Weird prank or something more ominous?

As I was pulling out of my garage to go to work yesterday, I noticed something unusual in my yard. I found a fully assembled toilet sitting in the middle of my yard, facing the street. It had the words "It's a girl" stenciled on the tank. This had to have been done between 9pm and 3am or we would've noticed it happening. MrsSTM is currently pregnant, and that's not a secret, but we don't know the sex. My first reaction was that it was a bizarre prank, but the Mrs took it as more of a threat, describing it as "hateful". It really bothered her and she felt a little violated.

We've polled close friends and family and nobody has confessed, while most seem a little put off by it (and frankly, we can't think of anybody close enough to know where we live that would do this). The only neighbor that knows we're expecting is a very sweet lady in her 80s that is recovering from  recent surgery to remove a kidney so it's unlikely that she was moving toilets in the middle of the night. We've lived in the current house for about 2 years, so old acquaintances, high school classmates, social media friends, old Exs, nasty coworkers etc don't know where we live.

So what do you guys think? Is this a joke that missed the mark, something more nefarious, or just a totally random act?

I'd mark it up to random E36 M3 that coincidentally aligned with a portion of your life. Much like a horoscope.  Or how a broken clock is right twice a day. 

There is a far fetched conspiracy theory as well. The ultrasound tech we've seen went to the same school as my wife and I. She was a couple of years behind us and was friends with the younger sister of MrsSTM's high school BFF. MrsSTM and the BFF had a falling out after high school, but things weren't nasty (just early 20's girl stuff) and there's been little or no contact in a decade. There was no beef directly with the ultrasound tech or the BFF's little sister. The tech has been professional and friendly each time we've seen her. Last we knew, the former BFF was living several states away and was happily married to MrsSTM's high school boyfriend. None of them would know where we live, although the ultrasound tech could've accessed that info through the hospital (risking her job in the process).

I suppose it's possible that the ultrasound tech mentioned us/our situation to the former best friend or best friend's younger sister and they hatched a scheme. But MrsSTM and I both agree that seems like a lot of built up anger over (admittedly juvenile) crap that happened a decade ago. How upset would you have to be about something to ask a friend to risk her job just to put some trash in a person's yard after 10 years?

Dusterbd13 said:

I'd mark it up to random E36 M3 that coincidentally aligned with a portion of your life. Much like a horoscope.  Or how a broken clock is right twice a day. 

I considered that, but what are the odds? Why would somebody have a toilet with "it's a girl" stenciled on it in the first place? What are the odds that that very specific and weird toilet would end up in the yard of people who were expecting? Do I need to buy a Powerball ticket?

That is a lot of weird.  No idea what it means though, people need to be clearer in the meaning of their stupid pranks.

STM317 said:

As I was pulling out of my garage to go to work yesterday, I noticed something unusual in my yard. I found a fully assembled toilet sitting in the middle of my yard, facing the street. It had the words "It's a girl" stenciled on the tank. This had to have been done between 9pm and 3am or we would've noticed it happening.

 At first I LOL'd

STM317 said:

 MrsSTM is currently pregnant, and that's not a secret, but we don't know the sex. My first reaction was that it was a bizarre prank, but the Mrs took it as more of a threat, describing it as "hateful". It really bothered her and she felt a little violated.

Then I serious'd.

Could just be a coincidental prank, or someone trying to give an anonymous baby shower gift in a humorous way and failing, but on the other hand, it's quite common for stalkers to stalk over relatively inconsequential little nothings. Most likely not a stalker though. They tend to make their threats more simple and direct.

What are the chances that two different cars of high schoolers went and checked out a car sitting at the back of a sketchy used car lot during the same evening? What are the chances that both groups found the doors were open and looked through the car? What are the chances that both groups got pulled over from the police less than 3 blocks away? What are the chances that neither of the two groups knew what the other was doing or what the true reason on why they got pulled over?

Turns out, the house just through the woods from the back of the sketchy used car lot was under surveillance for selling drugs. The police believed the car was the drop location. The two of us were patted down on the side of the main road through town for a decent amount of time. Then we were released. We got to high school the next day and were telling our story to friends and another two guys did the exact same thing the night before and they were pulled over too!

It was a mk2 Jetta and looked kind of sporty.

Now try to put yourself in the police's shoes. No way would you believe that was a coincidences. And I assure you, it was.

It's a big random and bizarre world.  Though it might not be random...  you may never know.

Very different situation, but what are the odds that:  The one and only time the trunk of the car was left aparantly unlatched but closed, causing it to swing open setting off the car alarm at 3 AM was also the only day in her life that my wife received a pretty credible, non-joke, death threat at work?  I hope the instant adreneline rush as I exploded out of bed is something I never need to experience again.

Anyway, one super odd coincidence I could probably shrug off after a while, but I'd keep my eyes peeled for anything else out of the ordinary for a while.

I would place a "thanks for the free toilet" sign in the yard and move on. 

that's seems like a weird baby shower gift...

That is pretty weird.  Got any neighbors doing a bathroom remodel?  Sweet old ladies love to gossip, and it's likely that sharing your good news would be a hot topic, so most of your neighbors probably know.  Most people don't choose commodes as a traveling companion, so it is likely from someone who lives fairly close to you.

Or somebody could have pranked the wrong house.  

My wife raises money for Relay for Life and one of the fundraisers is to put a purple toilet in somebodies yard.  Someone has to pay to have it put in someone’s yard.  It isn’t just random.  Of course there is a sign on it spelling the whole thing out.  Years ago they would do a whole flock of pink flamingoes but that took a lot of time.  

In reply to STM317 :

If you haven't yet, I'd at least report it to the police. Just in case any future weirdness occurs that could possibly correlate to this, you'll at least have documentation. 

Yeah. That's really weird. Why a toilet? Was the message facing the street or the house? 

My vote is badly executed joke. It's things like this that cause every third house to have security cameras and motion sensors in my neighborhood. 

On a related note. My old man is a self employed pumbler and also tends to hold onto things that should probably just be thrown away. I.E. the unfinished section of fence that keeps the dogs in the backyard is currently made of old water heaters. "I'm waiting for steel scrap prices to go back up." Anyway. I may have social problems and like to just berkeley with people sometimes, and I know where I can score lots of free used E36 M3ters for random yard ornaments. Did I mention that I'm a bad person?

STM317 said:

I considered that, but what are the odds? Why would somebody have a toilet with "it's a girl" stenciled on it in the first place? What are the odds that that very specific and weird toilet would end up in the yard of people who were expecting?

Greater than 0.

People are weird.

The odds are greater than 0.

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to STM317 :

If you haven't yet, I'd at least report it to the police. Just in case any future weirdness occurs that could possibly correlate to this, you'll at least have documentation. 

Seconded.  It may be nothing, but if weird stuff continues to happen, at least there’s a paper trail.

There's a 50-50 chance of that toilet being corect.

In reply to Robbie :

Everything about it is weird, including the way the message was written. "Its a" was painted on top of the lid, and "Girl" was painted on the front of the tank facing the street in the largest letters that could be fit on each piece. It looked like they were done in different colors, but I'm a little color blind, and it was super dark out so I don't have a perfect idea of how it was laid out. MrsSTM called her dad about it, and he had it out of the yard 20 minutes later, and to the dump later that day before I got home from work, so I didn't get a good look at it.

I'm just curious at this point really. I want to know who, and why. If it was random, I want to know why they had this spare toilet laying around that was painted up like it was.

Appleseed said:

There's a 50-50 chance of that toilet being corect.

That kind of worries me. Not that there's anything wrong with having a girl. We just want a healthy happy baby. But if the toilet is right, and it ends up being a girl, my wife is always going to wonder if it was somebody trying to maliciously spoil the surprise for us.

STM317 said:But if the toilet is right, and it ends up being a girl, my wife is always going to wonder if it was somebody trying to maliciously spoil the surprise for us.

Upon review, this might be the weirdest sentence I've ever typed.

OB Doctors are known for ruining the surprise by placing a toilet with the sex of the child written on it in the yard of the expected parents. Haven't you heard?

Not directly related to the current events, but somewhat applicable.

When we were expecting our children, we discussed whether to find out the sex of the baby at the ultrasound or waiting until the big entrance into the world.

SWMBO had an interesting view, and pointed out that even at the ultrasound it was a surprise (since we didn't pick the gender), just earlier than the big day. So we got surprised early, which allowed us to plan some things better when prepping for the new arrival.

TL:DR - If it would bring peace of mind to know whether or not the toilet is right, you wouldn't necessarily be ruining the surprise, but just changing at what point in the pregnancy the surprise occurs.

In reply to jstand :

Knowing would not be the end of the world. We've got a sealed envelope at home that we could open if it becomes too much and we just have to know. It's not so much about the surprise coming earlier than we expected as much as it's upsetting to think that somebody relatively close to us would want to take that from us, or spoil it for us against our wishes. The fact that it was a toilet, and not something more normal like a sign adds a more negative vibe to it all. Nobody wants a toilet in their front yard, and whoever put this one in ours knew that regardless of various possible motivations.

For that reason alone, I hope the toilet is wrong, and it's all just a bizarre fluke. We should find out sometime in May unless somebody comes forward sooner than that.

I agree that the toilet and message is a weird occurrence, and am not trying to downplay your concern or reaction.

I was only trying to offer a different perspective on the "surprise" aspect, in case that would help with some of the apprehension this has caused.