Under usual circumstances, a visitor will pre-warn you if they're planning on rocking up to your doorstep. A woman was gobsmacked, therefore, when she had received an unexpected visitor whilst she was out - and not just any visitor, a stranger.
Upon discovery, the mum was shocked that the stranger had let themselves into her garden - and had gone as far as to steal fruit from an overhanging tree. In a shocking turn of events, however, the woman is now convinced that the peculiar antics stemmed from the next door neighbours - who own the rights to the tree.
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The woman explained: "My neighbours have an apple tree, which partially hangs over my property.
"They have said I can pick as many as I want (there are loads), and I have had a few so far, but I was waiting till they were ripe before I picked them.
"The other day when I got home, I noticed that all the fruit on my side had gone. Their side is still fully loaded.
"My son said he saw a woman picking them, not one of the neighbours that he recognised. She even said hello.
"I have a feeling it was probably a mother of one of the next door neighbours."
In the post on Mumsnet, which has now rocketed in responses, the woman was torn over the fundamental issues of the ordeal.
"I know that the fruit is legally theirs, but I'm pretty sure they can't come onto my property without permission to pick them. Am I right?
"We have a really good neighbourly relationship - feeding cats, watering plants when away etc, so I'm not going to even mention it," she clarified.
"But I'm a bit torn between being, yeah, whatever, it's only some apples, and close friends deliberately stripping the fruit on my side."
Rushing to the comment section, Mumsnet users shared their thoughts on how they believe the woman should proceed with the strange ordeal.
One person suggested: "Chop back their tree so it doesn't hang over your side at all. I think they were very rude to do that.
"Even if their parent didn't know it's still rude to just let yourself into someone else's garden, so I'd want to let them know this had happened and I didn't want it happening again," a second agreed.
However, a different user wrote: "One of their parents may not have known about the arrangement or thought you weren't going to pick them because you hadn't done so far. No drama."
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
