Man loses 11 feet of property after chopping down neighbor's plants at 2 AM, pays $10k for destruction of property: 'We watched as he took down his fence'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 19, 2026 5:00 PM EST

This guy not only chopped down his neighbor's plants, but he did it at 2 AM for extra secrecy. 

Everyone knows that if you do something in the middle of the night, that makes it much more suspicious. Walking around your neighborhood, putting trash out to the curb, briefly perusing your neighbor's property… all of these things that would be normal in the daytime are, you know, a bit sus at 2 AM. 

Back in the olden days, I bet you could get away with trimming your neighbor's overgrown trees or chopping up one of their plants in the middle of the night. But today? No, no, my friend. That will not be happening! If even one of your numerous neighbors has a Ring camera, you won't be getting away with anything. One of my neighbors actually has a surveillance camera that announces out loud, "Hi! You are now being recorded," every time I walk by. This includes if I'm walking across the street — I guess the range of these things is pretty far, maybe like 100 feet? Aside from how unfriendly and frankly dystopian the little announcement is, I'm sure it keeps people from messing with their overgrown yard, as well as any of the surrounding houses. 

These people in the story shared below didn't mention if they had cameras, or just good intuition. But they did wake up in the middle of the night to find their terrible neighbor trying to chop up some of their plants! These people had put up plants to ward off the neighbor in the first place. It seems awkward — apparently, he could peer right into their kitchen. Considering how much time is spent in ones' kitchen, and considering a lot of that time we're also wearing our jammies or sweatpants, it's not ideal if your neighbor can glare in as you eat toast at the kitchen table. 

Well, these folks put up some wandering-eye-repelling plants, and the neighbor took that personally. He didn't even have a good reason why the folks next door couldn't have the plants — he just wanted them gone. However, the route he took to get there was just a bad plan altogether, and it cost him a great deal! Check out the full story below — it's a delicious tale of malicious compliance, as well as a good reminder that you'll get much further in life if you just ask politely instead of brute forcing your way into solutions. 

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  • 01

    'My neighbors wanted to call a professional to mark their property line, my parents agreed'

    Woman in white shirt looks upward with pursed lips, behind her, man in white shirt and baseball cap sits in chair on lawn, using laptop and talking on cell phone while grinning
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    This was a long time ago but I remember it clearly. We moved in to a community with tight space in between our house and our neighbors, and we didn't like them being able to see into our kitchen. We put up a bunch of plants, costing thousands but my
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    parents thought it would be worth it. A week later my parents awoke to the plants completely chopped down. My father was furious, and marched down to our neighbors house. He told my father the plants were on his property line, therefor he had total right to take
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    them down. He warned that if anything were to go on his property again, he would report us to the authorities immediately. Later that day my father called the company that put in the plants, and with the warranty we could have them replanted next
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    week for no charge. We made sure there was no way it was on our neighbors property. However a few days later we caught him chopping them down at 2am. We called the police upon obstruction of property, and after a chat with my neighbor he decided to
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    call a professional and mark his property line. My father agreed. A few days later i got home to find orange tape in my neighbors yard. Apparently, his fence was 11 feet over our property line! We watched as he took down his fence,
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    completely furious. Within the next month we were enjoying our new space and privacy in our backyard, and my neighbor ended up losing 1/4th of his backyard. My neighbor ended up having to pay almost 10k. for the destruction of our property, and we got to
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    plant our plants again. Tl;dr My neighbor chopped down our plants because he claimed we were on his property, after calling a professional he lost 11 feet of his backyard and
    via u/[deleted]
  • 09
    had to pay for destruction of property, and we got to keep our plants.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 10
    froggyc19 Something similar happened to my parents last year. New neighbour bought the house beside ours, started doing renos (without permits... but that's a whole other story), and complained that our fence was on his property, and that the new stone walkway leading to the back
    via u/froggyc19
  • 11
    my stepdad had built the previous summer needed to get dug up and removed along with the fence. My parents tried to reason with him, explaining that all the land lines in the area are all crooked, and that everything had been this way for 30+ years without issue.
    via u/froggyc19
  • 12
    He wouldn't hear of it and insisted on the removal, so my mom called the city and requested a new eval after fighting with this guy for months. Turns out, not only was the fence on OUR land, but his new one was on ours as well. His back fence was on the land of the backyard neighbour and same on the other side. My mom got the three other houses that
    via u/froggyc19
  • 13
    bordered his to all get evals as well, so in the end he lost almost half his yard to the surrounding houses. Justice is so very sweet.
    via u/froggyc19
  • 14
    TallahasseWaffleH... That Surveyor deserved a tip for providing that orange banner of victory!
    via u/[TallahasseWaffleHous
  • 15
    curtludwig When I first got out of high school I worked for a land surveyor, this kind of dispute is VERY common. We had lots of cases where we would have to testify in court and often a homeowner would be out pulling our locating pins out of the ground nearly as soon as we'd put them in. I told one
    via u/curtludwig
  • 16
    guy "Its fine, the ones that the town put in are still there, we can always put ours back." Next thing you know he's out digging up the granite monument in the street. The police have NO sense of humor about that...
    via u/curtludwig
  • 17
    [deleted] How has no one talked about how absolutely crazy that neighbor is. Instead of handling this like an adult and going to talk to your new neighbors to sort this out you sneak out at 2:00 am and cut them down. Who the hell thinks like that. People are something else.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    Man in baseball cap and sunglasses sits in round chair in outdoor setting, using laptop while talking on phone and grinning
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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