Intrusive in-law moves near couple, sneaks onto their property at night as food and belongings mysteriously disappear: ‘I feel like I'm constantly being monitored’

Cata Holmes • Writer

Aug 14, 2026 2:00 PM EDT

Home should be the one place where you don't have to wonder who might be walking through your yard at night.

Living near family sounded harmless until one relative started getting way too comfortable. She showed up constantly, looked through their fridge, and let her kids wander through rooms. Soon, food and belongings began disappearing, with stolen crab even mysteriously returning days later. After spotting the relative entering their property late at night, the couple started fearing she might be sneaking inside too.

This story shows exactly why I wouldn't live near my own family… Kidding. It's not like I have a crazy relative like this, but I'm sure that this couple might be having a bad time when dealing with this issue. I think the biggest problem is that they are family at the end of the day, and we all know how families can be sometimes. Because maybe you may want to tell another family member about this cousin stealing things and getting inside your home, and you could be cancelled and called a liar!

I'm sure that this woman is not in her right mind when doing these things. Nobody goes around your home and steals food (and more importantly, expensive food), and when these people notice it, they go during the middle of the night and put it back. It sounds very weird, and I would be as scared as they are. Because if she's capable of doing this, she could totally go inside the house and do whatever.

These cases are hard to handle, since it's family and there's a lot of emotion always involved. What I would do is sit G down and have a conversation with her and let her know that I know what she's doing and to cut it off. I'm curious to see what the community on Reddit had to say about this.

Add as a preferred
source on Google

*Couple feeling increasingly uneasy at home after belongings begin disappearing and a nearby relative repeatedly crosses their boundaries.*
*Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.*

Mmm... seems this is not going to end well.

So my wife and I inherited a house from my wife's grandma and it happens to be on the same street as quite a few of her relatives, one relative in particular (G) is one of those people who lie over everything. If G says "goodmorning" you gotta look outside to make sure she didn't just lie. G started off at the end of

the street from us at her own place. When her lights got cut off she moved two doors down from us with an elderly relative. That's when things started being weird.

Wow... just wait for a response instead of coming to the house!

Everytime my wife and I are outside G takes it as an invitation to come over with her kids. G will message my wife a question and if my wife doesn't respond G is knocking at the door 2 minutes later. My wife will invite her over to

What?! Stealing is a whole another game.

keep the peace and I've caught G looking through our fridge and pushing to eat our food. Her kids will sneak into the rooms and look through our things. About 2 months ago we noticed our backporch freezer had missing meat, veggies, and crab. My wife

only mentioned to G that the crab was missing, and two days later my roommate says he saw the motion light come on at 4 am, when I checked the freezer the crab was back, in a completely different bag. Another instance is

Who would steal a dog toy to give it to their kids?

when we had a dog toy go missing, G came over with her son at one point and he had the toy, when I asked him where he got it he was "on a night walk with daddy." So theyre walking through our yard at night.

The last month however got way worse, my roommate was sitting on the back porch late one night and he saw G walk onto the porch and he said it looked like she was going to open the door before he

said "what are you doing?" She then went on some tirade about how the elderly relative she's living with is hitting her(mind you this is a 90 pound pentecostal woman) and has dementia. G had us on the back porch while she said this crazy story at 11 o'clock at night and tried coming into our house.

That elderly relative was taken to a hospital where they confirmed that she didnt have dementia and they believed G was abusing her.

*Intrusive relative watching from behind the blinds as tensions grow between family members living just a few houses apart.*
*Model for explanatory purposes only.*

This is getting worse and worse...

G moved right next door to us with another pair of elderly relatives. They now watch us through the windows, and more things have gone missing, I'm saving up for cameras now but it's driving me insane, I feel like I'm

constantly being monitored and I worry for G's children as the elderly male relative they moved in with has been known to abe children. It's made us increasingly paranoid. Things have gone missing from this morning and I'm

scared she's sneaking into the house. I'm ready to move out of this place.

Redditors showed up and recommended that the OP take measurements as soon as possible because this situation seems dangerous and even more insane. It would be great if they could sell the house and move away, but if this is too complex, then changing the locks, adding more lights, and cameras to keep this woman in check.