One of the great things about being a human being is getting to interact with the other human beings who live near us – except when it isn’t.
The internet is full of sketchy and even rude and frightening neighbor stories, and I don’t know…you’ll have to read this one and let me know where you think it falls on this scale.
OP lives in a dog-friendly building on the third floor, where her apartment is the only one – which means no one should be on her landing unless they’re coming to see her.
I (337F) live alone in a pet friendly, no breed restrictions, apartment building (renting) in a US city that has significant crime. Our building has 2 on the 1st floor, 2 on the 2nd floor, 1 on the 3rd. I live on the 3rd floor.
I don’t share a landing with any of my neighbors and anyone coming up to the third floor is coming there for me. We do not have a secured gate or a front door to the building.
She owns a mid-sized dog who is sweet and not aggressive, but who has been trained to bark when there is someone outside the door (for various good reasons).
I have a 40lb dog, not aggressive in the slightest, does not have leash aggression, does not resource guard. She does have ONE guarding tendency, and due to where I live alone, I fostered this: she will bark at the door when someone is outside.
She is part hunting hound so she has a very big, vocal howl-bark. I’ve always found this comforting because I will always know if someone is coming when I am not expecting anyone.
Sometimes people will come up to lurk on my landing who have no business being there, and my dog will scare them away. She also lets me know when deliveries have been dropped off.
One of her downstairs neighbors seems helpful and nice, sometimes bringing up mail and undelivered packages, but she’s also done some sketchy stuff.
She’s also obsessed with OP having “a second, aggressive dog” since her dog only barks when someone is at her door.
A downstairs neighbor (45-50F) from the 1st floor has been up on my landing several times. She will sometimes bring up packages or mail if it’s left downstairs, which is nice, but I’ve seen her through the peephole lurking around without anything to leave for me. One time she moved my door mat.
She has seen me walking my dog several times. Outside of my apartment, my dog is all wags. She’s asked several times where my “other, aggressive” dog is. Because she’s been up to my landing and heard my dog’s big barks. I have told her each time that I only have one dog and that she just sounds like aggressive at the door. She hasn’t stopped asking about my other dog, though.
Recently her landlord told OP that she needs to report it if there’s a second dog, and soon afterward, the same neighbor is back on her landing snooping.
When she opened the door to confront the woman, her neighbor fell.
Last week my property manager emailed about “reports that I may have 2 dogs, which is fine, just to let them know because they want to know how many animals are in the building”. I wonder how they get this report!
Today my neighbor was on my landing again! From my peephole I saw her bending down in front of my door but couldn’t tell what she was doing.
So I swung my door open, with my dog standing beside me, loudly barking.
She got spooked from the noise and fell on her ass, because she was leaning down to look under my door mat again!
I said “See, just the one dog. Like I told you.”
She offered to help her up but the neighbor was angry, storming off with some rude comments along the way.
OP’s sister thinks she should have considered an accident could happen before frightening the neighbor, but OP isn’t sure she was wrong.
Then I realized she may have injured herself when she fell and offered to help her up but she just stormed off, calling me an a*hole and b*tch, said the building was better before I moved in. I have lived here for 5 years. This is the first I am having this issue.
My sis told me I’m an a*hole because I could have given the woman a heart attack by frightening her. I kind of see her point. However I did not know she was going to fall over. I still do not know what she was doing on my landing.
Other tenants have dogs too and you can hear ALL the dogs barking any time a delivery car pulls up. I always considered it the price of a pet friendly apartment.
What does Reddit say about this snoopy neighbor? Keep reading to find out!
It definitely seems as if she could be looking for a key…for some reason.
Image Credit: Reddit
And if she was hunting for a key, OP shouldn’t feel badly about scaring her.
Image Credit: Reddit
They definitely think OP is right to be unsettled.
Image Credit: Reddit
Some people think OP should invest in a camera, in addition to the dog.
Image Credit: Reddit
She could be trying to get the dog kicked out, which imo, might be even worse.
Image Credit: Reddit
This woman got what she was asking for, that’s what I think.
Hopefully the scare worked.
Share your opinion on the matter in the comments!
