Neighbors Keep Hitting Fence, Owner Lays Trap

Pushing Him To The Edge

Anger filled the man’s eyes. Having been an ex-cop, he had a bad record when it came to managing anger. He clenched his fists, ready to punch something.

Recently retired, he read, grew vegetables, and spent his days in quiet in the garden. Nevertheless, what his neighbors did infuriated him to such a degree that he was losing control. As his eyes became red with rage, he exclaimed, “This means war!”

Warring Residents

David Ellis lived in a small and private neighborhood. He’d served his community for four decades as a dedicated officer of the law at the Los Angeles Police Department.

Now, in what were supposed to be his golden years, he had traded his badge for a garden trowel on weekends and tended to his beloved garden with just as much care. But something was about to rudely jolt the usually mild-mannered man right to the end of his tether.

Enough Is Enough

Every weekend, David would lovingly trim and shape the decades-old cypress trees that bordered the small fence that surrounded his property. This mechanical activity calmed his mind after a heavy week of law enforcement. But it wasn’t long before some audacious neighbor ruined this hobby for him, too.

David and his neighbors — who were all distantly related — had been locked in a bitter battle for decades, and he’d been more than accommodating. But this was the last straw.

More Than Generous

The crux of the ongoing drama centered around the gravel road that bordered David’s property. For years, David had taken it upon himself to personally fix the potholes that seemed to form overnight.

Being a conscientious neighbor, he constantly worried that there would be an accident. He didn’t want to see anybody get hurt. But his neighbors had other ideas…

Obnoxious Neighbors

“Everybody here is a complete nutjob,” said David’s daughter, who couldn’t remember a time when the neighbors weren’t in dispute with her father. She begged him to find a way to end the drama.

But, instead of being grateful that David made an effort to ensure there were no accidents in his neighborhood, the audacious neighbors decided to take advantage.

Passing The Buck

You see, according to his ungrateful neighbors, the responsibility of getting the gravel road asphalted fell entirely on David’s shoulders. But how was that fair? They all made use of the road in their gated community, so why should David pay the cost?

But instead of telling them all off, David came up with a compromise. He was, after all, a reasonable man.

Sacrifice

Trying to appease the ill-tempered residents, David offered up a 3 sq ft plot on the corner of his own land to make the turn around the property easier on drivers as they navigated the tricky gravel road.

But despite the gesture of goodwill, his neighbors threw it right back in his face. But that wasn’t even the worst part.

The Last Straw

Since sacrificing the corner of his land, David watched in horror as drivers swerved even closer to his property. Then came the straw that broke the camel’s back.

One of the neighbors had ordered a truckload of wood. But, as the truck driver tried to cut the corner to drive onto David’s property, he took the corner too wide. The truck driver plowed over David’s fence. And nobody wanted to pay for the damage. David was incredulous!

Revenge

“We had to replant these plants and place a new metal fence,” David’s daughter, Miha, wrote. “My father told me this was not the first time this happened, but actually the third. I couldn’t believe it when I heard this.”

After mending the metal fence for the third time, the police officer vowed to protect what was his — no matter the cost. Now, they had gone too far.

Seething

After he had inspected the damage, David was seething as he stomped back up to the house. Now, this was war. After he had been so generous to this entire undeserving neighborhood, he’d had enough of being taken advantage of.

That day, something inside him snapped as he inspected the broken cypress trees. But he’d get his revenge.

Plan A

No one seemed to mind when the officer stationed a series of barrels around the plot of land he’d allowed them to drive on. It was his property, after all.

But while they looked like innocent plastic barrels on the surface, the neighbors would soon discover there was more to them than met the eye.

Threats

One morning, David was awoken by a loud banging at the door. His neighbor was furious that he’d driven into one of the heavy rock-filled barrels and damaged his car. But his intimidation tactics didn’t end there… he threatened the startled cop with a “pickaxe to the back.”

Knowing the law, David calmly informed him that the barrels were on his land. But his plan soon hit a snag…

Plan B

Despite the huge deterrent, David found that so many drivers were hitting the barrels that they eventually split and became useless.

Going back to the drawing board, he contemplated various ways to deter the inconsiderate drivers for good. Then one night, he set about laying something that would earn him the respect he deserved.

Pro Revenge

The first neighbor on his way home that night was calmly driving along the road as usual. He knew that David let people cut across his property, so he swung his car around generously — not caring about the freshly laid flowerbed under the wheels.

The next thing he knew, the driver found himself in a heated conversation with his insurance company. You see, David’s petty revenge turned pro.

Poles And Cement

“My dad was furious,” Miha recounted on the Reddit thread r/ProRevenge.

“He cut some wood to use it as a mold. He bought cement, sand, and metal poles,” she continued. “One peaceful afternoon, my father and I cemented that whole part of the land and placed some lovely flowers on top.”

Hitting Concrete

The disrespectful driver had happened upon the police officer’s new solution to the fence wrecking neighbors — a small concrete wall hidden under an attractive flowerbed right on the corner of his land.

It was working! The crafty cop’s neighbors couldn’t destroy any more of his property — although it took them a while to catch on before the matter was dropped completely.

Learning A Lesson

A total of five neighbors wrecked their vehicles while cutting the corner — on the perfectly legal wall. Not having a leg to stand on, drivers eventually learned to steer clear of the property and stopped knocking on the police officer’s door to complain.

But one particularly angry neighbor escalated matters further, sending lawyers to snoop around the troubled street.

Above Board

Some neighbors seriously damaged their vehicles, leading to insurance claims that required the cop to prove what he’d done was perfectly legal. Of course, he’d done his due diligence and could quickly show lawyers that he’d done the right thing. It was, after all, still his land.

When Reddit users read the satisfying revenge story, they clapped back.

A Viral Story

“I’m very amused by the logic some people go by,” one incredulous user wrote.

“For example If I intentionally hit your property and it damages my vehicle, it’s still your fault (the owner of the property) for trying to protect your property and not letting me just destroy your property… and you should compensate me for the damage caused by my stupidity.”

Other Options

“They ran over your trees? OHHH BOY. If they run over any more of your trees look up your local laws about trees,” another user wrote.

“People have been sued for TONS of money over the destruction of trees because they take so long to grow, so they have a lot of value” What this user is referring to is the complex, twisted world of ‘tree law.’ If you haven’t heard about it, buckle up…

Tree Law

If the old proverb “if the tree falls in the woods…” applied to tree law, it would be more concerned about whether the tree fell on a car or over two boundary lines and, most importantly, who would be held legally liable for the damages.

Unlike the old “tree-falls-in-the-woods” riddle, however, there would definitely be a concrete answer.

A Little-Known Legal System

So, the location of the tree’s trunk (where it emerges from the ground) dictates who owns it. If any part of this trunk crosses a boundary line, both people are responsible for it as it is jointly owned.

Whoever owns the tree – whether it’s one party or multiple parties – is responsible for the damages it causes if it falls and they didn’t take the necessary steps to inspect and maintain it. So, could David have employed a tree lawyer for his case?

Tree Lawyers

David had no idea that there were lawyers who specialized in ‘arboreal arbitration.’ “Tree law is anything that you can imagine that might give rise to disputes between people concerning trees,” says Barri Bonapart, a California tree lawyer.

Shortly after he made his Reddit post about his revenge, a lot of people were telling him that he should have contacted an arborist. It turns out that David could have done something about his audacious neighbors after all – and even gotten compensation out of them.

The Full Extent Of The Law

One man, known only as “Michael” on Reddit, utilized tree law to his full advantage when his unbelievable neighbor took it upon himself to remove some trees on Michael’s property without consent.

The audacious neighbor had never liked the way the trees blocked the sunlight over his outdoor entertainment area… and he also happened to own a tree-felling business. It’s not hard to imagine what happened next.

Coming Home To Carnage

Michael wanted to remove one pesky mulberry tree that was crowding his oaks and making a mess with its purple berries, so he made the fatal mistake of asking his neighbor for a quote to take just that one tree out.

Michael didn’t hear back from his neighbor and, figuring it was something he could deal with later, went on vacation with his wife. But when he returned, he was greeted by the carnage in his yard.

The Damage Was Done

They had already started to cut down trees at the end of his backyard while he was away. And not just the mulberry tree that they wanted gone. No, they had already cut down a number of their other beloved trees.

Michael looked around at the devastation and angrily asked the men what they were doing. The leader replied that they had been told to chop down all these trees by their boss, his neighbor. Michael surveyed the barren, sawn-off stumps where his beautiful oaks had once stood and took to Reddit to plot his revenge.

Hiring An Arborist

After weeks of back and forth with his neighbor, reading Reddit posts, and a growing annoyance at the loss of the beautiful trees, Michael finally had a plan.

They ended up hiring an arborist, or ‘tree doctor,’ to determine the value of the trees they had lost as a way to get their neighbor to admit his wrongdoings and pay up.

Bated Breath

Redditors on the r/treelaw Reddit thread waited for an update from Michael with bated breath. “I assure you, we are all anxiously awaiting how many zeroes are in the estimate that the arborist gives you so you must promise frequent update posts,” one user wrote.

“Who doesn’t love a good bit of well-deserved justice?” salivated another Redditor. And when Michael came back to them, everyone lost their minds.

An Unbelievable Win

To Michael’s astonishment, their trees were valued at a ridiculously high price as they were white oak trees that took hundreds of years to grow.

They then hired an attorney and equipped him with all the knowledge they gained from the tree doctor. It was then that Michael updated his Reddit post and told everyone how much he could sue his neighbor’s company for.

An Expensive Mistake

His neighbor’s mistake led to a $1.2 million lawsuit to cover all damages created by this incident, including covering attorney fees, road clean-up fees, and the value of the decades-old trees he cut down. The neighbor declared his business bankrupt and shut it down. He sold his house and moved out of town too. Michael and his wife didn’t have to pay a penny.

Maybe David should have gone the ‘tree law’ route when his neighbors kept destroying his trees. Nevertheless, both outcomes are still satisfying.

In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.