Member-only story
The Silliest Nextdoor Posts I’ve Ever Seen
The social networking site Nextdoor has a reputation for people posting paranoid things. They hide it in coded terms, but we know what they mean.
In that paranoia, you can find a rich vein of dark humor. It’s either embrace the dark humor or despair about humanity.
So I’m counting down (in reverse!) to the silliest Nextdoor posts I’ve encountered.
3) Who Is This Mysterious Woman in the Video?
Once, someone posted a door camera video of a woman filmed in the early hours of the day. The woman was caught on tape as she pulled into their driveway, walked up to their door, rang the bell, waited, and then left.
The member asked their neighbors for advice on what to do next. Should they be worried? Should they call the police?
People speculated about this in dozens of posts. Surely the woman in the video was up to something nefarious!
Then, more reasonable folk (they do exist, even on Nextdoor) pointed out that the woman in the video was wearing scrubs and an ID badge. Clearly, she was a home healthcare worker who went to the wrong address. As someone whose parents were often visited by therapists at home, I recognized the look of a (lost) home healthcare worker right away.
Yet not all members settled down. They pointed out that maybe she was just disguised as a home healthcare worker. Think that over, and you’ll quickly realize how silly it sounds. All this woman did was go to a house (while wearing scrubs and an ID badge), ring the doorbell, and leave.
The paranoia continued even after it was obvious there was nothing wrong. A random healthcare worker was captured on video, just trying to do her job. That video could still be out there.
I remembered the time a home healthcare worker called my mother shortly before an appointment, trying to find out why we weren’t opening the door. It turned out that she was on the wrong street. Gee, I hope no one posted a video of her on Nextdoor…
2) You Want to Ban … What?!
More recently, someone made a concerned post because their doorbell camera caught someone sneaking around between their property and that of their next-door neighbor.
