While my landscaping was being worked in 2001, the Mercers had a huge pile of pea gravel delivered and dumped on the street in front of their house for their playground area.

My sod was not laid yet; their sod was already in place in their front yard.

The Mercers started hauling the pea gravel to their playground area using a wheelbarrow ACROSS MY PROPERTY without asking permission (avoiding their front lawn).

Click Picture to Enlarge

In contrast, as soon as I noticed my landscaping contractor driving their tractors across the un-landscaped property of my east side neighbor, I immediately asked the neighbors for permission.

This incident shows how different the Mercers and I view the personal property of others. I don’t believe I have any right to use anyone else’s property without permission. The Mercers just used my property without asking. It was there, they used it.

Before the Mercers completed moving all the pea gravel, they hired my landscaping contractor to use his equipment to move the rest of it ACROSS MY PROPERTY to their playground area without even asking for my permission.

I don’t believe I have the right to utilize the private property of my neighbors, unless permission is granted by the owner. If I feel need to use the private property of my neighbor, it’s not up to me to make the decision on my own; it’s not my property, not my decision.

I assume the Mercers just figured that since my property was not landscaped yet, that using my property was okay, since it wouldn’t hurt anything...

It’s not up to the Mercers to decide whether it’s okay or not okay for any set of their rationalizations to use my property without permission.

This incident clearly shows that the Mercers violated my property, and shows a pattern where the Mercers don't consider the property of their neighbors.

Why is this is important? By itself it is not very important, together with everthing else that has happened, it shows a trend. The first time this incident was ever mentioned was in this website, it's not a big deal, but it shows a trend.

Jeff Mercer has even admitted that one of his daughters has a "screaming problem" on May 22nd, 2001 and confirmed it again on June 23rd, 2004 during our mediation sessions.