I just posted an anonymous letter to a neighbour. Oh God. Panicking.

[LetterPostie]

I live in a Victorian terrace with a back lane. There's a man who lives about 20 doors down from me who let's his dog shit in the back lane.

It's hard to confront him because he lets his dog out into the back lane, then he buggers off back into his house. So its not like he's stood there while the dog's shitting so you can say "Oi, mate, your dog just shit, pick it up".

Anyway, I'm sick of it.

So today I posted (like into the post box, not through his door) an anonymous letter which says the following:

"Dear [Man]

A group of neighours from [My Street] and [Next Street] have seen [Dog's Name] fouling in the back lane on multiple occasions.

It's selfish, it's a public health hazard, and we're sick of it.

We have gathered photo and video evidence that its [Dog's Name] doing this. If you don't start picking up after [Dog's Name], we will be sending the evidence to the dog warden team and environmental health at the Council.

Yours,
Neighbours"

I was feeling all brave and bold about it. But now I'm panicking that I actually went through with it. 😂

Well done!

Anonymous letters aren’t ideal but you haven’t said anything wrong or intimidating.
Hopefully it will do the trick

If you aren't threatening to do anything illegal (which you aren't) and if the actions you are criticising are illegal (or at least a civil offence. Not sure what category dog fouling is) then you are mostly ok. The thing that is problematic is that videoing people in public without their consent or public notices warning them, that could get you in trouble. Cctv cameras are only supposed to capture what goes on on your own property. If you limit your video evidence to footage of the dog, with no humans in sight, that's probably ok as the dog doesn't have the same rights obviously.

So he is letting his dog out unattended in the back street in a public area, that’s a no no for a start.

He's a twat. Well done.

This seemed a bit more risky when I thought you'd posted his dog shit into the letter box.

That’s the next step

Good for you

Good for you. I would be wary of face to face confronting a person who behaves so thoughtlessly too.

You were very polite and more restrained than I would’ve been. Hopefully he’ll respond in the same community spirit. 🤞🏼 I somewhat doubt it though. He’s probably a ‘prefer my dog to humans and couldn’t care less’ type.

Good for you. Hope it makes a difference. Hate selfish dog owners.

Can’t believe you restrained yourself from posting the dog shit back through. We once had someone not pick after their dog on our very upmarket North London Victorian terrace (and in fact all the way around our block). Eventually our nextdoor neighbour cracked and snuck out with a torch and some chalk in the dead of night, and carefully circled each turd and wrote ‘SHIT’ beside it. Whoever it was stopped immediately.

Well done op! I'm similar to you in that I get angry and carried away in the moment then once the adrenalin leaves the anxiety sets in 😬

But you have nothing to be worried about. He is the one who did wrong and if he says anything just smile politely and say "Well then please clear up after your dog next time".

Very useful, but wrong thread!

Perfect

Spam posts don't care where they go.

I had an uncle who whose garden was fouled by a neighbour's dog. He shovelled it up, knocked on the culprit's door and said "I believe that this belongs to you!" whilst depositing it on the doorstep.

Mind you, Uncle was a police sergeant.

Yup. Second thread I've seen this on in the space of a few minutes. I reported it.

You don't need permission to film in a public place.

Some time ago there was a van that used to park in various places near us that had something wrong with its number plate. I was annoyed that the owners were getting a benefit by not fixing this, so one night I snuck out and put a note on the windscreen saying "Hi, you really ought to fix your plate, if you don't and the police check you might have trouble". It wasn't really threatening or anything.

About a month later there was a small fire in a car park nearby and when I walked past, I saw something looking very like this van, completely burnt out. There was a bit of damage to two other cars but clearly it was the van who had been torched.

I went frantic. Surely I would be the prime suspect in this wanton act of arson! I hadn't worn gloves when printing out the letter and putting it in the envelope. Would the police be fingerprinting everyone in the neighbourhood?

Anyway, about a week later when I went out I saw that the original van was parked just a couple of doors down from me, intact. I actually let out a little "whoop". But I won't be dropping anonymous notes on anyone else!

Well done - though got me thinking… hand-delivering anonymous letters must be getting harder now so many people have ring doorbells!

@LetterPostie nothing wrong with what you’ve done, and in fact I think it’s pretty restrained.

For what it’s worth, I’d have gone straight to reporting to the dog warden. No messing around.

That’s the only reason I haven’t put one through the door of a house 3 doors down, they are bound to have a camera 😂

Well done. If it continues call the council.