some weirdo neighbor do the same thing. My daughter (5), another child (4) and the other child's mom were having a tea party on their driveway. As soon as I saw the guy pull out a camera, I walked over and told my daughter it's time to come in for a little bit.

I didn't say anything to the neighbor as I took this as a "creep warning" - if it happens again, then I will confront the guy (who may have exhibited creepy behavior but might not be). I also took this time to reinforce 'stranger danger' to my daughter and told her if anything like that happens again to run over and tell me. At that point I'd confront the guy and see then and there if he really is a creep and that him taking pictures makes me feel uncomfortable.

Better believe I'm going to keep a sharp eye on this guy when my daughter is out playing with the neighborhood kids (I'm 99% always out there with her, but it's that 1% you have to watch out for).

Bump....still hoping for an update!

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Update:

Sorry it took me so long to post. Lots going on in my family life and all around lately.

I'm big on instincts, and listening to my gut.

My husband went over that same day and spoke with the guy. He offered his camera and said look for yourself. There were pictures of the curb and cars nearby, no kids. I'm not 100% convinced, but now he knows we're on guard. There are so many sickos in the world, the stories in the news each day seem to get worse and worse. We watch the Safeside movie regularly. I tell my kids regularly that there are people around that like to hurt children. You can never be too careful with your kids.

i really can understand you.
if they were my kids i would also be very careful.

Weird, I wonder what he was doing with pictures of the curb and cars. I suppose he could've already uploaded pictures of kids onto his computer and deleted them off his camera, although I hope that isn't the case.

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