I was building an affordable housing complex in a dense downtown neighborhood. It was on land owned by the city, the local councillors loved the project, the neighborhood associations were supportive, the permits were issued.... basically it's a done deal.

One day I get a call on my cell phone from a number I don't recognize. I answer it, and a guy proceeds to scream at me nonstop for a minute or two, threatening to drag my ass to court, accusing my of illegal construction and bribery, improper public notice, hiding my identity from the community, bla bla bla. I eventually got him to calm down, and then I pretended we were starting the conversation over from the beginning. I introduced myself, asked him who he was and how he knew about my project, and asked how I could help him.

Turns out he and all of his neighbors had never heard about the project until it was already under construction. They had ignored all of the publicly posted signs. They had ignored the flyers I had left in their mailboxes as well, which had my contact information and invited them to an in-person community meeting. They had not attended the neighborhood association meetings. So when they saw construction start, they assumed it was a Big Bad Developer building luxury condos to gentrify the neighborhood and push all of the locals out. They had spent a couple of months pumping up this story on a neighborhood listserv and by the time they called there was this totally insane narrative where I was preying on the neighborhood.

I invited them all to a pizza party down the street to explain that the project was affordable housing, and to let them know I was a human being just like them. They turned out to be tremendous supporters of the project. But it was the first time I had ever been a Mega Villain to someone, and I didn't even know it!