Come home to find a random pair of (quite nice) leather boots ditched in two locations near the front of the house.

They have been removed but slightly odd as we’re not really on a through route anywhere.

Is this a known scam to see if we’re away or something?

Was your wife out of breath when you got in?

Phew, I think I got away from her husband but my feet are cut to shreds

I saw a pair of boots abandoned at Woburn today when I parked.

Makes you think.

Chalk markings on gate post found as well…

Police think may be someone checking if we were away. Pop back, get boots, steal shit basically. Nice and reassuring.

Have you got dogs? I’ve heard of chalk markings on gates/fences before to mark houses with dogs that are worth nicking…chalk it up, come back later.

The boot thing is weird though. I presume it’s based on the fact that if the boots are gone when the tea leaves come back it means you’re coming and going reasonably frequently?

No dogs only two unexciting cats. I think you’re right about the boots and that was my conclusion fairly quickly.

Did you remove them or did someone remove them?

kayak23

Subscriber
I saw a pair of boots abandoned at Woburn today when I parked.

Makes you think.

@kayak23 by the church car park ?-

On a night ride 10pm last Thursday they were standing upright in the middle of the road, must have just been deposited, in the fog I thought they were 2 deer just sitting there until I got closer.

Old site boots , saying that I’ve seen a few doggers up there….

It is not a massively efficient method of testing if people are away. I mean it relies on an initial outlay on boots, and then there is no way of confirming whether the house holder or someone else picked them up.

Throw them in the bin, or take them to a recycling place and move on with your life.

Burglars are mostly opportunists. If you are going to be targeted by a crack team of burglars, they probably have a better method of seeing if you are in than leaving boots around.

Was there smoke coming out of them?

Maybe they fell off the phone wires so now local gangsters don’t know who’s turf your manor is on.

An acquaintance of mine back in Aberdeen had valuable dogs and was paranoid as hell about these sorts of things. Add in a lower than average intelligence and a Faceache account and you get the story I’m about to regale. About how one day he came home at lunchtime to find a couple of thick black cable ties around the lamppost outside his house. Seeing this as a sign that his dogs were going to be stolen, he fetched a big knife from the kitchen and dealt with them. Next day they were back. Again, he removed them. This went on for about a week, and getting worried, he called the police. They promised to look into it. To their credit, they did, and caught the culprit. A council worker, who had damaged the locking mechanism on the lamppost’s door and was trying to do his best to not electrocute passers by…

@kayak23 by the church car park ?-

Indeed. Old khaki site boots, one of which had big holes in the toe. Wouldn’t have been comfortable for the wearer whatever made that hole I imagine.

Before you criticise a man walk a mile in his shoes.
I have. I no longer need the boots.

Our local newspaper was full of exciting news and police advice about burglars identifying homes around the town with chalk marked symbols on fences and gates.

Next week there was an apology and confession from a local running club who were merely marking out routes.

It is not a massively efficient method of testing if people are away. I mean it relies on an initial outlay on boots, and then there is no way of confirming whether the house holder or someone else picked them up.

Only if someone does pick them up. If they don’t you get the boots back, and you can nick a spare pair for eventualities from the house where your boots were untouched.

If we all kept our boots under lock and key, we could soon sc-upper their plans, but this lace-a faire attitude to boot storage means we are sole-ly to blame.

Chalk markings on gate post found as well…

Good job that’s just a load of facebook nonsense.

I’ve heard of chalk markings on gates/fences before to mark houses with dogs that are worth nicking

I’ve heard chalk markings on gates/fences mean theres a worm hole in time and space somewhere nearby leading to Depression Era America.

Back in the day before social media, we used to promote music nights by attaching advertising to lamp-posts. it got so out of control with various competing offers plastering over each other. the local council couldn’t take them down quickly enough. so they invented an ‘adopt a lampost’ campaign whereby apparently concerned residents had to do the deed and keep the lampost virginal. obviously we had a better idea and put loads of posters up saying our organization had adopted them. needless to say this idea was quietly dropped and the cat n mouse chaos continued.

You could mess with the would be burglars by leaving your own boots outside with theirs, adding another pair every other day. Being burglars they are probably already slightly paranoid and this will really freak them out.

Chalk markings on gate post found as well…

Curiously old fashioned ways of supposedly marking burglary-worthy houses. Carry around many old pairs of boots* and some chalk vs. take a photo or make a note of the house number on the ubiquitous smart phone.

*I’m guessing that your Victorian burglars don’t just scope out houses with one pair of boots? That would be really inefficient. Also, why leave a whole pair of boots at one address when a single boot would double the amount of properties you could mark?

It’s witchcraft….

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kayak23

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@kayak23 by the church car park ?-

Indeed. Old khaki site boots, one of which had big holes in the toe. Wouldn’t have been comfortable for the wearer whatever made that hole I imagine.

More than likely just a transit van with workmen driving past chucking their sleeping colleagues stinking boots out of the window for a laugh

When cycling near Salisbury in the summer I came across a pair of abandoned thigh length high heel boots at the side of the road. I’d estimate from looking probably a size 11. I was rather glad I hadn’t arrived before they were discarded!

Edit – the OP doesn’t live opposite a hotel by any chance do they?

Our local newspaper was full of exciting news and police advice about burglars identifying homes around the town with chalk marked symbols on fences and gates.

Next week there was an apology and confession from a local running club who were merely marking out routes.

Yep our local hash harriers use chalk / flour to mark the trail on the pavement…

Why on earth would burglars mark houses?

Next week there was an apology and confession from a local running club who were merely marking out routes.

Same here, except utility company, apparently a $ symbol at the end of your driveway just means there’s a cable under it and nothing exciting is about to happen. Unless you wash it off and someone cuts through the cable, but once that’s happened you can’t tell facebook so the story spreads that you’ve been kidnapped for money.