A tenant’s dog may be loud, but it’s far from aggressive—despite what her snooping neighbor insists.
After repeatedly lurking around the tenant’s landing and even moving her doormat, the neighbor’s curiosity finally led to an unexpected tumble.
But was it really the tenant’s fault?
Read on for the story.
AITA for frightening a snooping neighbor by opening my door and causing her to fall?
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.
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.
Well, that’ll keep weirdos away.
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.
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.
Um. Not welcome.
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.
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!
Could’ve have been this nosy neighbor!
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 butt, because she was leaning down to look under my door mat again! I said “See, just the one dog. Like I told you.”
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****le and b***h, 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.
Rats.
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.
Sure, things escalated when the door swung open, but maybe some boundaries should’ve been set long before it came to this.
The people of Reddit say she really didn’t do anything wrong.
This person says she might’ve been looking for a key…but still.
And this person says the intent to harm wasn’t there, so, no. NTA.
When curiosity knocks, be ready for the door to open.
But make sure you’ve got good footing.
If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.