Myself and my ex husband moved into a brand new semi-detached home the same day as our neighbour. We were in our 20’s and he was in his 50’s and we got on ok in a neighbourly way. Our neighbour, Rod had told us he used to have a drink problem but didn’t drink anymore.

After a couple of months of living beside him with no problems we were in bed one night and he was in his garden with music on quite loud. We had to get up early for work so we’re really trying hard to sleep with the music blasting. I opened the bedroom window and tried to shout to ask to turn it down but I could not see him and he could not hear me. After another couple of hours I decided I was going to see him. I knocked loudly in his front door, no reply so I went round to his garden. The patio doors were wide open and Rod was snoring loudly on the sofa with an empty whiskey bottle on the table. I didn’t want to wander around his house but I needed the music off if I was to get any sleep that night. All the houses had a box on the front wall with the electric meter in, locked with a key but all keys were the same. I shut Rod’s patio doors then went home for my electric box key, opened his box and turned his electric off at the mains before going back to bed.

Next day I came home for lunch and seen an electric company van leaving his house, he told me he had woke up to no power and had called them and they fixed his problem quickly. I just acted like a concerned neighbour and never told him about what actually happened for the 2 years we lived there.