Imagine being a woman at home by yourself when a crazy man starts banging on your front door and windows trying to get inside. Would you open the door or call the police?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she calls the police. Now that she realizes the man is actually her neighbor, she’s wondering if she overreacted.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA For Calling the Police on a Neighbor?

I need some feedback here. I didn’t think I was the AH at first, but now I’m starting to wonder.

Last week I (50F) was home alone while my husband (55M) was out running errands when the doorbell rang.

I never answer the door because it’s always either Amazon or solicitors (though fewer solicitors since we hung a sign), so I just went on with my business.

This sounds kind of scary!

Except it wasn’t either of those things, it was man (70s?) who began beating on the metal security screen door and angrily calling out for “Sue.” (I think).

I couldn’t see him at all without opening the door, and hell if I was going to do that.

I thought maybe he’d just go away if I stayed quiet, but he came around the side of the house where he could get to some windows and started banging on those.

I was unbelievably terrified by then. I am a small woman with physical ailments, so not very good at defending myself.

She called the police.

I herded the cats into the bedroom upstairs, locked the door, and called the police.

I should note, we have two legal defense items in the bedroom, but I’m not proficient and didn’t feel comfortable getting them out just then.

I then called my husband and waited on the phone with him until the police arrived.

By the time they did, the man had made his way down the street to harass some other houses where no one was home.

She found out what happened.

Now, here’s the thing…it turns out he’s the elderly parent of a neighbor. He has dementia, and “escaped” their house directly across the street. I have no more details than that.

Obviously, I did not press charges.

Now the neighbors are mad that I called the police on their father, and are telling the other neighbors to watch out for us as we’ll “report their family business” to the police, and my husband is mad that they’re mad at me.

It’s not like she usually calls the police on the neighbors.

We’re very quiet people who normally keep ourselves to ourselves, but we do wave and say hello to everyone (until now).

Our neighbor on one side is a widow with whom we are good friends, and agrees with what I did. But all the neighbors across the street are now scowling at us, shaking their head, turning away, etc.

I feel bad for the man and his family, clearly I’m not one to call the police at the drop of a hat, but what else was I supposed to do? Legally, I could have done much worse, and then called the police, but I didn’t.

So, AITA for calling the police on a neighbor?

Honestly, I think she did the right thing. He was obviously confused, but perhaps the police could’ve helped him find his home if necessary. She was scared. All she did was protect herself.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

She didn’t do anything wrong.

This person offers a good suggestion.

The neighbors need to keep a closer eye on their father.

The neighbors should’ve handled this differently.

Everyone thinks the neighbors are the ones who messed up.

When you’re scared, there’s nothing wrong with protecting yourself.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.