This is an odd one.  My computer room has a window looking out on the street from the side, and it’s covered in reflective film so people can’t see in.

I was sitting here at about 1.30pm, when I saw a guy move past my window and bend down to the tap on the outside. He was working away there and I said, “‘Ullo, what’s up?” “Oh, nothing”, he says.

So I went outside and said again, “What are you doing?” Just getting a drink of water, he says. “Oh yeah?” and as he came around I could see he had a piece of hose with a plastic fitting on it in his pocket.

“What are you doing?” I said. “What’s that in your pocket?”

“Oh, I was just getting a piece of hose”, and he pulls it out and shows me he’s cut the end off my hose, with its tap connector.

“Well, put it back. That’s stealing”, I said. He says he just wants a piece of hose. “Well put it back. You can have the bit you’ve cut off. But that’s stealing. Whaddya think you’re doing?” So he puts the connector back on the hose and reconnects it to the tap and leaves.

Crazy. But when I think back on it, he obviously had a knife in his pocket that he used to cut the hose. Maybe I’m lucky he didn’t cut me.

What is going on? Did he just want a hose fitting on a rainy Sunday afternoon and decide to take mine? So stupid that he didn’t think he’d be seen, especially when I was playing music quite loudly? Weird. And a lucky escape, possibly.