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Imagine arriving home at night and bringing some things in from your car. If you saw someone hurrying towards your house in the dark without a flashlight would you assume it’s probably a neighbor and nothing to worry about, or would you be scared?

In this story, one man explains that he likes to go for walks at night without using a flashlight. He assumes his neighbors realize he’s a neighbor. He’s not trying to scare anyone, but one of his neighbors still got scared.

Now, he thinks she’s being mean in how she talked about him to her family, but he’s also wondering if he actually did something wrong.

Let’s read all the details to decide.

AITA for walking around my neighborhood at 10 pm at night and scaring my neighbor?

I live in a very remote, mountainous region on a dark country road where there are no street lights.

At nighttime, it is very black as the road is forested. The road is also private.

I like to walk around at nighttime and do not use a flashlight, passing by neighbors houses.

There is no one around, so I don’t think it’s a big deal.

He accidentally scared one of his neighbors.

While I was heading back to my house at around 10 pm, I saw a neighbor (who I don’t know personally) walking to the end of the driveway who appeared to be bringing out a can.

I moved quickly toward her direction because I must pass her house at night to get back to my own, and I shuffled my feet to let her know I was there.

She eventually heard me in the dark, got scared and ran back to her house.

He feels insulted at her assumptions about him.

Her family was unloading their vehicle, and I heard her say to her family member that there was some weird guy on the road. She said this loudly so I could hear.

I thought this was rude (because she obviously knows I’m a neighbor, since this is a small community), so I started to flash my light at the end of the driveway and yelled out at her if she needed my assistance.

I didn’t leave until she finally came back to the road and told me no she didn’t need my help, to leave her alone, and I should use a light and not sneak up on people at night, because that’s weird.

She also said to her family member as she walked away that I was a prowler.

He thinks his neighbor is being ridiculous.

She’s entitled to be scared but to say someone is a prowler when you know it’s probably a neighbor is rude and obnoxious.

I yelled at her that my eyes are adjusted to the dark and that she should be nicer to her neighbor.

This is not a high crime area.

So, AITA for walking in the dark and not using a light and scaring a neighbor?

There is no way for her to know that he’s probably a neighbor. It could be absolutely anyone sneaking around in the dark at night. It’s very creepy. Yes, he should use a flashlight.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person calls him a creepy dork.

Another person seems to think he’s acting creepy on purpose.

It does seem pretty obvious that he was being creepy.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who wants their shed gone, and won’t listen to any arguments.

Everyone agrees that he’s being creepy.

This guy should teach creepy behavior 101.

If he’s not trying to be creepy, he’s seriously clueless. Everything he did just made him seem more and more creepy.

Thankfully, it sounds like he’s not dangerous, but if he wants to make things right with this neighbor, he needs to start using a flashlight. And, he might want to consider talking to her during the day if he ever takes a walk during the day to apologize for scaring her and explain that he likes to take walks at night and that he’ll start using a flashlight to avoid scaring anyone.