A Sydney, Australia woman who found a mound of baked beans in her mailbox may have uncovered a sinister new trend in her quiet community.
Margaret Khursigara was stunned to find her letterbox overflowing with beans when she checked her mail on Saturday morning.
Confused by the strange delivery at her West Pennant Hills cul-de-sac home, the 52-year-old took to social media to get answers.
Instead, she discovered a sinister trend might be emerging in her quiet neighborhood.
A neighbor reportedly told Khursigara of a similar bean-dumping trend in 2021, when kidney beans would be left on the doorsteps of UK homes by would-be burglars.
The beans were used as a messy indicator of which house was unoccupied, and a possible easy target for a burglary.
Thieves would return to targeted homes hours after pouring beans in an obvious enough place – a doorstep, or mailbox, for instance.
If the beans were still there, it was a sign no one was home.
Giving thieves a green light, of sorts, to break in.
Given the timing of her discovery just before Anzac Day, when many will opt to take Monday off and make a long weekend, Khursigara told 7 News the theory was not too far-fetched.
“We know a lot of people who have gone away for that four-day weekend, so it kind of makes sense for it to happen at this point in time,” she said.
“If they’re (thieves) trying to see if someone is home, it’s a technique that could work.”
According to 7 News, Khursigara did not report the incident to authorities.
“I think, because it’s just a minor and silly thing, that it’s the sort of thing that people aren’t going to take to the police or report,” she said.
“The creepiest part of this is, if it is a technique to see if we are home, that means they’re going to come back to check.”
Her home was the only one known to have been targeted in the bizarre incident.
But it was enough to cause her to tighten security around her home – which she has lived in for 20 years – including closely monitoring home security cameras.
In all her years living there, she said had never heard of a break-in in the area.
A New South Wales Police spokesperson told Seven there were no reports of local cases involving the link between beans and burglaries yet.
It is not uncommon for homeowners to ask the social media brains trust about strange markings spotted around their homes.
In 2022, an Adelaide, Australia woman took to social media to ask about symbols that appeared overnight on the front and rear of her home, and similar symbols had appeared on neighboring homes.
A quick internet search can uncover a number of common symbols that would-be thieves can leave once they cause your home to indicate if it is a prime target, including circles, triangles, ladder-like lines, crosses, or particular letters.