Ok, how’s this:
They were almost certainly trespassing, I’d bet my house on it.
But nobody else on the street was freaked out about it. If they really had been an angry mob set on death and destruction, they wouldn’t have been stopped by the McCloskeys, they would have just gone to the next house. Hell, if they cared at all about the McCloskys, they wouldn’t have been stopped by them, either.
Add to that the McClosky’s history of suing everyone (for their own gain, not just for their clients) and the fights about what they own they’ve had with the HOA, and their neighbors don’t have anything nice to say about them, I’m guessing they don’t have a great sense of what trespassing is, either.