A neighborhood in Fort Worth is experiencing a man sawing down trees in the middle of the night just in time for Halloween.
However, some residents aren’t exactly ecstatic about the late-night trimmings, dubbing the man “Edward Scissorhands” after the famous Tim Burton movie.
“I was talking to my wife, Emily and I was like ‘hey we had a storm last night’ and she was like ‘oh no that’s Edward Scissorhands…’ and so I was like ‘uh what?'” Jerry Balkenbush told CBS.
The man has been seen on home surveillance videos walking around with an unleashed dog nearby. The arborist vigilante seems to operate during the early morning hours, usually around 3 a.m.
In the 1990 movie, the character makes major alterations to shrubbery and greenery in a residential neighborhood. Whether or not he shares some of the Tim Burton character’s more endearing qualities is unclear at this time.
“Sometimes he’ll just take a little bit, but then in other people’s trees he’ll take massive gobs,” Ashley Thomann told CBS. “We’re all liable for those trees per our HOA, so if something happens to the tree everybody is paying hundreds of dollars per tree to replace them. So that’s part of it and then I think the other part of it is it’s someone else’s property, but we also don’t want someone to get hurt either.”
Fort Worth has noise ordinances that prohibit 60 decibels at night in residential areas and 70 decibels during the day.
CBS reported that police reports have been filed against the mysterious trimmer with residents saying instances of certain blocks being targeted for trimming are only increasing.
“He starts trimming the tree and admiring his work and kind of stepping back,” Danny Thomann said. “We really just want him to stop doing this.”
I don’t think you call a person destroying trees a “vigilante”! You call them a criminal!!!