For some context, I (F28) just moved from my city to my first house in a suburban neighborhood about six months ago. Just me and my dog Oaken, a Dutch Shepherd. My dog is trained as a Personal Protection Dog (PPD).

I’m a runner and Oaken runs with me. We were running in our neighborhood’s park and pond area, I had my AirPods in, it was just getting dark.

I’d noticed in passing a guy on his bike on the same trails, and as we were coming around the pond he was stopped on our path. He waved us down and said he had dropped his keys, asked if I had seen them on the path, asked if I had a light on me because he thinks he dropped them in the grass, wanted to know if I lived in the neighborhood, which house was mine, if I was nearby because he didn’t see any cars in the parking area that he didn’t recognize, basically anything to keep us there and keep talking.

Not scary, but annoying with a definite hint of creepy.

After he forgot his initial story and said “I’m gonna be so pissed at myself if I lost another earbud, that’s my third pair and they’re nearly 300 bucks a pop” I moved to leave and he stood in the path and started asking about Oaken. Oaken wasn’t doing anything aggressive at this point, no hair raised no growling or barking, he was doing exactly what he was trained to do and every time the guy would move to get closer to us he would just stand between me and him. The guy asked if he was friendly, asked to pet him, and I said I’d rather he not. He kept saying dogs loved him, blah blah, I again said no and we started to walk around the guy to go.

That’s when he decided it would be a good idea to try to grab Oaken’s leash. (I have no idea why, your guess is as good as mine.) Oaken backed us up, low growl, showed his teeth. Didn’t snap, didn’t bite. We left.

The encounter was strange enough I posted in the Neighborhood app. Nothing accusing the guy of attacking us or anything over the top like that, just that my dog and I had gotten stopped by a stranger out running and a reminder not to grab at a person’s dog or dog leash without permission.

Apparently, Park Guy's wife read the post and recognized her husband immediately, because since then she’s been telling every neighbor who will listen about my “aggressive attack dog.” I’ve now gotten a letter from the HOA and apparently the next homeowner’s meeting has breed specific bans on the agenda. While I believe Oaken’s response was appropriate and controlled, I’m feeling sad and disappointed that my new community has the wrong impression. I’m not out to terrify people.

AITA for posting what I posted to the Neighborhood app and apparently starting a feud with my new neighbor? Was I wrong for calling out Park Guy publicly?

EDIT 1:

Yes, I have a home security system and cameras. The previous homeowners had a couple of collectible cars in the detached garage/apartment, and put in an extensive system.

Park Guy’s questions about where I lived, etc. didn’t immediately set off crazy red flags because I’ve been asked very similar questions by multiple women multiple times in the neighborhood too. I’m getting the impression I’m the youngest person in the area by a good 20 or more years because people have asked me who my parents are, who I’m visiting etc. It seems like the only “young people” hanging around are ones who drive in from other places to get to the park and this neighborhood seems weirdly territorial about their park.

I will definitely talk to an officer about a report.

EDIT 2:

Thank you very much Reddit for the kind support, and the overall objective and outside look into the situation. I did contact the local police department and they sent two officers out yesterday. I walked them through the situation, at what point I felt uncomfortable, and exactly how the neighbor then unknown to me stood to block me and reached for my dog’s leash. I gave them my written account and a couple of pictures of exactly where everything happened. I showed them the post in Nextdoor.

The officers were both very encouraging that I had done the right thing by contacting them, although one of them did admit she groaned a little when she got the dispatch to our neighborhood - apparently this neighborhood has a habit of calling in and reporting “suspicious behavior” that boils down to people who don’t live here using park equipment, fishing in the ponds, or just looking suspicious walking down the street. While there’s not technically a gate at the front entrance, and there are walking paths around some of the walled off areas and into the park, the residents feel pretty exclusive about our private, “gated” community and it’s the perfect environment for the ladies whose names start with K to thrive.

The officers went to speak to the neighbor and also his wife, and he admitted to chatting me up because he didn’t recognize me and wanted to know what I was doing there, but he denied he was actually trying to detain me. He said he saw that my dog had embroidery on his leash and was looking to see if it was an address. The officers gave him a pretty extensive talking to on how inappropriate his behavior was, and how lucky he was he didn’t actually put his hands on me or get the leash and how lucky he was he hadn’t tried to intimidate me further with a weapon or threat etc. They advised him it would be a good idea if he steered clear of me in the future, and if he has an actual concern about someone in the neighborhood or in the park, to leave it up to LEOs.

His wife apparently tried to convince the cops that I should be thankful people in this neighborhood “look out for one another” and the officers said they very professionally laughed in her face.

Everything is on record now, and I plan on penning a preemptive letter including the police report as an attachment and sending it to the HOA letting them know that if breed specific motions are on the agenda next meeting I would like to present said information in person.