Late night door-knock worries Auckland dad: 'We don't have a clue what their intention was'

A terrifying late night door-knock has left an Auckland family suffering sleepless nights.

Blockhouse Bay dad Shivam Verma is urging people to stay vigilant after a stranger loudly knocked on the door of his family home in the early hours of Friday morning.

Verma said he tried calling out to the person to find out who they were but he could not understand the response. He believes the person was speaking a different language.

"This guy looked like a huge guy. I could literally see the reflection on the door because I have got a sensor light," he said.

"He was trying to hide himself from the camera," he said adding that it seemed as if he had obscured the security camera's view with newspaper.

"He was hiding right in the corner."

Verma said he had no idea how many people might have been outside the house.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Friday morning. Auckland man Shivam Verma was shocked by the intrusion. Photos / File / Supplied

Both he and his brother found themselves urgently bracing for a possible break-in of the home which had four young kids inside.

Meanwhile Verma's wife was on the phone with police.

Police arrived quickly and used sniffer dogs but nobody had been apprehended, he said.

"They might have seen the police."

Verma said his family were now all sleeping in the same room.

Auckland man Shivam Verma was shocked by the overnight intrusion. Photo / Supplied

"We don't know who is going to knock, or if these people are going to come back or not," he said.

"We don't have a clue what their intention was."

Verma said it had come as a big shock to his family, who had never experienced anything like it before on the busy street which has three schools in close proximity.

He was surprised by how brazen the approach was considering the security camera, motion sensor light and the fact that the home was clearly occupied.

"We always thought this was one of the safest areas," he said.

"It is a big trauma for us. It has been three days now and nobody can sleep."

He wanted to warn others not to open the door if an approach seemed suspicious.

"Call triple 1 if you have any doubts. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

"Never, ever open the door."

A police spokeswoman confirmed they attended however the person was not able to be located.

"There were no further lines of inquiry."

It comes after fears of suspicious doorknocking of homes on Auckland's North Shore were shared on social media.

Earlier this week, the acting sergeant at Glenfield Station Senior Constable Paul Donaldson, told the Herald that anyone had the right to knock on someone's door.

"It's a common-law right for any citizen to knock on anybody's front door, regardless of the time, unless they have been trespassed from that property."

He advised that "if someone is knocking on your door at that time in the morning and you're not expecting it, try and see, without turning on the lights, who is at the door, without going to the door".

"Speak to them through a side window and say 'what do you want' and qualify their intent."

Donaldson advised anyone believing that a visitor had a genuine need to tell them to wait on the doorstep and call police.