http://www.tiftongazette.com/local/l...120221343.html
By Jana Cone
TIFTON —
Shonda Statini is a nature lover. She loves all the pine trees and the azaleas and green growing things. She loves the birds and the squirrels and the rabbits. It is the beauty of the world of nature around her that makes her smile and gives her peace. That is, it did until last Tuesday.
Statini came home from work Tuesday afternoon and was aghast at what had happened to her yard. It looked like a tornado had blown by along her property line on the east side of her house.
The seven-foot red tip hedge, trees and shrubbery were all gone. They had been there that morning when she left for work at Herring CPA Group in Tifton and were gone when she returned to her home on Church Street in Alapaha later in the day. Poof!
Statini said she knows who was responsible for what had happened to her yard that had always brought her so much joy.
“They were sitting there having a tailgate party, laughing,” she said.
“The logger and backhoe were still there,” Statini said of the equipment that had been used to demolish her property.
Statini said the people responsible were members of Alapaha United Methodist Church. The church is next door to Statini’s home. The church’s parking lot abuts Statini’s property on the east side.
Statini was so upset about what had been done to her property, she cried for days.
Statini and her husband moved to south Georgia from Tempe, Ariz. She doesn’t think that people here understand how much “the greenery” meant to her.
“Where I come from we had rock yards,” Statini said. “Everything was dirt and rocks, nothing green.” She said the greenery everywhere was like a tranquilizer for her.
“I love all of it,” she said, “I love the trees and flowers and the wild life.”
And she was a proud homeowner. Statini and her husband had spent years remodeling their 1889 home. “We had been so busy working inside, we had not gotten to the outside yet,” she said. It was In September 2001, when the Statini family had moved into the old Victorian house next to the church.
She said she had visited the church next door several times but eventually joined the Baptist church.
“We had never had any problems, nothing at all,” she said. “Until this happened.”
She said last Tuesday morning a neighbor had “tipped us off” the church board members planned to take out the hedge on her property that separated her house from the church parking lot.
“My husband spoke with a church member that morning,” Statini said. “They told him to go to the courthouse and get a copy of the property line.”
Statini said her husband did exactly that and when he got back home he found the stakes for the property line. The hedge and trees were on their property. Statini said her husband spoke to the church member again, told her the hedge was on their property and told them not to do anything and they would talk when he got back home from work.
Statini said the church member told her husband they were just going to go ahead and do some trimming. She said when she got home around 7 p.m. everything was gone.
“There was one little tree left,” Statini said. “It was over on their property. They cut all of mine down.”
Statini said she thought what had happened to her was a hate crime.
She explained that she is Italian and her husband, Roger, is a Filipino.
“I don’t have any other explanation for what happened,” Statini said.
Statini called Berrien County law enforcement and filed an incident report.
She said later that night, after the police left, people started driving by the house and honking and laughing and yelling. “That went on until after 2:30 in the morning,” she said.
Statini said she no longer feels safe in her home. “I leave the lights on all night,” she said.
She said she has lost the privacy provided by the shrubbery and trees. “I might as well be looking at a junk yard,” Statini said of the view from her window now.
She said she had lost “the shade factor.” Statini said the shrubs and trees had provided shade for over half of her home. “I don’t know what my utility bill is going to be like this summer,” she said.
She also said the loss of the hedge had depreciated her property. “It’s just a hideous eyesore now,” she said.
Statini said she had spoken with the church’s district superintendent, Don Adams. “All he said is, ‘I’m really sorry,’” she said. Statini said the pastor at the church next door has never apologized to her.
Statini said she did not expect something like that from church members. “What about love thy neighbor as thyself?” she asked.
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I really don't know what to say. For a religion that's supposed to be about love, this seems pretty hateful...and spiteful too....driving past honking until 2am?
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How sad.
Originally Posted by Logan
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