I was being stalked by a dog walker

This took place during the first lockdown, so spring 2020. At the time I was living alone in a new build house with very little garden. It’s a three-storey house, with the lounge on the top floor to make the most of a small plot of land. It took me a while to get used to the layout, and how I could hear sounds that other people couldn’t from the lounge.<br>A couple of weeks after the lockdown, I started to notice there was a regular dog walker on the street behind my house. That’s fine, except that this person seemed to want to walk up and down the street for hours a day. <br>The street is about seven feet wide. My house and the one next door are new builds. The houses either side are owned by an old man, whose children have inherited and use them as their second homes. The houses on my side of that street are all old builds, and are owned by the original family, whose father died a few years ago. <br><br>The dog walker was male, white, seemed to be in his 30s, about 5’9, dark hair and average build, with some stubble but no beard. He had a small dog, mostly white with some tan. For the first few weeks, I just noticed him walking up and down, slowly. It was unusual, but I assumed he was bored in lockdown and was spending his free time walking his dog around the estate because it was so quiet. The street was away from the main road and there were no footpaths, so it wasn’t a through route to anywhere and he must have deliberately chosen it. <br>I know the daughter of one of the old houses on my side of that street. She is in her 50s, lives in a nearby town and still has a key to the house because her brother lives abroad. She often came to stay in the house because she could walk to the beach from there, and because it was close to her work. <br>One day in April I was working from home and I saw the dog walker. In the afternoon I heard the dog walker again, but it sounded like he was slowing down outside my house. I didn’t think anything of it until I went out into the garden to have my lunch and I saw there was a note on my fence. It was from the dog walker. It said his name was John, and that he had noticed me looking out the window a few times. He said he had noticed I was a woman on my own and he wanted me to feel safe. He said if I ever needed help I could ask, and he had left his phone number. <br>About an hour later, the dog walker walked past again. He looked up at my window, and when he saw me he waved. I smiled and he kept waving. I started to feel uncomfortable, but he eventually moved on.<br>That night I texted the number, to say thanks but no thanks. I said I was OK, I had a partner who I was just socially distancing from, and I was safe. <br>I didn’t see him for a few days after that, and assumed that was it. <br>But then I saw him again, walking up and down the street. Sometimes he would slow down when he passed my house, sometimes he would stop and look at it. Sometimes he would call the dog and look at the house, like he was trying to get the dog to stop too. I started to dread seeing him. It was creepy. <br>Then I started to notice he had a regular routine. He would turn up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for a couple of hours. I assumed that meant he wasn’t working full time, and was probably walking his dog at the same time every day out of habit. He would sometimes turn up on other days too, but those three were regular. I dreaded those days. <br>I started staying in the house, away from the windows, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If I saw him out the window I would just duck down below the sill. But sometimes I forgot, or I wasn’t paying attention, and he would be there, waving at me. <br>I started to dread Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I dreaded him.<br>One Friday in late April, my friend (the daughter of the house on the street) called me and said she was going to stay in her father’s house for the weekend. She wanted a change of scene and to get out of her flat for a couple of days. She was going to walk to the beach on Saturday morning, and said I should join her. I said I couldn’t because I was on furlough, and I didn’t want to break the rules. But she said there was no one around at 7am and that she would walk to my house, so we weren’t breaking the rules by walking together. I agreed, and she turned up at the arranged time. <br>When she got to my front door I opened it, and she walked in. We were chatting as we walked through to the back of the house. As we walked through the lounge, I saw the dog walker walking slowly along the street. I ducked down. My friend saw me and asked what I was doing. I explained about the dog walker, and she said it sounded like he was a weirdo and that I should call the police. I said I didn’t think the police would be interested, and that I didn’t think he was doing anything illegal. <br>When we left the house we walked to the front door, and out of it, and the dog walker saw us. He was on the street at the front of the house, and walking slowly, and as we walked down the path he called out “Hi”. He sounded angry or annoyed, and I felt a knot in my stomach. We ignored him and walked away. <br>On Monday, the dog walker was back. He was walking more slowly, and regularly stopping outside my house. Sometimes he would talk to the dog and look at my house, and I could tell he was talking about me. <br>On Wednesday, he did the same. I started to dread him even more. <br>On Friday he didn’t turn up though. I was surprised. <br>That weekend my friend came back to stay with her father. She knocked on my door on Saturday morning and asked me if I wanted to go for a walk again. I said yes, and we did the same thing. <br>On the way out, as we walked through the lounge, I looked out the window and the dog walker was there. He was slower than usual, and he looked up and saw me. I ducked again, and my friend asked me what I was doing. I said the dog walker was there, and she said she would go and check. <br>She went out the front door, and down the side passage. As she walked through into the back garden I looked out the window and saw her. She waved at me, and I went out to meet her in the garden. <br>She said “that’s my brother”. When I asked what she meant, she explained. <br>Her brother lives abroad, and had been visiting their mother for a few days before lockdown. He got bored staying with his mother, and when lockdown started he decided to stay in their father’s old house. <br>As far as we know, he had been walking past my house on the first few weeks of lockdown, and had noticed me in the window. He sent me the note to find out more about me, and when he found out I wasn’t interested he started trying to get a reaction out of me. <br>When he saw my friend and me on the first Friday, he must have been angry that I had a friend with me. That’s why he changed his routine. He must have known that I was friendly with his sister, so he found out her routine and deliberately chose the Fridays when she wasn’t there. And when she was there on the second Friday, that must be why he didn’t turn up at all.<br>In the end we decided not to call the police. My friend wanted to sort it out privately, because her brother had a good job and she didn’t want to cause any trouble for him. <br>We decided to avoid him completely, and for me to only hang out with her at the weekends from then on. <br>I assumed he would lose interest eventually, and he did. After a few weeks he stopped walking down that street. Occasionally I would see him on other streets, but he never came back to my street. <br>I never found out the dog’s name, or how my friend’s brother was taking care of it. My friend’s brother didn’t own a dog, and neither did his family. The dog just appeared with him one day, and we assumed it must have belonged to someone he knew. <br>I moved away a year ago, and I haven’t seen or heard from my friend’s brother since then. I sometimes wonder what he’s doing with his time now. <br><br>He is my first and only entry for this sub.