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Dark-Hooded Figures and Their Flower Gift(s)

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Polterdog

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Messages
189
Just this morning, at some time shortly after four-in-the-morning, while watching a repeat broadcast of Ghost Lab, I had a rather strange incident occur: A dark-hoodied somebody, seemingly unaware or unconcerned that they were being viewed by me, dropped (or placed) a single yellow flower (a marsh marigold, I think) on the cement slab just outside my ground floor patio door. To further the strangeness factor, they were being watched by a similarly-attired individual (another dark hoodie aficionado), who was walking parallel to them on the street, ten feet away or so, almost as if they were acting as a lookout for them or something.

Once the 'marigold drop' was made, they made their getaway into the pre-dawn, leaving me perturbed and a little spooked. Now, whether or not I'm making too much out of some dark-cowled figures dropping a flower outside my door in the wee hours of the morning is open to conjecture but the fact that one of the figures chose to deliberately venture in from the street to cut across my front lawn and lay a flower mere inches from my door step while his or her friend watched from the street is a little strange, no?

Has anybody ever had anything like this happen to them? Is there some type of new gang sign that I'm unaware of? Has the yellow marigold replaced the dead fish wrapped in a newspaper to send a message to your enemies?

The flower sort of reminds me of something you might see in an Easter bouquet or something so I might I be mistaking the symbolic act and well-wishes of a good Samaritan but why just 'visit' me -- and only me, apparently, as no one else on my street got the same 'gift' -- under cover of night and cowl? Any ideas?

Polterdog
 
It does sound very weird indeed.
 
How long have you lived there? Maybe someone who used to live there died, and those strange fellows were dropping the flower in memory!
 
Dude, it's a marigold - a bright, sunny flower that smells faintly of cat pee. (As I found to my dismay the time I tried to use them as a table bouquet - I thought the local stray had caught in and tried to claim our house and I kept going after the smell with an orange oil wipe to no avail.) They were probably wearing hoodies because it's cold in the wee hours. Possibly they're on a quest to do random acts of kindness and determined what house to leave a flower at by die roll. Assume they meant it to be nice and be happy. There's no percentage in reading dark creepiness into everything.
 
At 4 am in the morning??? Come on, it's weird.
 
"Weird" and "sinister" are not synonymous terms, and I can think of half a dozen innocuous reasons to do this at 4 AM without breaking a sweat. You can waste a lot of good worrying, fear, and anxiety assuming that, because you don't understand it, it's malevolent.

(BTW, are there any marigolds around your house, Myth? Or something else with an ammoniac aura? If so, that might explain the phantom cat pee smell you mention in "minor strangeness.")
 
PeniG said:
(BTW, are there any marigolds around your house, Myth? Or something else with an ammoniac aura? If so, that might explain the phantom cat pee smell you mention in "minor strangeness.")
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No.
 
PeniG said:
"Weird" and "sinister" are not synonymous terms, and I can think of half a dozen innocuous reasons to do this at 4 AM without breaking a sweat. You can waste a lot of good worrying, fear, and anxiety assuming that, because you don't understand it, it's malevolent.
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Dude, as I pointed out, I did not know the intention of why it had been done. In expressing my mental state at being a little bit spooked by the whole ordeal (watching a paranormal show at four-in-the-morning only to see a dark-hooded figure approach my well-lit patio door and drop off a flower -- when all the other street residents at the time were understandably in bed and had their house lights turned off -- I think a few questions needed to be raised (if only for my state of mind). Why not also give them a flower under cover of darkness? Why did they approach the only residence with its lights still on and risk being seen? Furthermore, if their intentions were honourable (and they very well could have been), the same act could have been easily performed in broad daylight with, maybe, a polite knock on the door and presentation of the flower. That was not the case. But please, I'd be interested in your half-dozen list of innocuous reasons of why this act should be performed at all. I was joking about the gang signs and fish-wrapped-in-a-newspaper mafia thing but what I wanted to know is if anybody had ever heard of anything like this. I want to say it all almost strikes me as a religious-thing (as opposed to some random act of weirdness) but I just don't have a clue as to why it should have been done.

Polterdog.

P. S. I was only guessing at the marsh marigold identification (I was just informed that it was, in fact, a breed of yellow rose but to me, if anything, it looks more in the marigold/lily-ish family.) So perhaps the situation becomes...clearer? A secret admirer? Someone who thinks I have cancer? Nice set of extremes to have me guessing at all day...:)

P. P. S. Sorry, Mister_Awesome, as far as I know, no, nobody has died here -- though I've only lived here three years or so and somebody, who could have lived here, might have passed on without the flower-bearer being any the wiser and, reading about it in the obituaries, might have wanted to pay their respects. I still don't get the four-in-the-morning thing though...
 
Maybe someone has a crush on you. Its just the kind of thing I would have done when I was 16/17 coming from a night out [i.e being drunk]. I would have also done it just because I could or to make someone think.
I mean we put fresh ham, rolled up in the middle of a forest because our cat was buried there, anyone finding it would surely have thought it weird.

I'll go with inebriated teenagers. :)
 
Dingo667 said:
Maybe someone has a crush on you. Its just the kind of thing I would have done when I was 16/17 coming from a night out [i.e being drunk]. I would have also done it just because I could or to make someone think.

I mean we put fresh ham, rolled up in the middle of a forest because our cat was buried there, anyone finding it would surely have thought it weird.
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Wow, I must be pretty straight-laced. :)

But, seriously, your example has an absurdity about it that I can get behind -- doing something for the sheer weirdness of it and thus having it being recognized as such (a prank). At university, a group of friends once organized an event where they went around campus posting signs and posters in the early morning hours with a single made-up word on it (can't remember what it was, at the moment, but I remember that a lot of care went into choosing just the right sort of sounding word that people would think actually meant something) just to hear people talk about it the next day and maybe have it enter the English-speaking vernacular at some point.


This 'flower thing', though, seems to have some logical rationale to it (to my mind, at least) that I'd like to get to the bottom of but, at the moment, just can't wrap my head around; a minor mystery that I'd like to have solved but don't think I ever will. Your suggestion that I may have a secret admirer ups the "creep factor" considerably as I now have visions of somebody watching me walk in and out of my building, day after day, from some secluded hiding place, binoculars in hand, planning their early morning drop off.

*Shiver*

Polterdog.
 
Just off the top of my head....could it be some kind of marker? Sort of 'don't burgle (burgal?) here, the guy might have only just gone to bed'?
 
Cavynaut said:
Just off the top of my head....could it be some kind of marker? Sort of 'don't burgle (burgal?) here, the guy might have only just gone to bed'?
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Believe it or not, I have also considered this: there have been a few reported break-ins in the area (along with some reported gas-syphoning and car break-ins) and more than just a few strange cars that I've noticed idling out in the street in front of my home, in the early pre-dawn hours, that speed away just as I make an appearance in the doorway for a more critical look. At any rate, with all this paranoid history to consider, I honestly believe that it may have something to do with the upcoming Easter holiday (the flower would seem to suggest that kind of symbolic link) but, again, I just don't know why someone would feel compelled to do so in the manner and way they went about it.

*Shrugs*

Polterdog
 
Fascinating indeed. This area outside your patio windows, is it your own private land or is it public?
 
SHAYBARSABE said:
I agree with PeniG. You don't know the motivation, so why not consider it positive instead of negative.

As a teen, I might have done something like that myself. Remember: teens aren't quite human in the adult sense (see "Teen Species" for an excellent explanation).http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/tv/teenspecies/
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I don't know, call me crazy, but having dark-hooded figures approach your door at four o'clock in the morning? It doesn't exactly inspire any type of positive-type thinking -- and there was no indication that they were teens (being hooded, with only backlit streetlight illumination, there was no way to tell) but, I do have to say, am I only the person that wouldn't have done something like this when I was a teen? :)

Plus, as I was discussing with Cavynaut, when you've had a recent crime-wave spreading throughout the area, it doesn't exactly give one a zen-like sense of safety when something like this occurs.

But, yes, you may be right in the final analysis. For some reason I do think it has something to do with Palm Sunday (the flower just looked like it could have been part of an 'Easter bouquet'). Again, I have no reason why I was the only one targeted in the neighbourhood, but I think I'm just chasing my tail on this again.

Thanks for all your help, one and all, but maybe I'll take some anti-teen (or religious) measures in the future. That snarling, and foaming-at-the-mouth, guard dog, mentioned earlier, does seem like it would solve all such future incidents, one and all....

Polterdog

P. S. Sorry, linesmachine, missed your post: private.
 
A few months ago the woman in the flat above me was having domestic violence issues. She booted the arsehole out eventually but then I would awake in the morning to find text messages from her that she sent in the middle of the night saying there was someone knocking at her door at 3 or 4am and could I help? The implication was that it was her ex-partner trying to gain entrance to her flat.

I was on a weird shift pattern at the time so was too zonked to be woken by her texts when she sent them. So I took a few days leave and stayed awake as long as I could to try to catch the creep in the act.

At 3am I was woken by someone ringing my doorbell and knocking on the door. "Right!" I thought, "I'm going to put this t**t right once and for all!"

I opened the door, still bleary-eyed, and was shocked to find someone apparently 7 feet tall and with flashing things on his chest!

Him: "Hello sir, sorry to bother you but we have Joe Blogs locked up in the cells and he says he lives in the flat above you. Can you confirm this?"

Me (realising he's a copper and has the woman-beater in custody): "Never heard of him in my life!"

I went back to bed and slept very soundly. 8)
 
But please, I'd be interested in your half-dozen list of innocuous reasons of why this act should be performed at all.
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I was thinking of half a dozen reasons to do this at 4 AM, including That's when the intoxicants ran out, Working shifts so this is the handiest time, Insomnia,The drunks have gone home and the eary work crowd haven't started yet so the streets are clear and it's less dangerous to walk around in a dark hoodie, The event commemmorated with this odd behavior was 4 AM, wanting to do good deeds under cover of darkness like you're supposed to (so it's not about taking credit for how nice you are).

A couple of those contain their own reasons (commemmoration, intoxicated and it seemed like a good idea at the time). I suppose it could also be part of some kind of personal spell or ritual. The fact that there were two of them suggests a dare.

It's got no obvious meaning to me, but it presumably meant something to the doer. The fact that it's a flower and that they chose a lighted house - so weren't afraid of being seen - suggests to me that they weren't, in their own minds, doing anything sinister. When I want to do something to make people I don't know well feel good, I prefer to do it anonymously. It's not about me, it's about them; I just want them to be aware that someone out there is thinking kindly of them, and not create any sense of obligation or start them looking for ulterior motives. Getting a little flower out of nowhere is a bit of a pick-me-up for most people. Putting it somewhere private would be a misjudgement, but maybe they didn't want it stepped on.

You may as well be happy.

And don't get a dog for protection; get a dog because you want a dog. An unloved dog is an unhappy and dangerous dog.[/i][/quote]
 
Hi Polterdog,
Your experience sounds quite upsetting, but if the hooded figures were teenagers I would guess that they:

sat up till about 2:00 am discussing strange, Fortean things

left house, quite out of head, and decided to go for a refreshing walk, possibly in the graveyard

found some really nice flowers, either in the graveyard or on someone's front door - helped selves to a few on a whim

on the way home, realised with some surprise that there was another person awake at 4:00 am. Still out of their heads, decide to give you a bit of spontaneous street theatre. In the process, trespassing on your garden and shocking you by their weird behaviour.

I wouldn't worry about it, but maybe draw the cuirtains next time so you aren't so visible to people passing by.
 
PeniG said:
You may as well be happy.
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I may as well be, but I'm not. Without sounding too 'angry' by such a well-meant, and well-meaning, suggestion as yours as 'be happy', you can't just expect a person, in this day and age, to feel happy by having two darkly-attired individuals (the clothing of choice for those up to no good) approach the weakest access point in your home (when you're supposed to be sleeping), leave a calling card (whatever it may be), and feel good about it. To quote Will Ferrell as the great Mugatu ("Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!") Seriously, their intentions be damned. I'm not about to second-guess their state of mind or why they did it. You just don't do that. You don't approach somebody's home in dark hoods, in the middle of the night, and give a collective 'got'cha' to the person living inside (whatever that 'got'cha' may mean). Should I have felt better if they had left some other gift instead? What if they hadn't left a flower? What if the next time (and if they did it once they can certainly do it again) they leave something with far more sinister implications. Should I still feel happy then? In this case, it's the message and not the medium: "We were here when you should have been sleeping and could've done stuff".

PeniG said:
And don't get a dog for protection; get a dog because you want a dog. An unloved dog is an unhappy and dangerous dog.
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Thanks for talking down to me like someone who has never owned, loved, or lost a pet. Nothing like kicking a person when they're down. Because I was trying to insert some levity into the situation with ramonmercado's suggestion does not mean that I would short-leash a dog to my front yard, poke it with a stick all day, and teach it to rend trespassers asunder. I'm looking for personal peace of mind and not to torment the mind of another.

P. S. Aarauer: yes, my assumption is that they were teenagers too (the hour that they decided to perform their action would seem to hint at it) but, after researching the flower more closely (and I'm no florist) it looks like a yellow Easter lily. It doesn't rule out anything that you're saying (despite, perhaps, the graveyard bit) and, as I said, perhaps it was meant as a good deed (or some religious recognition of Palm Sunday). That's the bit that I'm just a bit stuck with -- the teens that I've dealt with around here certainly aren't know for their religious observances and thus my initial wondering if dropping flowers off at somebody's door, in the middle-of-the-night, had any other type of meaning like the Cavynaut idea, as a 'do-not-burgle' marker of some sort. Especially, when, if they wanted to spread the joy of Easter, nobody on the street got a flower but me, the only person with their lights on.
 
I did not intend to talk down to you or to kick you when you were down, and I am sorry that I hurt your feelings.
 
creepy nighttime prowlers and their challenging message

i think there is something to be concerned about here.......

there are pre dawn prowlers and burglars in the neighborhood. they have seen you in the doorway and are watching you through the windows at night.

the flower might be a mocking reference to your appearing at your door as they cruised the neighborhood. sort of like a "hello, we're back!"

have you gotten a good description of the car to the local police? can you get a license plate? have you discussed this with the police?

i wouldn't sit in an observable area nor would i make it known to them that i had seen them. they obviously think your appearing at the door as a challenge... and this flower was their response to it. i would simply call the police if a suspicious car appeared.

the response on this message board has been very odd too...the suggestion that it was some kind of gesture of friendship is bizarre to say the least. these people have singled you out for their attention because they have noticed you noticing them and care must be taken so that this goading response does not escalate into anything more dangerous to you.
 
I would immediately call the police if this happened to me. As a woman who lives alone, it would scare the shit out of me.

It seems utterly pointless, anyway. If I saw a flower on my patio the next morning, I would just assume it was blown there by the wind or some other natural explanation...I wouldn't think "ooh, somebody is sending me a messsage and they must not have wanted me to see them, how exciting!"
 
Could also be they were off their faces and got the wrong house. I live on the edge of studentland and that sort of stuff happens every once in a while, though never at quite such a late hour.

Once i had a couple of girls turn up who really really took some convincing that this wasn;t where the party was happening :?
 
Flower aside which is just odd, they may well have targeted you because the light was on at 4 in the morning. Someone tried breaking into my place about 3a.m. while I was sitting up all night maudling with a bottle, and my house was the only one in the street, in fact in several streets with any lights on, I know this because I searched the area for him. I couldnt understand why he'd targeted me, until I thought that perhaps the ones who usually leave lights on at 4 are those who've gone out or away and left them on to make it look like they're in. Not flawless deduction but the only thing that makes sense to me.
 
I learned to be suspicious from my somewhat paranoid father... But a yellow flower presumably would be easily visible from the street even at night, so it very well could be some sort of signal to someone else. I wouldn't get too worked up about it (since it could be nothing) but I would definitely be on the alert. Reporting the incident to the local police might not be a bad idea, since (1) you never know, they might have other similar reports, and there might be a pattern developing; and (2) if anything else happens again, it might be helpful for them to already have a file started with what might potentially indicate a pattern. Police get all sorts of weird things reported to them; better safe than sorry!

You can just go to them and say, "Look, I don't know if this means anything, but for what it's worth, here's what happened..." If you stay strictly factual and don't put in paranoid-sounding conjectures (from your posts, I think it's safe to say you'd be very reasonable), they'll likely be willing to at least make a note of it for possible future reference.
 
Have you got any enemies or alternatively secret admirers? Maybe it was some sort of attempt at witchcraft? There are spells which involve placing objects on peoples doorsteps, although I don't know if any involving specifically flowers.
I'm guessing it was more something like this though: A couple of drunks, "hey, that persons awake, I dare you to walk up to the door & put something on the step and see if they come out and yell."
Or of course that it was a flower meant for someone else and they hot the address wrong.
 
Hey, in the last 2 years ive had a "real" dream in which a robed person came into my house.

I saw this being a month ago in the early hours of the morning stood in my bedroom - it then slowly vanished.

But no flowers as gifts.

Peace.
 
macrosblack said:
Hey, in the last 2 years ive had a "real" dream in which a robed person came into my house.

I saw this being a month ago in the early hours of the morning stood in my bedroom - it then slowly vanished.

But no flowers as gifts.

Peace.
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Yup, saw your post in the other thread.

Same reply. :roll:
 
Yup, and what a mistake it is to share such things here.

Well done to you for I shall never share such an event again on the internet.

Who are you to question my credibility.

what i saw was real and all i find here is an idiot like you!

You stay here to insult others just as you have done to me. I`m leaving.

Peace
 
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