I'd file a police report so they'll have it on file in case they do anything else.

John

I cannot believe that someone would be so cruel! That is totally uncalled for. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry that they are such buttheads! Yes, I'm censoring myself.

I would not only file the police report but I would speak to their landlord.

What jerks! I would not advise filing a police report. The police will not do anything. If the police speak to the neighbors they will most likely deny doing it and they may seek further revenge. Save your pictures and get a independent witness. Make a note of the date and time you discovered the damage. I would try and let it go. If you decide you can't let it go, go and speak to them directly about the situation before calling the police or the landlord. Neighbor battles can be pretty stressful.

OMG Laura that's terrible! I agree: call the police so you have a record of it. They'll call it 'vandalism' and the neighbors probably won't admit to it, but if it happens again you will have wanted to report this first one.

I'm so sorry - I know how badly I feel when the wind breaks one of my bananas so I can only imagine how mad I would be if I knew it was done on purpose.

Kate

Ouch! Random acts of violence....

Looks to me like there is only one other "yard" with access to your plant. There are some real nut cases out there. I don't think I would want to get into an escalating battle.

I am sad for you.

Veronica

You want to have documentation. You also want the landlord to be on notice that his tenants are vandalizing your property. The police will do nothing to actually help you besides take the report. But the report is all you need for proof should you need it later on.

On the other hand... Whack jobs who think you're intimidated can escalate on that alone.

I agree with the prevailing opinion...call the police. Tell them you just want to have a report "for the record," in case anything else, possibly WORSE, happens. And definitely tell their landlord. He needs to know. For one thing, there IS a dollar value on that plant, and it was YOUR property being damaged. So you do have the right to make your feelings known.

And keep your pictures, dates, etc, so you have a record if it continues to happen. What ignorant jerks. I'm so sorry, Laura. It would have made me cry. And then I would have gotten truly angry.

It would be one thing to turn the other cheek if you didn't expect any other issues, but you just never know what else they might decide to do, and you need documentation. Just in case.

Marcia

I have one of those neighbors on steroids. They came into our yard, had a tree trimmer cut a beautiful 12" diameter limb off our oak when we weren't home and they cut it back 10' into our yard. I got home just as they had finished. We called the police. The neighbor told them the limb was dead. ( yah right...) All the police did was tell us to put up a fence. We did. Now they only cut as far as they can reach over.

I completely disagree with calling the police over some banana plants. You will regret it. Don't tit for tat... it will make your life miserable and just start a war. That will lead to daily stress and tension and degrade whatever relationship is there. Ignore it and take the high road. You will be SO much better off for it.

OMG, I never knew there are so many of these nut jobs around. Last October my husband and I left town for 5 days. My neighbor brought in some amateur tree hackers and they cut a live oak in MY yard by two thirds! Yes, we do have a fence! The tree was 35 feet tall and the trunk they left was 12 ft tall. When I got home, I was major .... annoyed. Call the city government in my little town. They have all sorts of laws to protect trees. It has taken a while, but the neighbor recently had to pay a $3,000 fine, $2,500 of which should have been paid to us so we could replace the tree (don't know how we could do that!). Anyway, we donated that money to the city's tree bank. Neighbor also had to pay to cut our tree down!

The reason she had the tree cut? She told the arborist who cut the tree down that it was not healthy. He told her that it was beautifully healthy before she cut it. She said it threatened her house. He quietly disagreed and said there was no threat whatsoever. Then she said, well it dropped acorns on the tin roof of my shed. The arborist just assured her that acorns are not a sign of a sick tree. She really did cut it because of the acorns!!

The good news is that after that experience, we don't think she would ever dare to do such a thing again! But she is a headcase ..........

You could maybe write a (certified) letter to their landlord, so you'd have a record of your complaint and his response. Not sure the police could do much for you - without proof or witnesses, it's a non-starter of a case, and anything that overhangs somebody else's fence is gray area, anyhow. If some of the leaves of the plant reached over to their side of the fence, they DO have the right to cut them - but just those, and not the rest, because the TRUNK was on your side of the fence. It's always a legal mess when a tree grows right on a property line - good luck with this!

Makes me more thankful than ever for my wonderful, considerate neighbors.

I would think that because you have a fence (obvious) it is crystal clear that someone went over the fence and trespassed. For me it is clear as day, they must've reached over to get to YOUR plants to cut that low on the trunk.

If you have the energy, I'd file the police report and contact the landlord and send a picture to each to show what you are talking about!!

teeka

I would move the banana further away from the fence so they can't cut it anymore, and plant it in its place a confederate rose, which will not mind at all if they cut it--and which will cut them back.

Bill

Everyone who is not actually you is quick to say contact the police. I once had the same problem of a terrible neighbor. Everyone was so quick to tell me to get involved in a war. What people don't realize is that it never ends. Both sides dig in their heals. Why would you want to go through life like that over something that is not serious? (If any of you think a banana tree is "serious", we will never see eye to eye). Like they say when you get married (and it is the same with neighbors, YOU are the one that has to live with them. Once the war has begun, neither side wants to lose or give up. I never did acknowledge any of the petty tresspassing and other numerous irritations by my neighbor and I am so glad for it. They did eventually move but even for the seven years they were here, it was not worth a daily battle or open confrontations.

sorry, I meant to say CHEROKEE rose.

We must have whacko neighbors who are related!

Last year, my nutjob of a neighbor sprayed my 9 ft. tall, beautiful "Charles Grimaldi" angel's trumpet with Roundup because he claimed it was touching his fence, when it clearly wasn't. It had a good 12 inches of space between his fence and even one leaf on that plant! His house was up for sale all last year and we kept praying someone else would buy it! No such luck. :-(

The angle's trumpet died all the way down to about 2 ft. and has grown back this year to it's original height. I keep an eye on it everyday. I swear our next house will be on acreage!

I didn't know I would get such a response! wow.
Well, I already know that these people will do bad things that I would never think of doing and will probably do MUCH worse in a blink of an eye.
It's just not worth it to get into a pi$$ing match with nut jobs. They will always win and have FUN doing it. I'd be the one all upset thinking and worrying about it.
I might consider moving the bananas farther away from the fence...

I don't know about anyone else, but *I* certainly don't think it's easy to call the police. But I've had to do it before, and it worked. But mostly, I was meaning that Laura should have a written report of the damage in case anything further crops up. NOT that she should send the police over to talk to them if she wasn't comfortable with that. They can write up a report and have it on file without any confrontation with the neighbors. I've also had THAT done.

Laura, only you know how far you want to go with something like this. For me, I would sleep better knowing it was on file, in case anything more drastic happened. It would show a pattern and be helpful if you ever DID have to press charges for vandalism of a more extreme sort.

Marcia

So is your yard INSIDE the fence and the banans outside ??? Could they have thought it was not your property?I rented in WPB one year and a huge sheffelera was outside the second story window. It was great in that it hid the dumpster! One day the lawn people came through and chopped down everything.The landlord came and screamed at us thinking WE did it!We said we loved the privacy and the HOA was who hired them,they said it would fall over in a hurricane! We didnt know anything back then about Fl trees or hurricanes. Our fence now is inside the lot lne and we told the other neighbors that but they still treat our fenceline as the property line

I agree with manature...its good to have something on file. I also got into a pi$$ing contest with some neighbors that rented across the street. They had about five cars and kept parking them on my swale...which was starting to look like theirs...all bare and dry...my gardeners could never cut the grass because they refused to move their car. Long story short when they had the cars moved one day I planted heliconia on the swale...as we were planting the nasty neighbor came home and had the gall to tell me his landlord said he could park there...to which I replied I didn't care what his landlord said, I actually owned my property and did not like it looking like a parking lot....other neighbors saw us planting and were very happy...they called the code enforcement who told me I could not have the heliconia there because it blocked the view...okay I understood that...I removed all of the heliconia and planted very low growing florida natives ...I then contacted everyone in government that I could think of and explained the problem with the swale...its get complicated and I won't go into it...basically my representative and florida water management and the environmental department agreed with me. The nasty neighbors moved out about a month later :-)They no longer had a place to put their many cars....as my swale was no longer their parking lot. Not only that but my other neighbors were annoyed with the nasty neighbors as well...and they all started complaining about them and trying to get them to stop parking all their swales :-) Since nasty neighbors have moved we are all much happier :-)Sometimes pi$$ing contest can be quite fun.

That is a heart break for sure!!!

I have a case of 'Bleep! Crazy Neighbor!' as well. Don't we all?

My initial response was to 'take the high-road' for a number of years. I spent time having the 'I'm a nice neighbor chats': "You know, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't...xyz anymore...blah blah blah..."

It got me nowhere.

In fact, it just made me more of a target to this lunatic's aggressive antics.

I won't bore you with the details as there are a lot of them, but it included constantly parking in MY own driveway thus preventing me from exiting my garage. She had even told her tenant to park in my driveway. What a gem...

I finally filed several police reports and had her car towed one evening as she thought I 'wouldn't know' she parked in my drive yet again.

The moron finally got a clue that I wasn't a door mat. But, it was me that finally decided to stop being one. Some people are just jerks - no matter nice you are, they'll never get it and they take it as a sign of weakness.

For whatever it's worth, the police said to me that removing plants, etc. qualifies as vandalism and tresspassing. It's good to document this in case they do something else and you actually have to go to court.

Again, sorry about your banana tree and that you have to deal with these idiots.

Laura, You've gotten lots of good advice here. This is not something trivial. It was a deliberate act of vandalism.

If you don't want a confrontation with these jackasses that is understandable. But if they continue to do things like these, or heaven forbid, worse, then you'll want to have it documented with the police. Having it documented as a pattern of behavior may turn out to be very useful to you in the future.

John

OK! I'll report it. Tomorrow.

Thanks for all the advice and experience.

laura...I'm glad you decided to report...for your own safety and that of your plants :-)

Think it all the way through, Laura. You need to know in advance what you are going to say and do when the neighbors ask you about the police report.

I agree in principle with castorp but I recommend a mermaid rose instead of Cherokee. It grows just as fast and big (will cover the whole fence) and has even fiercer thorns. Who does the fence belong to? From the way it's facing it looks like it belongs to the neighbors, do you know where the property line is? In any case, if they try to cut the rose, they'll shed blood.

I know I'm late to the post but I did have something like this happen to me BUT I don't think it was intentional. Neighbor from next door said my banana fell over their fence. It looked the same as yours, clean split in half, but we did have one of those hurricane wind type storms so I believed him. Also they own the fence and have a podocarpis hedge 2 ft taller than where the cut was.There were 6 other trees that weren't split-just wind damaged.

I have a friend with dogs in her fenced backyard. The neighbor would bang on the fence, which caused the dogs to bark. Then he called the cops & complained about the barking dogs. Friend set up a security cam & recorded his actions. Next time the cops showed up to his complaints, the friend just handed them the video disc. Then filed a restraining order. End of problem. Hope you can resolve your problem.

All good advice...after the third or fourth time you are vandalized and finally call the police (without previous documentation with the police), the police will ask you, "well did you file a police report?" if you say no, they will throw up their hands and ask "why not?". What will you say? And then it will start from there instead of at the beginning of the issue. Do not get in a contest with the neighbors! These days, there are wackos on every street! If there is alot of traffic at their house (or anything else happens)... document (keep a running list) specifically what took place, how many cars, what time, day, etc. The more documentation you have to back up your story (think of police reports and court), the better off you will be. If you know the landlord, say something...if you don't, then write a letter, or get to know the landlord. Get to know the neighbors on the other side of them, you may have alot in common! Keep an eye on your property...you paid for it!

Laura, I'm shocked! I agree it needs to be dealt with, but not by the "real" cops, call your neighborhood community service officer. I use to volunteer for them and this is the stuff they deal with. It will still be documented but won't take some working cop away from big crime. I'd also notify that civic organization you have there, don't they deal with this sort of thing?
Lori

Lots of wicked people out there!
I am sorry you have to deal this, Laura!
Olya

Slow down folks! You are not even sure that the neighbors are responsible for the damage. One other poster admitted that she had similar damage from a storm. Yes, probably they did it. Is the fact that they probably cut the banana tree enough reason to immediately call the police? In my opinion it is not.

If the neighbors are crazy and evil and cut down the tree, the cops showing up on their doorstep will make the situation worse. Do you really want to worry about them dumping drano on all your other plants when you are away?

If the neighbors didn't do it, then calling the cops and accusing them without proof would be quite an insult.

The damage is done. I understand how angry and disappointed you must feel now, but these feeling will fade over time.

As far as keeping a record for future possible disputes really all you need is a disinterested witness, pictures, and a short paragraph to help you remember the details in the future. Yeah I guess the mere sight of police may cause them to spontaneously confess, but your banana will still be cut.

I still think you should let it go and move on, but if you decide you want to pursue it you should speak to them about it before calling the cops. I would try to approach them when they are outside. If you are afraid to speak to them directly believe me you are not ready for the confrontations that will result after the cops are called.

My friends went thru a situation where they called the police on their neighbor for riding a mini-bike at 2am. Some how this guy found out it was them & he started doing mean things, 1 ex. messing with their dog thru the fence. They put up surveillance cameras & he spotted them & started throwing eggs at the cameras, out of view of the camera! This was several years ago & it seems things have calmed down quite a bit. He lives with his mother & his mother tries to have conversations with them, but the guilty fellow can't even say hi.

Hi everyone.
Of course I do not know for sure that the back neighbors cut the trees.
We did have some wind last week and one banana in another area of the yard started leaning. I reject the idea that they may have cut the tree because it was leaning over the fence because the smaller tree (to the left) was also cut in the same manor as the tall one...lower than the fence line and none of the others in that group (can't see in pic) had wind damage.
I didn't call the police today and don't think I will. I know some people in the community and will talk to them about it just for the record.

I'd rather not ramp things up by stirring the pot. If it happens again I'll rethink the situation. I don't like conflict especially when it is so close and people can be such whack jobs!

My neighbor is worse he calls the Police and Code enforcement for anything he thinks is wrong. I have never been cited for anything.
I live on a dead end dirt road in the County.
Examples... Garbage can tipped over by Racoon. He called Code said I was duming garbage in right of way.
Called Police I was in front yard with rifle shooting it.
I was shooting the same coon in the butt to chase it away.
Perfectly legal.
My grass growns into the right of way and a little bit into
the road..calls code enforcement ...code says grass does not impede travel no violation. Driveway is full with cars
children are home from College I park in right of way he calls Police but is code issue. Police ask me to move so this guy will shut up please,plese,please move Mr.
Oak tree in road and right of way my side of road. This is
dead end road that dead ends into a wide brackish water creek, never will be a road. My house is 40 years old the
tree about 100. Code tells him same thing plus the tree is
a Live Oak and is protected,please quit calling us. There is
more but I think you guys get the idea.

Laura, you're making the right decision for you. Banana trees grow back quick, if you move them hopefully it'll never happen again. You know best what battles you have a stomach for, and if another event occurs, you can call the police then. Security cameras are fantastic things if you have a couple hundred bucks.

Good luck,

Gary

Laura, I'm proud of you. You made a good, sound, non-impulsive decision. (And the right one.) I hope things stay pleasant and they don't bother you again.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, I would throw the damaged items over the fence into there yard.

Maybe you could electrify the tops of those banana tree's. The next time they would really learn a lesson! Especially if it was raining when they decided to cut again.

Unfortunately if you take any of the abovementioned dangerous ideas (electrifying the trees) the law will not be on your side. You are not allowed to use such force unless it is to protect a person. As for throwing the garbage on their side...you would then be vandalizing their property. The law does not uphold a tit for tat means of justice. If they were mentioned as a joke though it is great to imagine. It may not be a bad idea to plant extremely pointy playground plants. Anyone sticking their hand into your yard will learn their lesson, and you will be clean in the eyes of the law.

Based on the fact that they keep calling code enforcement I think it is now safe to say that they did cut the tree, they are crazy, and they are out to get you. I do feel for you. You may need to get a security camera if you can afford it. Also be sure to take notes and document every time they mess with you. You may want to talk to the landlord about the harrassment. The landlord probably won't be able to do much, but at least he will be aware of the issue. Disregard my previous advice about talking to them. You can't reason with angry crazy people. Avoidence works best in these situations. Hopefully, the will get bored with these games soon.

The banana was clearly cut by someone intentionally. How about digging them up and moving them to another part of your yard? Then plant something really tough like Yucca in it's place. Homeowners often use Yucca as a security plant because of the treacherous points and serrated edges of its leaves. Try Spanish dagger or Spanish bayonet. They won't mess with them, if they try, they will come home with a bunch of cuts and scratches. Good luck. Sorry.

Was not serious about electrifying the plants but sometimes, you just want to..... :-) Cops or not, I would still throw the stuff in there yard. Let them call the cops, hey, it was an accident just like them cutting your trees was an accident. What are they going to do?

I had the flip side of your problem when I first moved to Deland: I have an overly HELPFUL neighbor! I'm used to her now, and we get along just fine, but I still remember how creeped out I was the first six months I lived in my house.

My very first conversation with her (My second day in the house) was when she showed up with a pair of hedge clippers in her hand, and told me I was welcome to borrow them, but if I was too busy to get to the yardwork today, she'd do it for me! Talk about a broad hint! lol - and I hadn't even unpacked the coffee pot yet!

She's retired and bored, and she seemed to be in my yard at all hours from then on out: I'd find my (still damp!) clothes off the line and on my porch in one of her laundry baskets,day after day, because she "thought it might rain". I'd come home from work and find trees trimmed, hedges clipped, yard mowed, trash cans taken to the curb or back again: anything I might think to do around the yard, she'd stay a day ahead of me. Sounds like a sweet deal, doesn't it? It ain't!

You like the look of a tree? Too bad, it won't still look like that when you get home. You want to prop your trash cans upside down to dry up and air out? Too bad, they'll be right side up before you can get back in the house. You want to take a nice nap? Too bad, she feels like mowing around and around your bedroom windows. It's not YOUR HOME - it's bored neighbor lady's little busywork project. You don't get a say.

You can't even complain because it's all done so sweetly and ever so helpfully, who could be so mean as to protest?

And all this un-requested assistance comes at a price, because you will now find yourself guiltily obligated, against your will, to make yourself available for any little projects she might undertake at her OWN dang house; when all you wanted from day one was to be left the heck alone!

Dang neighbors! Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em! :)

Your neigbhor has A) boundry issues B)Control issues. What a nightmare. I don't know what I would do if I were in your situation because i haven't been there. I only know what I'd LIKE to do! hehe
For sure she would creep me out and right after that the "no trespassing" signs would go up! I'm just saying...

I know, I know! I did consider those "No trespassing" signs in the early days; but now I'm so used to her I don't give it much of a thought. She finally realized, a year or two into our acquaintance, that she was never going to convert me to her "hop up at dawn and get cracking!" way of life, and I finally gave up on getting her to relax and go away. Now, if there's a weekend morning that she's not busily bustling back and forth outside my windows, I kinda miss her! And when she is, I just drag her inside once in a while for some iced tea and a chat. :)

I had a neighbor like that when I 1st moved into this house. Sadly, he passed away from Leukemia at a ripe old age. He was the main stay of this neighborhood & would pick up debris out of the street to keep everything looking nice, not like it really needed it, but was nice that he did it. I contribute his lifestyle to the reason he lived as long as he did. He never came into my yard to do anything, but came in to inspect for his approval. I have a fenced in yard too, I would hear the gate open & panic a stranger was in my yard...it was always him. No matter what I did he disapproved, all the way from me painting wood inside my house to the truck I bought. I never got upset with him, I just laughed & teased him. He has been gone for almost 3yrs now & do miss him.