r/BoomersBeingFools

Context: we're in the UK. This happened about a year ago now, but I still think about this really frequently because as much as it's a pain in the ass to perpetually unlock/lock the door for the postman/deliveries etc. I still think it's worth it based on one interaction alone.

A couple of weeks prior, a friend of mine left a couple of items at our place, and had messaged me the night before to say he was going to cycle down the next morning to pick these bits up. Amongst our friend group, we have frequently relied on going to look after each other so it had been pretty common to do one or two loud knocks on the front door, then just walk into each others houses. It was no big deal, we did it all the time and none of us have anything in our hallways/living rooms we could walk in on, and we only ever did it if the other party knew we were coming.

My friend I was expecting to come over the next morning is an early bird, and he knows I work from home from 9am so he'd have to be here before then to grab his things. About 8am, I hear the front door open and slam shut and I call down jokingly "Oi, careful of the door". I turn the corner and I'm still half asleep (still an hour before I need to be awake so no coffee in my system yet) and I see someone in cycling gear, facing away from me, stood in my living room looking through a box of stuff we were taking to a charity shop later in the week.

I say "When did you get the new cycling gear?" and a man, probably in his early to mid 60s with a very middle class accent (think Mark's dad in Peep Show), turns around and looks shocked. I ask "Who are you?" to which he responds "Where's Liz?" I am confused by this, I don't know a Liz and ask again, painfully politely being both British and having worked in customer services for years "I'm sorry, I don't know who that is, who are you?"

He repeats, more angrily "Where's Liz?!" I say "I don't know who that is, I don't know who you are, please get out of my house now." His eyes flare like he's suddenly furious at how rude I am to point out he's just randomly broken into my house and started looking through my stuff. "Tell me where Liz is now!"

I walk to the front door, open it and say "Get out now, before I call the police." He just stares me down. I say again "Get out of my house now. I'll call the police." He thinks for maybe 5 seconds (which felt a lot longer at the time) before stomping out like a toddler, and wrenching the front door handle out of my hand from the other side to slam it, presumably, as hard as he could.

I sit on the stairs to kind of decompress and come to terms with what just happened when the front door flies open again banging on the wall and he says with a quiet burning fury "You know what, before I go-" I don't know what he was going to say because I roared at him to get out and never return or there will be consequences not involving the police. He bolted, but not before riding past my house on his bike (how intimidating) a few more times over the next 5 or so mins as I watched from the upstairs window.

The whole situation freaked me out a bit; an unlocked door being a protection from the outside by social formality alone, and when people no longer apply "the rules" it's no defence at all. Once he was gone I was fine, but the fact we keep our doors locked at all times now, even when we're both in, has kinda spoiled the group care/dynamic of being able to pop in to check on each other.

My best guess is either wrong address or previous tenants had beef with this guy, but he was objectively in the wrong from the very start, and still acted like he was entitled to do these things, then got aggressive once it was pointed out and acted like a bratty toddler.

Tl;dr boomer just walked into my house demanding information about someone I'd never heard of, got aggressive when I pointed all of this out and asked him to leave

EDIT: To address a couple of repeat comments:

• I can't be certain for obvious reasons, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't dementia. I've had a number of relatives that had it and whilst I know it presents in different ways in different people, this guy was way too lucid and way too dextrous. Before his very intimidating Spandex ride-by, he was rolling his bike down the drive and clipping into the pedals with those special shoes whilst looking over his shoulder at me in the window. Unlikely to be possible with dementia, but I'm not an expert.

• We locked our door overnight and if we were out, but during the day it was convenient to leave it open. There isn't a latch (it's a Yale thing) so it was a bit of a faff, we live in a small community that's generally very friendly, and we didn't think much of it. I think that's why this shook me up a bit. Kind of a "welcome to the real world" moment.

• Our friends now have keys, and we have keys to theirs. The dynamic between us exists still, but it's a sour reminder every time I'm going through my keys now.

This happened a few years ago. I was leaving a big shopping centre a little after closing. The shops were all closed but the supermarket stays open a little later so there were still a few people leaving. The car park was mostly empty and there weren't many people walking around. There was a kid skateboarding near the entrance. It was a nice big, flat smooth place to skate I guess. There was also a boomer lady sitting on a bench with a a little Westie dog. I was making a beeline for the dog. I was about 2 metres away and was just about to ask the lady if I could pat her dog when she suddenly full on screamed at the skateboarding kid "THIS IS NOT A SKATEPAAAARK!". The lady was upset because the dog barked at the skateboarder (it was only a little bark).Her screaming actually gave me a jump scare it was so out of the blue.I was struck by how unreasonable this was and in a very unlike me moment of clear thinking I yelled back at her "It's not a dog park either lady. Leave the kid alone, he isn't hurting anyone!". She looked shocked that I had spoken, I don't think she saw me coming towards her. I swerved her and walked on to my car. The skateboarding kid gave me a wave and mouthed a thank you from a distance. The boomer and her Westie scuttled off without a reply. I was genuinely proud of myself because normally I think of the perfect thing to say after events happen. But this time I think I nailed it. Edit: typo