Neighbour left used needles on my doorstep

[L4CON]

I opened my front door yesterday to find some used needles and a note from my next door neighbour accusing me of doing drugs and essentially saying "do it inside your house, I'll call the police if I see this again".

Now, the needles are almost certainly from their house as earlier in the month they moved their overlowing wheelie bin into the shared entryway between our two houses to the back gardens, and I saw needles next to it (in hindsight I should have challenged them at the time, but they'd been arsey with me about asking them to turn down music in the previous days and I thought I'd avoid any conflict and also embarassing them and let them just clear it up when they went to move their bin on the upcoming collection day as the passage is almost never used).

Looking back over my video doorbell footage, I'm fairly sure it wasn't a random passerby who left them there, it's only me and my girlfriend or the neighbours and their visitors who ever walk down the front gardens that I can see. Also, I noticed some empty, unlabelled glass vials on top of the shed in their garden when I went to look around to make sure there was no needles elsewhere. (Not sure what would be in an unlabelled vial and require a needle besides somethng like steroids maybe? Assuming the two are connected anwyay).

I waited until they returned from work last night to discuss it with them, the lady who left the note (and her brother she brought along) basically just kept saying "do what you want in your house but if it happens again we will call the police" and they seemed to think they were giving me a warning and I was denying drug use to save face. Although when I suggested we contact the police immediately they didn't seem very keen. They claimed one of the other occupants walks past the place were the needles were found every day which is nonsense. They also said something about having a camera in their garden and when I said "let's review the footage" they weren't interested.

For context, the house next door is rented and as far as I know there are three adult sisters living there with two children permanently, but sometimes there are others there (not sure if it's family/friends/boyfriends). Over Christmas and New Year they had at least two adult males staying with them for several days and other visitors for parties.

Obviously I should have addressed it in the first instance earlier, but should I have contacted the police about them leaving the needles by my door? And any suggestions for any steps that would be worth taking now?

[E-bmw]

If it were me I would NOT BE TOUCHING anything and immediately report to the Police.

If they do any investigation about it there will surely be finger prints on stuff like that.

[The Grouch]

E-bmw said:

If it were me I would NOT BE TOUCHING anything and immediately report to the Police.

If they do any investigation about it there will surely be finger prints on stuff like that.

This. Without delay

[Antony Moxey]

I can't see any other option than calling the police. See if they still make the same accusations when plod are there. Don't know how you'd find out, but if they're renting then when the police have gone get hold of the landlord too and present them with the police's evidence.

[CoreyDog]

Just to reiterate then above, call the Police and Local Council as a priority.

Anymore needles appear or if you spot any, cover them with bowl or something similar (Prevent potential injuries) and leave them in place. Not worth risking getting stuck, could have any number of dangerous blood disease’s and let them get safely removed.

[Chris Peacock]

Speak to the police

Speak to the landlord

Do not speak to the scummy neighbours.

[Greendubber]

Log it with the police.

Try and locate their landlord and tell them.

Let them call the police on you not taking drugs and see where that ends up (nowhere)

Try and limit interaction with your wker neighbours.

Whilst all that's happening, move house (standard PH answer)

God luck, st neighbours are a nightmare.

[ChevronB19]

CoreyDog said:

Just to reiterate then above, call the Police and Local Council as a priority.

Anymore needles appear or if you spot any, cover them with bowl or something similar (Prevent potential injuries) and leave them in place. Not worth risking getting stuck, could have any number of dangerous blood disease’s and let them get safely removed.

This. I was in a pub garden in Cambridge that backed on to a graveyard, where people were known to inject.

My mates 3 year old daughter was playing in the Wendy house, and came out carrying a used syringe.

Cue utter panic from everyone, many many tests, but fortunately she was ok.

[L4CON]

Thanks for all the responses.

I had already brushed the needles into a bag and have put them out of the way (avoided actually touching them) - as they were on the doorstep and a delivery driver rang the bell, I didn't really think to cover them and not move them in my haste.

I've called 101, they've logged the incident and said they will arrange for a neighbourhood team to come out on Saturday and take the needles away so I'll speak to them when they come round to see if there is anything further to be done. Hopefully they will arrive in a marked car and the neighbours will take note.

I'll see if I can actually speak to a person at the council, I tried just going through their website forms and live chat but just up being directed to get a quote from a waste management company as it's private property.

Moving house is definitely back on my mind again! I almost moved a couple of years ago but every property I made an offer on was sold to a "cash buyer" so I gave up in the end.

Edited by L4CON on Thursday 30th January 13:40