Day before yesterday somebody was ringing our doorbell continiously at 2AM in the morning.
The first few rings I thought I was dreaming and then realised that actually our door bell is ringing.
We have moved into this apt for approx 1 month now and know only the next door neighbour.

Now being from the part of the world where this kind of incident at 2AM in the morning means the person ringing the bell is either a drugaddict, drunk or some antisocial element who may have a Gun and also the fact that our building door is never locked and any body can directly climb up to our apartment door --- we were really very very scared. I even stopped my husband to go and peep through the door peep hole.

By this time the the person had rung the door bell for 6 to 7 times. Our door bell being pretty loud woke or 2 yr old son who is suffering from pretty bad cough, he started coughing pretty hard , threw up on his bed and started crying.
The door bell was still ringing and I tacking the chaos inside the house a little bit, I went near the door and shouted that I am sorry but I cant open the door at this hour.
After that the ringing stopped, but the incident left us confused/ scared and our son cranky for the rest of the night.

Yesterday when we returned back from work, the lady who stays just below our apartment came up and said that she was ringing the bell :O because our window (the metal part outside the glass part) was not locked properly and was banging and she was unable to sleep.
We were also sleeping in the same room whose window she was mentioning and I am not sure how much noise it made because in that case we would have known being more closer to the window than she is. (one part was locked properly, the other part opened as it has a problem if you dont push the lock very hard, this one opens)
Anyway we apolisized and definately we should have locked the window properly this is a fault on out part.

But frankly speaking I find this (knocking at 2 AM in the morning) behaviour very strange. Is this behaviour pretty normal here ? Just thought of sharing this to know what you people feel.

Regards
Prads wifey

Really Scary incident.

Give your phone number to all your neighbours and ask them to call you
if they need to contact you urgently on midnights .

By that way you can avoid confusion between strangers and neighbours.

short answer

Yes

long answer

Yes


I'm also going to guess that you have the type of neighbour that will complain if you shower or use the toilet to loudly after 10.00pm
I dont envy you at all.

When gripped by insomnia, I make a point of prowling the neighbourhood, ringing bells, arousing those lucky people that are able to sleep,

Ringing a bell at 2am might be considered normal behaviour if you were a complete loon.

Do what I do, and get a sign on your door saying:
"If you are not invited , you had better have a damn good reason for calling."

It has worked every time but one, when someone rang the doorbell to ask for a german translation.

Electrifying the doorbell is another possibility with a timer that kicks it at 2159.

dave

Oh, are you kidding? They savor any and every opportunity they can find to make you feel like you owe them one.

With the annoying guy downstairs who told me to walk like a "red indian" not an "elephant" and always rang my bell at 1am - I just open the door naked with a confused face.

That worked for a while. Then he came back again (must have liked what he saw)... and I had to threaten with the police.

My choice is always to up the ante insanely.

You ring my bell - I call the police and claim I am being violently attacked in my own home and am scared for my life.

Be insane and unpredictable and that shuts them up.

I also screamed really loud when I opened the door to him at 1:30am once, and pretended that my life was in danger.. then shouted to my girlfriend "My God there's a mad man at the door call the police."

On the other hand...

If there was a fire in the stairwell, the roof blazing, someone needed your help, I'd want to be woken up. Opening the door is another matter, you can always shout "What do you want?"

And, the banging in the wind can be a real pain in the ass. Maybe it wasn't bothering you, but unlocked shutters can make a lot of noise. It comes down, once again, to communication. As someone mentioned, offer your telephone number *in case* there's a next time Don't assume they were being deliberately annoying.

"The answer, my friend, is banging in the wind."

Cos if you bang in the wind, out in nature, there is no door to knock on.

....or you could stamp down the hall of your apartment shouting "Here's Johnney !!!" at the top of your voice, then open the door just wide enough for them to see your wild staring eyes and the glint of the steel.
dave

As a rather disturbing aside, I see that the man who called round the house of an Air Traffic Controller and murdered him for his involvement in the Uberlingen accident was released today after serving 5 years of his nine-year sentence.

dave

I am guilty of the continuous ringing thing... I came home (just after moving to Switz some years ago) after a night out at a party with some friends and I was slightly tiddly, well, falling down drunk would be the better description. I discovered I'd forgotten my keys then, knowing my husband is a deep sleeper, set about dinging the bell for all I was worth. After about 15 seconds of dinging, my eyes connected with the bell and I slowly focussed on the button I was pressing and found it was that of the upstairs flat. Bugger!

Anyway, the hubby by this time had been awoken by the dinging coming from the upstairs flat , realised it was me (having spotted my keys on the dining room table earlier in the evening) and let me in.

Hung-over and looking very sorry for myself I went upstairs the next morning to apologise profusely to the poor sods in the flat above. Fortunately they saw the funny side of it (although, I get the impression they weren't chuckling at 2.30 that morning).

Someone rang my doorbell the night my bike was stolen from the cellar.

dave

Wasn't me, guv, I was in such a state I wouldn't have know which end of the bike was up...

It was prolly someone wanting to ask you if it was ok that they borrowed it

They would have had nowhere on the bike to carry their angle grinder.
dave

Well, given the fact that you just moved into your apartment it seems highly likely that it was someone who knew whoever used to lived there.

I have three words for you:

Drunken booty call.

That has my nomination for post-of-the-week. Surely they don't do that here without an appointment ?

"Listen squeeze, I am going to be drunk Friday night, is it OK if I stagger round and ring your bell about 0217+-5min ?"

Not that I have ever done this , but don't rely on it even if you know the person would welcome you. Someone I know slept at a bus stop when even the most determined doorbanging didn't work...

dave

you rang?

Chemgoddess has had something akin to being dipped in acid happen to her, so would rather the jokes pertaining to such be kept to a minimum.

why the +-5min margin, can't you be on time?