It was a typical your-property-my-property dispute between neighbors.
But this one ended when one man took a hammer to a tree house and smashed it to smithereens.
Though their homes were separated only by a wooded ravine, Susan McCormick said her family has lived peacefully for the past seven years without meeting the Hutsons, the couple whose home backed up to theirs in a well-to-do Falls Road neighborhood.
That all ended when her son, Jack, and his friend, Brady Harvey, both 11, built a tree house in what McCormick thought was her backyard. But Thomas Hutson thought otherwise.
The property line debate climaxed Sunday when, captured on video, Hutson shattered the tree house into pieces before calmly picking up his tools and ladder and walking back to his home.
After shooting the footage of the destruction, Jack filmed the debris scattered amid tile he had planned to install in the tree house.
“We worked on this for months,” he said. “I am so mad. No, more sad.”
Hutson, in an interview Thursday, said McCormick started the fight. He said his wife, Cynthia, was out back two months ago when McCormick yelled at her to get off the property.
He said the tree house wasn?t at issue ? just McCormick?s attitude.
“I was a kid and I built tree houses on everyone?s property,” he said. “It would never have been a big deal if someone hadn?t come out running and screaming.”
Hutson said he hired a surveyor to measure the properties before dismantling the tree house. When McCormick said she was planning to have her own surveyor verify the results, he said it wasn?t necessary to wait.
“A surveyor is a surveyor,” he said. “You could get 15 companies out there and it will come within an inch.”
McCormick offered to buy the property or have the boys pay “rent” by raking leaves or taking out Hutson?s trash. She also enlisted the county?s help, though Baltimore County Permits and Development Director Don Roscoe said he stays out of such feuds.
“It?s a civil matter,” he said. “We tell people if there is a property dispute, get a surveyor.”
That?s something McCormick said she still plans to do. But for Jack and Brady, the damage is done.
“It was just meanness,” she said. “It was their blood, sweat and tears. It was their dream.”
