I had an incident earlier today where I was buying lunch and my dog was tied to the sign outside. She knocked it over when a guy came in and freaked herself out and bolted down the street just off Commercial drive. When I finally got her (carried my 45lb dog back up the hill) I brought her inside next to the counter just while I paid for my lunch and left (a couple min). Some guy started telling me to tie her up outside blah blah blah. My dog is extremely freaked out at this point and I checked with the staff that it was OK if I was just paying and leaving and they were fine.

I ended up getting annoyed and telling this guy to fuck off and that I was literally just paying and leaving and my dog was as close to the door as possible and it wasn't like she was getting up in his food. Then he says I "chose the wrong person" and pulled out his wallet with something that resembled a police badge but didn't actually look like a real one. He also told me to "act like the people that live here and not swear".

​

Anyway... what I want to know is why this guy was such an asshole whether or not community officers have any kind of badge, or what else it could have been and whether he would actually have any ability to do anything in this situation? I thought that would fall under the remit of Animal Control or the actual police, which I don't think he was or he shouldn't have been speaking to me that way.