Just be grateful that this senile old codger doesn't have access to the nuclear button. Oh, wait a minute ...

Neighbors cut tree in half over bird poop dispute

When words fail, sometimes you just have to cut down half a tree – at least, that’s what one couple did. 

The couple, in Sheffield, U.K., called in an arborist to cut down half of the branches of a 16-foot-tall fir tree that were hanging over their driveway, according to reports. The rest of the tree is in their neighbor’s yard. 

Their neighbor, Bharat Mistry, told SWNS that the tree has been in his front yard for 25 years. However, during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown last March, Mistry’s neighbors reportedly asked to have the tree removed, BBC reported. 

More recently, the neighbors complained about birds in the tree making too much noise and pooping on their driveway, so Mistry told SWNS that he tried to work on a solution. 

"We had asked if we could get it trimmed back and put a net in it so it would stop birds getting in, but there was no compromise with them," Mistry told SWNS. 

"Last weekend he said he was going to get a tree surgeon to cut it down and we asked him not to but they came on Friday and did it," Mistry added. 

"We were absolutely distraught," Mistry told SWNS. "We pleaded and pleaded with them not to do it, but their mind was made up. That tree was coming down."

Mistry told SWNS he hasn’t spoken to his neighbors since they cut the tree down, but before the pandemic, the two families got along.

"We have never had any issues with them before this, we got on fine," Mistry said. "Our children would play with their grandchildren when they were younger, we've always got on."

"He used to bring the bins in for us," Mistry added. "It's such a shame it has come to this."

I was somewhat unsettled when I read that the angry neighbor is old enough to have grandchildren and that his intemperate outburst seems a recent phenomenon: do we know of any other old men who are losing their minds, prone to lashing out, and who are in a position to do something about it?