A Bristol resident has described how he rushed downstairs in the middle of the night after his doorbell camera notified him there was a man with a crowbar on his doorstep - sparking something of a mystery that Bristol Live has now solved.
The resident of Clifton Village was disturbed to get woken at 4am by the man looking into his doorway, then turn and use the crowbar to lift up a manhole cover in the pavement, shine a torch in it and take a picture on his phone before walking off.
The baffled resident, who declined to be named, posted the video recording from his doorbell camera onto the NextDoor community website, asking neighbours if they had seen anything like it. Speculation among the people of Clifton Village ranged from theories that he had disturbed a burglar about to break in, to capturing one of the ‘Tyre Extinguisher’ eco-warriors in action, to a person going around trying to steal catalytic converters from underneath cars.
Read next: Dog walker stuns Clifton resident as doorbell camera captures her leaving poo
The resident told the thread on NextDoor that he thought the man outside with the crowbar had heard him coming downstairs behind the front door, and knew he was there, and that was when he turned and bent over the pavement manhole cover, so could have been pretending to do something that wasn't breaking into a house or a car.
Some on the thread speculated that since the man was wearing a high-vis jacket, and had gone to the trouble of taking a photo down the manhole cover, it could actually be a legitimate person reading a water meter - even at four in the morning.
And after inquiries from Bristol Live, a Bristol Water spokesperson confirmed, incredibly, that the figure in the doorway was indeed an employee who had gone out in the middle of the night this week, to ensure he had completed his rounds of reading water meters to beat the traffic, and avoid any disruption from the snow.
The Bristol Water spokesperson said: “It isn’t our standard practice for our meter reading team to work overnight, however following the snow earlier this week, some of our team have been starting work earlier than normal to help get up to date with meter readings.
“In areas where our team may struggle to read the meters later in the day- due to parking and congestion, the choice was made to take these readings early in the morning. We apologise for any concern caused to the customer,” he added.
The 4am mystery in Clifton Village comes just weeks after another doorbell camera nearby in that area captured the moment a woman walking her dog checked to see if two passers-by were out of sight before leaving a dog poo on the doorstep of a house, without realising the entire scene had been filmed.
Read next:
- 'Sinister' notes left on windscreens as parking row erupts again
- 'It's not us!' - new twist in street parking row as neighbours post their own signs
- Fed-up residents make own double yellow lines in protest at pavement parking
- Two-up-two-down terraced home being turned into 7 bed HMO is 'appalling'
Get the best stories about the things you love most curated by us and delivered to your inbox every day. Choose what you love here.
