Need help from forum members with unrelated issue

[Dukeybootie]

Last night this Chevy pulls up in my driveway and lingers for about five minutes. From what I can see on my security camera, a man in the driver's seat is fiddling with an electronic device in the passengers seat, possibly a laptop, during this time, while pausing intermittently to look up at my house. Then he leaves. This was around 10pm. My alert went off but I didn't bother checking since i assumed it was my neighbor. Four homes share one driveway and this car only targeted mine.

Sometime during the early morning, my cable internet goes down (still not back up as I am now writing this from my phone). The wifi is fine, just no internet connection. Has never happened before. It's currently 4am and I only noticed because I got up to use the bathroom.

Any idea what might be going on here? Am I just being paranoid? And what are those things on either side of the hood of the Chevy? We are politically active and have politically active friends that were harassed at home and work, so I do have reason to wonder.

Anyway, really appreciate any input I can get from the group here. Thanks all.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Could be a delivery guy trying to work out which of the four houses he’s supposed to go to?
Those things on the hood look like side lights which might help when looking for a house number.

 

[Dukeybootie]

But he never got out of the car for any reason. The car pulled up the shared driveway, came straight to my house, and sat there for a few minutes. It really looked liked his intention was to sit in his car and do something with his electronic devices specifically targeting my house. I've never seen anything like this before. Will try to post the entire video clip as well.

 

[jaguar36]

Really hard to tell much from the picture. Only thing I've seen that looks similar would be electronic plate scanners. Things cops and repo guys use to build a database of car locations incase they need to repo one. Could be it was a repo man looking for a car.

 

[Dukeybootie]

I live on a dead end street. The car can be seen cruising past my driveway at 10:11 before turning around and coming up my driveway straight for my house at 10:12. I know my neighbors and can tell you no one is at any risk of a visit from the repo man. This guy clearly had my house in mind, I just wish I knew what he was up to.

Clip below, hopefully it works.

Shared Clip | Nest

 

[docherf]

That'd make me paranoid too. I'm not sure what delivery company would mount lights on the hood but not a sign on their door. And not deliver anything. Looks like something from a spy novel.

 

[docherf]

Or maybe it's just Paul Blart.

 

[BruceW]

Make a report to the local Police and give them a copy of the video. Our local police practically beg people to make reports of anything remotely suspicious. This helps them in several ways: 1) they allocate patrol resources based on "incidents" including such reports of suspicious activity (and may even alert patrols to keep an extra eye on your house); 2) What you report may fit into an on-going investigation and, 3) they can alert patrols to be on the lookout for this car, noting its previous suspicious activity.

 

[Shock-On-T]

To me that guy just looks lost, like he's gone down the wrong road and is gonna sit in his car checking his job details on a tablet or something.
Basically I've done exactly that before, I wouldn't worry about it.
Besides, if the government wants to tap your internet they can do it remotely, from the ISP or from a backdoor that's almost certainly in your software.

 

[Joelgjr]

This is 100% a repo man utilizing plate scanners. I think you left out the part that you’re paranoid because you haven’t made a car payment in a few months.

If not you, than one of your neighbors. Guaranteed 100% that’s whats going on

 

[McRat]

Normally I walk out and ask folk if they are parked near my house. That being said, real or fake visible cameras can help. Is your camera easily visible with motion lights and a sign?

He could have tried to see what your username name was on the WiFi by getting close enough to isolate you. Either because they want to hack your system, or because they believe you are the bandwidth pig on the network. Some folk use public residences as WAN media servers. Diick move. Get a commercial account, use satellite, or move. Residences are not set up for servers.

 

[wdolson]

That is odd, but the internet going out may not have anything to do with it. Did you contact your internet provider?

What time of the month are the meters read at your house (it's usually a week or so before the bill arrives)? Some meters transmit back "home" without anyone having to go to the house, but around here the electric (and I think the gas too) meters are read via short range transmitter. They drive down the street and ping the meters and get a reading. I've seen the electric company come by. It had the logo of the company on the door and some kind of unit like the Google street view car except smaller on the roof.

It's possible they read your neighborhood and for some reason they had trouble reading your meter. So they sent out a person to go specifically to your house and get a reading and they had to do it when they did because they readings had to go to processing that night. They may have had to ping the meter several times to get a good reading which is why they were futzing with a computer in the passenger seat.

It may not be that, but it is a thought that came to mind.

As the saying goes, when you hear hoof beats, unless your in some parts of Africa, it's probably horses and not zebras. Various intrigue does happen and bad players will target those who oppose them, but unless you're a political operative of some import, the political opposition probably has no idea you exist and has no interest in you at all. Watergate happened because Richard Nixon's people were trying to get dirt on the Democrats in the 1972 election. They targeted the DNC headquarters, not some Democratic supporter somewhere.

 

[Dukeybootie]

Thanks everyone. My ISP says there's a local outage so that part is explained away. I have 2 payments left on my 3 yr loan so unless it's the lawyer's Maserati next door, still not sure about the repo man theory. And I'm definitely no bandwidth hog, unless my kids are secretly streaming 4k Peppa Pig around the clock.

But thanks for all your input, I do feel better now. Will mention it to my wife's cop friend in the morning and leave it at that. Cheers everyone (and VOTE today if you live in CA)!