A dispute between two neighbors over property lines escalated when one man decided to remove half his neighbor's garage which was built on his land.
The issues started in 2016, when Steve Ritter, the owner of 148 Grove Street in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, passed away. His wife, Theresa Laythe-Ritter, took over the property and began to rent it out.
Gabriel and Tracy Brawn, who live next door at 140 Grove St., said they had numerous problems with various tenants over the years, and even tried to buy the property from Theresa.
Their problems came to a head back in April, when the Brawns dumped a load of wood chips near the property line. The Brawns told the Bangor Daily News the wood chips were needed to help a tractor traverse the downhill grade in their backyard to clean up trees that had fallen.
When Theresa's son Blake saw the massive pile of wood chips, he put a stake near the pile and told the Brawns to move it because it was on his property.
The Brawns refused, claiming the wood chips were on their side of the line. They hired a surveyor to confirm that they owned the land in question.
When the surveyor came to inspect the property, he determined the property line ran down the middle of the driveway and through the garage at 148 Grove St. After a second surveyor confirmed the findings, the Ritters asked if they could retrieve their father's ashes from the garage.
The Brawns agreed but were shocked when Blake allegedly trashed the place.
"We said, please do. We want our property back because we've been paying taxes on it for years," Tracy told the newspaper. "But he went over there and started throwing trash all over the place and smashing glass and taking bureaus and throwing them outside in the yard."
After that, Gabriel had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands. He grabbed a Sawzall and proceeded to cut the garage in half, right along the property line.
Nobody has been to the house since Gabriel cut the garage in half, and the Ritters have not spoken with any media outlets about the dispute.
Photo: Facebook/Gabriel Brawn