Imagine walking down the street with your dog in a quiet neighborhood near your house when a car starts following you. What would you do? Would you be willing to talk to the person in the car?

In this story, two young women were in that exact situation, and they stopped to talk to the woman in the car. Now, they’re wondering if they were doing something wrong, because the woman in the car sure seems to think they were.

Personally, I think the woman in the car was being a Karen. Keep reading to see if you agree.

HOA Karen said we couldn’t walk our dogs through the neighborhood

This took place in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, OH today.

My wife (24F) and I (25F) were walking our dogs (both 20lbs or less) through the suburb beside our house.

We’ve taken our dogs this way multiple times in our 2 years of living here.

We prefer this area as the street is usually dead (due to it being a dead end) and we live on a busy 4 lane street.

The quiet neighborhood happens to be an HOA.

We didn’t know it was an HOA (I guess the subdivision sign could have been a hint).

Today, we noticed an Audi lingering behind us, slowly creeping up on us.

We both stared at it from time to time to let the driver know we saw them.

As we got past the last house to exit the suburb and head back to our house, the car finally approached us.

Let’s see what the driver wants.

The driver (probably early 40s, F) said hi ladies do you live around here?

We weren’t sure what she was wanting/needing so we said no (we live 3 doors down from this street).

She said okay, well you’re in an HOA and some residents have been complaining about people leaving pet waste behind.

At this moment, I made dead eye contact and lifted the waste bags I was holding in my hand to show her we cleaned up our pets waste.

The woman stated her concern.

She said well this is private property and since you don’t live here you can’t walk your dogs here. She said there’s a sign posted that says private property that we should’ve seen.

We had never heard of this before but we made nice and said ok yeah sure and made sure she didn’t follow us home.

We made note to look for a sign and all that was there was a sign that said no public parking.

The driver literally reversed her way back which I’m pretty sure was illegal lol.

They’re not the only neighbors who walk their dogs in this neighborhood.

Our next door neighbor takes her two pugs down that street a few times a week too.

There is no gate either.

I’ve been looking online since I got home and our city doesn’t say anything about it being a private road.

I’m tempted to call the city to ask about it but just want to make sure I’m not being a Karen.

The woman in the car is a Karen. If it’s not a gated community, you can’t tell neighbors they can’t walk on the sidewalk. They weren’t doing anything wrong.

Let’s see if Reddit agrees.

This person gives step by step suggestions of what to do.

Someone who lives in an HOA weighs in.

I don’t really think OP should take this advice.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a landlord who took action after a resident refused to respect an assigned parking spot.

Another person says not to worry about it.

She should just ignore the crazy Karen. She doesn’t live in the HOA, so it’s not like they can fine her. The community is not gated, so it’s not like they can kick her out. It’s a public sidewalk. She has every right to walk her dog through that neighborhood.

It’s awful when HOAs try to bully the neighbors who don’t even live there.