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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMan walks into neighbor's yard, cuts down 50-year-old trees to improve his views
A woman on the vacation island of Nantucket is suing her neighbor after he allegedly walked onto her property and cut down several of her trees for a better view of the ocean and the increased property value that comes with it.
The lawsuit accuses Jonathan Jacoby of using a chainsaw to fell 16 of Patricia Belfords nearly 50-year-old cedar, cherry, and Leyland cypress trees.
Three weeks after he allegedly cut down the trees, Jacoby listed his home for sale for nearly $10 million, according to the Boston Globe.
Listed among the home's features: its "sweeping view of the Atlantic Ocean," according to the complaint.
When asked why he destroyed Belford's trees, Jacoby provided a terse response.
"I wasn't trespassing, I was clearing out her crappy trees," he told the Boston Globe in a single-line email.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nantucket-man-walked-neighbor-yard-171813348.html
What an entitled asshole!

question everything
(50,648 posts)Last edited Mon Jul 14, 2025, 09:52 PM - Edit history (1)
SheltieLover
(71,831 posts)

returnee
(601 posts)2naSalit
(97,349 posts)She demands. What a fuckhead.
rsdsharp
(11,077 posts)KPN
(16,762 posts)TomSlick
(12,600 posts)R Merm
(431 posts)Grins
(8,616 posts)
came to $1.4 million!
Then there are the charges of trespassing, conspiracy, fraudulent enticement, etc. that city can charge.
electric_blue68
(22,444 posts)I love trees. 😞
Hopefully he can be taken to court.
.At least to get money to buy new trees!
IbogaProject
(4,667 posts)I hope he looses all his equity.
MustLoveBeagles
(13,471 posts)bucolic_frolic
(51,514 posts)sheshe2
(92,928 posts)sop
(15,237 posts)ret5hd
(21,614 posts)and out the property shes soon gonna own.
Response to sop (Reply #8)
live love laugh This message was self-deleted by its author.
live love laugh
(15,648 posts)
CurtEastPoint
(19,573 posts)
live love laugh
(15,648 posts)BoRaGard
(6,410 posts)low low low
Cheezoholic
(3,117 posts)from MAGAville
ZDU
(577 posts)... might be tight fitting
skypilot
(9,025 posts)I googled him too because I just had to see what someone this douche-y looks like. There are a few guys named Jonathan Jacoby who come up in the image results.
CurtEastPoint
(19,573 posts)onethatcares
(16,876 posts)I wonder if he was interning back in 2002.
Blues Heron
(7,181 posts)xocetaceans
(4,222 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 15, 2025, 08:12 PM - Edit history (1)
whose motto equated to "Blow me!"
'Twixt his house and the seas,
he cut down some trees
to clear 'his' horizons corruptly.
Blues Heron
(7,181 posts)xocetaceans
(4,222 posts)Auggie
(32,425 posts)by listing the house for nearly $10 million.
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)Auggie
(32,425 posts)and civil damages. His actions decreased the homeowners property value by removing the privacy screen. They can sue for that.
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)How much more money he could make on his house with a clear ocean view.
And how much he will have to pay for the trees and the decease in value of the
damaged property.
Already has his attorney lined up and ready to make a deal.
This is how these people think.
localroger
(3,770 posts)Replacement cost for a tree of that class is minimum five, possibly six figures. For one tree. Asswipe cut fifty of 'em. The house with the improved view won't be worth the pigeon droppings sitting on its roof if it gets assessed for the damages.
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)He can give the owner of the damaged property a million and he is still doing well.
localroger
(3,770 posts)An old tree that size will cost at least $50K to replace. Fifty trees. Most likely it will be more, a lot more, because that's base replacement cost for the actual tree, not the work, landscaping, transport, etc. none of which are cheap. I guarantee his view wasn't improved enough to even begin to cover it.
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)PatrickforB
(15,252 posts)VMA131Marine
(5,055 posts)At $100,000 per tree and treble damages.
He really didnt think things through.
What is his defense going to be? He isnt entitled to an ocean view!
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)Of course you have to add in his attorney fees.
Maybe he thinks he can negotiate a good deal for himself.
druidity33
(6,787 posts)if he is asking for ten million, he might owe 8 mil. These guys aren't as slick as they always pretend to be.
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)He thinks he can throw the damaged property owner a $1 million or less and walk away with $9 million.
But maybe she won't settle for that amount and will go to court.
And yes maybe he has a mortgage.
Even if he has an $8 million mortgage, and pays a $1 million to the neighbor, he still walks away with a $1 million.
I wouldn't sneeze at making $1 million on a house sale.
druidity33
(6,787 posts)checking the Registry of Deeds would tell you how much he payed for the place.
Irish_Dem
(72,498 posts)Or he is plain greedy.
AllaN01Bear
(26,519 posts)!@#%^&^#$@#$%&*(((*
defacto7
(14,129 posts)who he thinks will swoop in and buy him out quickly and he's stupid as hell ... or ...
he has lost his mind, has bucks far beyond the value of the house and holds a major grudge against his neighbor ... and he's just stupid as hell.
Dr. T
(307 posts)That's one of my common observations. I've learned over and over again that financial success doesn't necessarily equate to high intelligence.
The Orange Ignoramus is a shining example.
Grim Chieftain
(411 posts)But you cannot replace trees that are nearly fifty years old - let alone sixteen trees. What an evil, self-entitled creep. I hope the whole community bands together to shun him.
tinrobot
(11,647 posts)I say fine him $1M per tree.
Grim Chieftain
(411 posts)I love it! Excellent idea.
sheshe2
(92,928 posts)Grim Chieftain
(411 posts)sheshe2
(92,928 posts)

TNNurse
(7,362 posts)He needs to suffer consequences
NJCher
(40,729 posts)Because our town faces Manhattan and has fabulous views of the skyline. They have had to pay huge court judgments for it.
My place has a stunning skyline view from both my windows and also my pool, which is built into the side of a mountain. My neighbor two streets up has a room at the back of his house that he likes to look from, but my trees covered the view. He came to my house and asked if he paid for the tree trimming, would I mind? We had allowed him to do tree trimming of our trees once before, only the RG handled it. This time I did.
This neighbor wined and dined me, gave me gift cards for substantial amounts, and one night he invited me over to see the fabulous view the tree-trimming had allowed. BTW, he hired an expert tree trimmer who trimmed only a small amount, just what was necessary. The night he invited me over, he had put out quite a culinary spread and we talked for a few hours, finding out that we both patronized a particular Manhattan establishment at the same time decades ago. We just never met up with each other until the tree thing.
He's a very friendly, person. An author. He gave me a signed copy of his last book, which I very much enjoyed.
So it doesn't have to be this way, Mr. Jacoby.
LisaM
(29,286 posts)John Olerud (former Seattle Mariner) cut down a neighbor's tree without permission, then there was that case where someone poisoned his neighbor's trees.
Among other things, trees prevent erosion, so it's more than just selfishness to behave this way.
It sounds as if your neighbor landed on the best solution.
riversedge
(76,637 posts)
Belford points out in her lawsuit that the ocean vistas were "conspicuously missing from the property's prior listings."
JoseBalow
(7,961 posts)
sinkingfeeling
(55,937 posts)Response to sinkingfeeling (Reply #29)
chowder66 This message was self-deleted by its author.
sinkingfeeling
(55,937 posts)TrollBuster9090
(6,073 posts)Except he didn't cut the trees down. He just cut a 2 inch thick strip of BARK from around each trunk, thus killing them without having to cut them down. They never proved who did it. They must have been in and out like a Ninja, in the night. And this was before the days of security cameras. (But they just would have worn a mask, anyway.)
The house that was blocked by the trees was already for sale by a realestate agent, and it sold for more than it otherwise would have, now that it had 'acquired' a panoramic view!
But the owner never got any compensation for that. It was outrageous!
I like the idea of a lawsuit! The judge should assess the value of the $10,000,000 house WITH and WITHOUT the view. And should award the difference to the plaintiff. If it sold for $10,000,000; and it was valued at $7,000,000 WITHOUT the view...it looks like that asshole owes his neighbour $3,000,000.
DFW
(58,514 posts)When he whines that the judgment is disproportional to his offense, the response could be that expecting the neighbor to wait fifty years for the trees to grow back is equally disproportional.
slightlv
(6,137 posts)someone else's property and cut down their tree. The first one I read (crap... just went back into the news aggregator and it's fallen off the list, damn it!)... anyway, the guy had the neighbors 89 year old oak tree chopped down and then had the audacity of invoicing her for HALF of the cost of cutting it down!
I know MAGAs detest science, and especially abhor anything to do with climate change, etc.. but have they completely gone nuts about Nature, in general? Kill all the trees... whether or not they're on your property? Or do they just believe (like cats) that all their property is theirs, and all your properties are theirs, too? I'm really not sure at this point.
SheltieLover
(71,831 posts)

Abolishinist
(2,648 posts)And it's 89" in circumference as well! Looks like this has been dragging on for over a year now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/treelaw/comments/1du308q/neighbor_had_no_idea_where_the_property_lines_are/
Joinfortmill
(18,596 posts)In MA: '...malicious destruction of property over $250 can result in up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $3,000 or three times the value of the damaged property, whichever is greater.'
VMA131Marine
(5,055 posts)$4.8 Million
He is definitely going to need to sell the house.
Luciferous
(6,449 posts)money he gets from selling that house.
malaise
(286,815 posts)Rose garden. That is all.
Fucking tasteless, no class asshole that he is.
efhmc
(15,721 posts)efhmc
(15,721 posts)IA8IT
(6,206 posts)fargone
(406 posts)pansypoo53219
(22,405 posts)i am so glass she chose trees. some twit cut trees along the FRAGILE slope on lake michigan. luckily milw has a law to prevent bush/tree removal + he got charged.
AllaN01Bear
(26,519 posts)FakeNoose
(37,932 posts)That's how he gets his "ocean view"! Not by cutting down someone else's healthy trees.
That's criminal. I hope he has good liability insurance, he's going to need it.
eggplant
(4,094 posts)It was 16 trees, each was almost 50 years old.
Warpy
(113,703 posts)and Jacoby is one stupid mofo for admitting guilt. It should be a pretty easy process to get a lien slapped on his property while a civil case grinds its way through the courts. In the meantime, Jacoby is going to be on the hook for a few annoying criminal charges plus maintaining a house on Nantucket, which is usually a very expensive proposition. It's an island, everything has to be brought in by boat or plane, and winters there are nobody's idea of a joke. Those "crappy trees" likely provided a necessary windbreak.
I'm hoping Belford is angry enough to force him to replace every single tree with another 50 year old tree. I've seen that one done.
You couldn't pay me to live on Nantucket year round, but the town is really pretty in the summer. The Nantucket Whaling Museum is worth a day trip all by itself if you're ever in the area.
Nittersing
(7,404 posts)I would be heartbroken.
markie
(23,515 posts)I planted mine about 25 years ago.... had a renter for a while and she somehow destroyed the tree; except it sprouted back up with 3 trunks and is a very nice tree these days...
*an aside... the largest Honey Locust I've seen is at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park
https://www.nps.gov/saga/index.htm
Ilsa
(63,043 posts)lots of barking dogs to her yard to impress any potential buyers. And play her stereo really loud. Keep a keg out in the backyard within view of Jacoby's house and throw a party every night. Be sure to have the guests drop their cups, cans, and used condoms (the 3 Cs) over the fence onto his place. I'd do all of that just over the frusttration of him killing trees.
If he didn't like the view from his house, he should not have bought it.
Exp
(443 posts)flvegan
(65,142 posts)He can sell the property when the case is decided, is settled or a judge lifts/discharges the Lis Pendens.
Happy selling with that on title, shithead (he literally can't unless there's a cash buyer that loves risk).
paulrevere2018
(66 posts)trees and then added "sweeping views of the ocean" to the most recent listing. I'll bet he was po'ed that the house was not selling and took this tactic to enhance the property. Hopefully he'll pay a steep price for this.
Reminds me of another entitled ahole in Maine who poisoned her neighbor's trees to enhance her view:
The Bonds have paid a price for their actions, which they acknowledged in the consent agreements.
They paid $4,500 to resolve Maine Board of Pesticides Control Board violations for unauthorized use of an herbicide that was applied inappropriately and not allowed for residential use, $180,000 to resolve violations with the town and another $30,000 for additional environmental testing, according to documents. They also paid more than $1.5 million to Gorman in a legal settlement, according to a memo from Jeremy Martin, the towns planning and development director.
louis-t
(24,422 posts)
BobTheSubgenius
(12,052 posts)....was on their property. Turns out, the property line ran right through the tree, and the neighbour wanted $5000 to settle. Guy was all ready to do that, but partner refused. BIG mistake. In court, the neighbour was awarded $55,000.
It turned out that an arborist (or some arborists, possibly) give an evaluation on how much it would cost to replace such a large, mature tree. It was hypothetical, because it would absolutely impossible to replace a tree of that age and size, but its growth was extrapolated from the cost of the largest tree of that type that one could find in a nursery, to however many years later the evaluation was done.
The FIL of a guy I worked with got off lucky, by comparison. He took down 5 trees that he had planted years and years ago, but were now encroaching on the house. Muni. fined him $7000 per tree. Turned out, the old adage was true. You really CAN'T fight city hall. Or at least, not often.