A British mother was left gobsmacked after discovering a brazen young couple casually picnicking in her garden. Taking to the popular parenting forum Mumsnet, under the section ‘Am I Being Unreasonable’, she aired her bewilderment and irritation at the audacious pair who decided to “eat their dinner” right outside her home. Her post, titled “there are two strangers sat in my garden eating their dinner”, detailed the bizarre encounter: “I’ve told them it’s private property and not part of the footpath that passes next to it. Apparently, they will be on their way soon.”
She continued: “I’ve now chickened out of saying anything else but I’m passive-aggressively watering the hanging baskets about 5m away from them and they are very deliberately not making eye contact with me.” The mum further explained: “They aren’t eating anymore and are now sat reading maps/map books I think,” reports the Daily Record.
The strangers told the homeowner they would be on their way soon (Image: Getty)
“We have a popular footpath pass right next to the house and I think people assume our garden is some kind of public park due to the footpath. This is not the first time it’s happened (I regularly joke about putting out some picnic benches and charging) but it’s the first time they haven’t moved when asked.”
The story, which was picked up by the Liverpool Echo, quickly went viral, amassing over 300 comments with users urging her to take action. One person exclaimed: “What?! Tell them to move it now!”, while another said: “You have to be joking.” A third commenter suggested a more direct approach: “Get your hose out and start watering them.”
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Someone else remarked: “Oh God I would hate this. Make a brew and go and sit with them, join in their convo.” Finally, another user quipped: “We live in a National Park and you have my sympathy, OP. Would you quickly like to borrow a bull or pack of very large lunch-stealing, slobbery dogs?”
In response, the original poster noted: “No need, I have three bulls and more than enough slobbery filthy dogs already”. She further relayed that the intruders had left: “They have gone now. Just got up and carried on with their walk. I don’t know, I think it’s obvious it’s private property unless you believe that all grass adjacent to a footpath is fair game?
“To get here they must have walked across at least a couple of miles of open fell. They have then come off the main walking route, through the farm gate and cattle grid with a ‘private, no vehicle access’ sign on it (but also a public footpath arrow pointing past the house).
“Right outside the house at the front, there is steep grassy banking with a low wall at the bottom of it with some flowers growing in it, and a veg patch and gates into fields at the top where it flattens out. They were sat on the steep bank bit.”
She concluded by stating: “It’s weird, whenever people do it they always sit in virtually the exact same spot, in direct line of sight of the kitchen window. My theory is that it’s the first bit of proper shade on the footpath for a few miles. But it’s not even that sunny today.
“Or perhaps people just think because it’s a farm they can sit where they like even if it is in front of my gooseberry patch.”
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