How a Ring doorbell can lead to a "meet-cute" – or a conversation with a man in uniform – perhaps both!
(Image credit: Adam Juniper / Ring)
It was 17th February 2021, right in the middle of the second national Covid lockdown, and I was on the phone to my friend Kia when my Ring doorbell sounded. I would ordinarily have checked who was pressing the bell on the app, but because I was on the phone, I just ran downstairs and opened the front door.
I was quite shocked to find a policeman in uniform standing there. 'There's no need to worry,' he said. 'I just saw that you have a Ring doorbell, (consistently one of the best doorbell cameras), and wondered if you pay for the subscription for the footage?'
I told him that I did. He was relieved – apparently some people just use the live view on their Ring doorbells and don't pay to access the footage. Others don't even have the doorbell hooked up - they simply use it as a burglar deterrent.
The policeman explained that there had been 'an incident' in my road the night before (which later turned out to have been a stabbing), and he wanted to try and catch the number plate of the getaway vehicle as it drove past my house. He asked if he could download the footage from the Ring app on my iPhone and Airdrop it to his phone.
I agreed. My friend Kia was still on the phone, so I said, "Sorry Kia, I've got to go and help a policeman."
The message in question (WhatsApp never forgets) (Image credit: Ariane Sherine)
I was mortified, but the policeman was very professional and simply swiped the message up off the screen! He Airdropped himself the video clips, then thanked me and left, and I never saw or heard from him again.
In answer to Kia's question though: yes, he was sexy – but perhaps not as sexy as my sleek crime-solving Ring video doorbell.
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The conversation continues! (A writer's inspiration?) (Image credit: Ariane Sherine)
Ariane Sherine is an author and journalist on many subjects including interiors, and singer-songwriter (under the artist name Ariane X). She has written for the Guardian, Times, Independent, Telegraph, Spectator, Mail, New Statesman, Esquire, NME, Sun and Metro. She regularly appears on television and radio.
She's also written comedy for the BBC and Channel 4, and is still known worldwide for the 2008 Atheist Bus Campaign, featuring adverts on buses which proclaimed 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life' sponsored by Richard Dawkins.
As a result, Ariane went on to edit and compile the bestselling celebrity charity anthology The Atheist's Guide to Christmas (HarperCollins). She has also written three self-help books for major publisher Hachette: Talk Yourself Better, How to Live to 100 and The How of Happy (the last two co-written with public health consultant David Conrad). Ariane's debut novel Shitcom was published in 2021, and is a hilarious body swap comedy. Her latest book is the biography The Real Sinéad O'Connor by White Owl Books.
