This happened 3 or 4 years ago and I will randomly reflect on it every now and again. I was home from college for the summer and my parents were out of town with my sister for a dance competition. I was tasked with taking care of the house and our dogs while they were away.

It’s either a Friday or Saturday night so I have some friends over to drink, hangout, and then go to the bar.

We lose track of time catching up and decide to head to the bar about 11:15 pm. One of my friends lived about ~5 minutes walk from my house and realized he had left his ID (his entire wallet in fact) at home. So he runs ahead to go get his wallet while my other friend and I clean up a little bit, get a roadie, and head over to meet him where we are going to call our Uber.

For context, my parent’s house is in a residential area just outside of a city, so it’s filled with families, old couples, etc.

As my friend and I head out, we notice a man is walking his German Shepard a little ways behind us in the same direction we are heading. Though we both remarked that it was strange a man was walking his dog close to midnight on the weekend, we carried on.

We are both 21 at the time walking with a red solo cup each just chatting. As we get within about a minute of my other friend’s house, my friend leans close to me and says, “I think this guy is getting closer to us.”

I nervously glance over my shoulder and disagree just to not panic. I look back at him and as I do, he looks over his shoulder and yells, “oh shit yes he is!”

I kid you not, as I hear this, I look back and the man and the dog break into a sprint. Like seriously, a full blown sprint. My friend and I freak out, throw our cups down, and book it. We get to my friend’s house, run up the driveway, get to his side door and IT’S LOCKED.

We aggressively bang on the door thinking this guy and his dog are going to attack us, but they stand at the end of the driveway looking at us.

My friend screams at the guy asking what he wants and why he is chasing up (I am leaving out several profane words here). We can now tell the guy is older and has a scruffy voice. “You’re trespassing,” he replies. We both yell back in unison that this is our friend’s place and we were waiting for him.

I’m freaking out at this point, trying to catch my breath and yell to him, “Who are you neighborhood watch or something?”

“Yep,” he replies.

My family has lived in the same house for my entire life and I have never once heard of there being a neighborhood watch, let alone a neighborhood watch that patrols the streets late at night.

After his answer, he and the dog turn, and walk away. There is a pretty large brick wall on either side of the driveway, so once they walk away, we can no longer see them.

Right at that moment, my friend comes out of his house with his wallet asking what we are yelling about and to shut up his parents are sleeping. Our Uber arrives just about at the same time.

I run to the Uber that is at the end of the driveway, look down the street and don’t see a thing. I ask the driver if he had just seen a man and a dog walking down the street.

“No,” he replies. “I just came from back there (pointing in the direction we had seen the man and dog go) and I didn’t see anyone or anything just now.”

Not once have I seen that man or dog since and it still haunts me to this day.