When having a pet, it is always the owner’s responsibility to take care of that pet and its messes. However, not everyone agrees. In this Reddit thread, one lady thinks she is above that rule, which causes issues with her next-door neighbor. But little does she know, she picked the wrong neighbor to tick off. Content has been edited for clarity purposes.
Apartment Living With A Dog
“My partner and I were renting a ground-floor unit at a really nice apartment complex. I wouldn’t say it was a luxury apartment or anything but our ground-floor unit had a little patio off the back that led out into a really nice courtyard area with hammocks, a walking path, an outdoor fireplace/seating area, etc. A lot of people walk their dogs out there or let their kids play out in the grass, including us.
We have a 1-year-old Cane Corso. We got her when we’d been living in the unit for about 2.5 months and she was only 8 weeks at the time. She’s a really good dog and we trained her well. We could let her out to go potty and she’d come right back even if there were distractions, people, or dogs out. We always stood on the patio and watched her anyways because our pet agreement said we couldn’t leave our dog unattended.
Then we’d go pick up her poop right away if she pooped. Also part of the pet agreement as I’m sure is standard at most apartment complexes.
We kept a small step trash can outside specifically for her poop bags because we didn’t want to throw them away inside. It really was a small trash can, like the kind you’d tuck into the bathroom between the toilet and the wall. We also had her poop bags hanging on our patio door handle for easy access so we didn’t have to hunt for them every time we needed them.
We had no issues with dog poops in the yard until this lady moved in on the ground floor of our building, two units down from us.”
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Meet Karen
“One day, we ran into this lady carrying in groceries while her 11-year-old son was on his phone next to her. My partner held open the door for her and she seemed kind of Karen-ish but was polite. They also had a dog, a little black and white fluffy thing. It was super cute but not trained very well.
After about two weeks or so, we realized there were dog turds in the grass right off our patio. We found out the hard way because my boyfriend stepped in it the first time. Luckily he wasn’t barefoot. They were clearly not our dog’s turds as 1.) we always picked up her poop right after she went and 2.) they were very obviously from a small dog, not our 70-pound puppy.
We’d been in the apartment for about 7-8 months at that point and had never had an issue with this so we figured it was EM’s little dog.
I wrote her a polite note saying, ‘Hey neighbor! We noticed some of your dog’s poops aren’t being picked up and are right off our patio. Per the pet agreement, we all have to sign, we all need to be picking up our own dog’s poop each time they go. I’m sure it was an accident and you just didn’t notice, so if you could make sure to do that going forward we’d appreciate it! -Your neighbors in (unit#)’
She wasn’t home so I slipped it under the door and went back to my apartment. A couple of hours later, there was banging on my doors.
This lady was banging on my door and was really angry with me, insisting it couldn’t have been her dog and how dare I assumed. I felt really bad and I apologized immediately.
I said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It must have been someone else.’
She replied, ‘Don’t ever bother me with crap like this again!’
Then she stormed off.
Not three days later, I was sitting on my patio with a book enjoying the cool weather when I saw their little dog run out of their back door. No one was with it and it came over to me.
As I said, ‘Hello’ to the pup, it took a poop right off the patio, ran back home, and scratched the door to be let in. I saw her kid slide the door open enough to let the dog in and then closed it again without coming outside to pick up the poop. I was annoyed because here I saw with my own eyes that it WAS their dog and no one was even watching it when it was outside.
So I grabbed a poop bag, picked up the poop, and wrote another ‘less’ polite note about her kid neglecting to watch the dog or come to check if it had pooped/pick up after it. Then once I was done, I dropped the poop bag and the note on their patio right by the door, then went back to my reading.
It didn’t take long before she came stomping back to my home.”
$150 Fine
“EM was quicker to come by this time and stomped right up to me, waving the note around. Then stated how her kid was just a kid and probably just forgot to check.
I said, ‘I don’t care. Your kid is old enough to stand outside for 3 minutes and come pick up the dog’s poop.’
She said, ‘Well there’s no poop bags/trashcans on this side of the building. And I don’t feel comfortable making my kid walk all the way around the building for that.’
I suggested, ‘You can put a trash can like mine on your patio and leave your own poop bags handy as we do for our dog.’
She rolled her eyes, refusing to do anything about the poop, and walked off. At this point, I was super annoyed.
I stalked my patio door for the next couple of days as much as I could, just waiting. And sure enough on day 2 in the evening when I was about to give up, I saw the puppy run outside towards my patio. I whipped out my phone and took some pictures of the dog outside alone (not allowed) and the dog pooping. An hour later, I took another photo of the poop still there and time-stamped all of them. Then I sent an email to the apartment office people who were always pretty nice and they responded quickly they would give her a warning about it.
And sure enough, this lady came back AGAIN.
She was mad and yelled at me about how petty I was to report them to the office and now they had a $150 fine for not picking up their dog poop. It’s worth noting that these fines were rare. PooPrints were not used at this complex. In order for the office to fine someone for dog poop, they had to have proof it was that specific tenant’s dog’s poop and that it wasn’t picked up. Hence the photos I’d taken and timestamped.
I told her, ‘I tried to be nice about it with you TWICE before. And it’s your own fault at this point for not abiding by the terms of the pet agreement we ALL had to sign. ‘
Everyone who had a dog at least.
She went off saying, ‘I’m a single mom and I work during the day. And my son can’t be expected to pick up after our dog.’
I told her, ‘A 10 or 11-year-old is plenty old enough to pick up after a dog. If they aren’t responsible enough, then maybe the kid shouldn’t be letting the dog out at all. Maybe you should be the one to do it or maybe whoever is home with him should be looking after it.’
This made her angrier.
She told me, ‘You have no idea how it is to be a single mom. My mom stays with him during the day and shouldn’t be expected to look after my kid and my dog!’
Then she stomped off again. I expected to hear more about it but I didn’t. The ironic part is I AM a single mom; my kid isn’t my partner’s and I raised him alone for 2.5 years before I met my partner, so yes I do know how hard it is and I live 1000 miles from my closest family so I never even had the luxury of being able to have my mom watch my kid.
Over the next couple of weeks, we didn’t find any more dog turds off our patio. But we did notice our poop bags were depleting and our trash can filling up way more quickly than usual.
This made me have suspicions, so I decided to test them.”
The Suspicions
“We had recently bought some small security cameras for the inside of our apartment for different reasons, so I had my boyfriend set one up outside on the patio. We faced it where it could see our door and trash can but didn’t point to the rest of the courtyard or other people’s units.
Sure enough the same evening my boyfriend set it up, I saw the kid walk onto our patio, take a poop bag, walk out of frame, and then come back to throw it in our trash can. At that moment, I was ticked off but also not trying to fight this lady or her kid. So I moved the poop bags to the inside door handle. It was a glass door so you could still see them but we always locked our sliding door.
The next morning, I heard someone knocking on the back patio door and I went to see her kid standing there looking annoyed.
I didn’t open the door and instead, I just spoke loudly, ‘What do you need?’
He demanded, ‘A poop bag for my dog’s poop.’
I said, ‘I’m sorry but these are our poop bags for our dog. They aren’t free for anyone else to use, but the apartment provides poop bags in a dispenser near the trash can on the other side of the building.’
The kid again demanded a poop bag, saying, ‘My mom told me I could use yours!’
He then slapped his hands on the glass a few times. I guess he was trying to scare me. Yes, I’m so terrified of a ten-year-old boy.
Finally, he screamed, ‘I’m telling my mom on you.’
I said, ‘Fine! Go ahead! I’ll tell her the same thing.’
Sure enough, a few minutes later his mom was standing on my patio.”
“If You Don’t Leave, I’ll Call The Police”
“The lady was also demanding a poop bag for her dog’s poop.
I denied her a bag and asked her, ‘Can you please step off of my patio? You’re making me feel unsafe and uncomfortable.’
She told me, ‘You’re was a bratty child.’
I was 24 years old. Then she demanded I let her use my poop bags as I had already told her she could before.
I said, ‘No, I told you to get some for yourself and do what I do – keep them close by and put your own trash can on your own patio. Not use the bags I buy with my own money for my own dog and then fill up my tiny trash can with your dog’s poop.’
I also pointed out she could use a plastic shopping bag if she didn’t want to buy her own poop bags or she could use the bags the complex provided on the other side of the building. But she kept going off on me.
I finally told her, ‘If you don’t leave my patio, I will call the police as you are harassing me.’
She acted like she was going to call my bluff but then my boyfriend got home and walked up behind me to ask what was going on and she ended up dragging her kid away – again, leaving the poop in the grass off my patio.
So once she was gone, I took ANOTHER timestamped picture of the dog poop, downloaded the footage from my security camera of her kid stealing my poop bags and throwing them in my trash can, and the footage from them yelling at me and demanding my bags, and emailed all of it to the apartment management.
And there was no holding back on this email.”
No More Being Nice
“I told them that she made me feel unsafe and uncomfortable in my own home because she and her child felt entitled to come onto my patio and take my belongings. I also went outside, picked up her dog’s poop, looked in the trash can on my patio, and pulled out the bags with her dog’s poop. They were significantly smaller than my dog’s poops as I’m sure any dog owners could tell the difference in poops of a 12lb dog vs a 70lb dog.
I went and opened all the bags and dumped the poops straight on her patio right outside the door.
On Monday, I heard back from the office lady who said she would take care of it. By Friday, there was a moving truck and the lady and her kid were moving out. Pretty sure they were evicted or at the very least urged to move before a formal eviction process was initiated.
After talking to some of our other, much friendlier neighbors, it turns out we weren’t the only ones who had been complaining about her. They’d only lived in the complex for like 2-3 months before they made so many enemies they were kicked out.
Sometimes I think I should feel bad for playing a part in them getting evicted but honestly, I can’t bring myself to feel guilty about it. Not my fault she was a lazy entitled hag who couldn’t even get a shopping bag to pick up her dog’s poop. I never heard from her about the turds I dropped on her patio but I like to think she stepped in them without looking and knew better than to come scream to me about it.”
