Man cuts limbs from neighbor's tree, gets ticket

A 52-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for disorderly conduct after he took a feud with his neighbor too far, police say.

According to the Wauwatosa police report:

Four years ago, the man's neighbor, a 76-year-old woman, asked the city to plant a tree on her property in the 1100 block of Glenview Avenue. Since then, the man has complained about the tree hanging over his backyard. He doesn't live at the property, but he owns it and serves as landlord.

The neighbor and her friends were having breakfast on her patio at 10 a.m. Aug. 27 when the man and two workers started cutting limbs off her tree. She ran out and told them to stop, but he directed them to keep cutting.

She said her neighbor made threatening comments, including, "I have plans for you," and "Hasta la vista, baby."

The tree cutters arrived in an unmarked van and wouldn't provide a business card. They did start to clean up the debris, but the man told them to leave the mess. The neighbor and her friends cleaned up the yard.