Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

  • signsofrain

    *moves

    • Kelly M

      Yeah that typo keeps throwing the context of for me! :)

    • http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

      surveillance movies? “Stranger movies, patio furniture”

  • franko

    tv producer: “hmm, how can we turn this wacky event into SOMETHING TO BE AFRAID OF?”

    • http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

      I agree. And we come to find out it has only happened twice. Youtube-worthy maybe, but a local news piece is overkill at this point.

    • voiceinthedistance

      “First, they came for the patio furniture, and I did not speak because I had no patio furniture. And then they came for . . .”

      • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

        “… the geraniums, which they watered, and I did not speak for I had not watered them…”

  • http://sr105.com/ Harvey

    Unless the home owners post a “No Trespassing” sign, has the woman actually done anything illegal? Also, I love the woman’s Fox News-esque fear at the end where she immediately jumps to the worst conclusions.

    • http://www.eff.org/ deaduncledave

       For the record, that was an NBC affiliate. But yeah, all of the local newscasts in Albuquerque tend towards the dramatic.

      • http://www.eff.org/ deaduncledave

         It’s New Mexico. There ain’t much to do out here other than get drunk and (According to Hollywood) make meth.

        • dioptase

          Don’t forget the multi-billion dollar industry of blowing shit up.  That keeps a few people occupied.  Nobody blows shit up better than New Mexicans.

          • http://www.eff.org/ deaduncledave

             Well, only a few times. We’ve had some competition since then… Nevada mostly.

          • dioptase

            That was New Mexicans blowing up Nevada.

    • winkybb

      Oh yes, won’t somebody please think of the children.

    • TheOven

      You don’t need to have a no trespassing sign, so yes, technically. 

  • chaopoiesis

    This sort of thing can lead to more serious crimes, such as breaking into people’s homes to wash their dishes.

    • That_Anonymous_Coward

      And then leave a bill for your services…

      *some intern find the story link kthksbai*

  • Ian Anthony

    “There’s eight of them, and they’re big and black.”

    Oh COME ON.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Huntington/1389561896 Brian Huntington

    Passive aggressive neighbors go on news instead of talking to neighbor. Also, EIGHT street-facing security cameras? What the hell?

    • http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

       Probably eight total, not all street facing.

    • http://twitter.com/MrBrownThumb MrBrownThumb

      I know, right? She’s doing them a favor. Anyone who lives in a neighborhood bad enough to require bars on the windows and eight security camera’s should be able to understand that the woman is doing them a favor. You don’t put your love seat or couch so that your back is facing the street. That’s how you get shot in the back. 

  • seaart

    I hope I’m never so paranoid that I need eight cameras around my home.  What the hell America?

    • Warren_Terra

      But do you have such lovely patio furniture? Is it outside the house, unprotected, where literally anyone can rearrange it?

  • http://twitter.com/jamie_tucker Jamie Tucker

    Where do they live? they have bars on the windows and the house is covered in security cameras, and the worst thing they complain about is someone moving their furniture?

    • http://www.eff.org/ deaduncledave

       Rio Rancho. That’s the north-west of Albuquerque, NM. Have you ever seen the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross?” In essence a movie about junk land investments somewhere in the southwest. In the movie, it’s called Ranchero Homes, but really it was written about Rio Rancho. It’s a terrible Levittown.

      • Quiche de Resistance

        Put that chaise lounge down!  Chaise lounges are for closers.

        You think I’m fuckin with you?

        • http://www.eff.org/ deaduncledave

           A B L! Always Be Lounging! ALWAYS… be lounging!

  • http://twitter.com/halavais halavais

    Call the police? That seems so uncreative to me. Imagine the sorts of things that could jump out from under a patio chair…

    • oasisob1

      I can imagine 8 of them. All big and black.

  • relawson

    Guerrilla Feng Shui

    • franko

      this was my thought, too: “no no no — that’s ALL WRONG! what are you doing??”

    • Culturedropout

       Congratulations, sir.  You win at today’s internet.

  • http://burntheflag.ca Jardine

    This strikes me as having three possibilities. Either the woman moving the furniture has something messed up in her head, it’s some long-term prank, or they’re trying to make a viral video of some kind. Considering the number of cameras they have taking fairly good video, I suspect viral video. Could be trying to advertise a movie or how great surveillance cameras are I suppose.

  • http://www.facebook.com/stephen.m.moran Stephen Moran

    Obviously an OCD feng-shui enthusiast. Nothing to worry about.

    • noah django

      I was thinking either aspergers or discordian.  just wait until they start finding nuts and bolts in their pockets and around the office.

  • sota767

    I say the rearranged furniture positions look much better.

    • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

      IDK, the bench should face away from the street IMO, who wants to look at street. prolly just my preference

      • Delaney Davis

         That’s what the neighbor thought too! She moved it to the side instead. I bet she walked past that house every day bugged all to hell about their furniture arrangement.

    • Ipo

      The results speak for themselves.  
      Thank you strange stranger. 

  • miasm

    Something strange.

  • greebo

    How come these people know so little about appropriate furniture arrangements that any old stranger off the street can do it better? And they’re still not getting it! Duh.

  • http://profiles.google.com/afbs1017 Aubrey Burleson-Sanford

    It looks like they have a nice house in a pretty nice neighborhood; why do they need bars on their windows and EIGHT cameras?!

    • Ipo

       Zombie apocalypse. 

  • http://twitter.com/WpgCameraMan Rock Hardwood

    All those security cameras , and this STILL happens.  If you can’t make out the face, or somehow alert you with motion detection, then ..   useless.

  • Will Bueche

    Something something one of those all-night wicker places.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000126077867 David Plumer

    Paranormal Activity 5

  • Culturedropout

     This is _exactly_ the sort of thing that gives the NRA nightmares.  Some… _woman_ is coming onto _your_ property, rearranging _your_ patio furniture.  If the guvmint has taken away your _guns_, then how are you to _defend_ your family and their seating arrangements?  Instead of the hail of lead from automatic weapons she so richly deserves, you will be left with _no_ defense… except maybe… I dunno… opening a window and yelling, “Hey, you goddam freak!  Stop touching my patio furniture!!!”  The terrorists have won.

  • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

    Real or Onion? I need one of those specially trained dogs to help me in these situations.

  • http://twitter.com/the_damned_fool the damned fool

    Open Rancho Style!  Heyyyyy…Re-arrangement…

  • Quiche de Resistance

    Oh crap this might be the formation of the Interior League’s supervillain counterpart, the Exterior League:

    The Interior League: Carpet Man, Wall Eye and Pretty as a Picture.

    The Interior League’s MO was to break into an unsuspecting victim’s house in the middle of the night and rearrange all of the furniture while the family slept. While this practice seemed fairly harmless, there was an inexplicable quality to their arrangements, one that triggered psychotic breaks in those who viewed their handiwork. One victim, after seeing what the Interior League had done, beheaded his wife, then took his own life by impaling himself with a sharpened leg from a coffee table. In the span of one evening, the Interior League broke into five separate homes. The ramifications of their actions resulted in the deaths of twelve people.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Actually, the Interior League’s archenemy would be the Interior Desecrator.

  • Quiche de Resistance

    The first time she thought that her daughter had done it.  ”She said no, so of course I assumed she was lying and proceeded to review the surveillance cameras.”

    • http://openid.aliz.es/Sotomica Sotomica

       I don’t know what you are getting at here. Why not, “I believed my daughter, so then reviewed the surveillance cameras to see who actually had done it.”

  • Aaron

    The home owners could have fun with this. Stack the furniture precariously and see what response they get. Or (more deviously) put something really sticky on the arms of the furniture.