I want to walk you through the arc of those comments because it is informative.
The first several comments were sympathetic to Gary in a general way. People expressing concern, asking if he was okay, wondering what had happened. Normal community response.
Then Frances commented. Frances’s comment was nine sentences long and included the Scoville rating of a Carolina Reaper, a brief explanation of capsaicin chemistry, a statement that she had personally witnessed Gary on a step ladder at Ellen’s fence on at least three separate occasions over the past four years, and a gentle suggestion that Gary might want to reflect on the circumstances that led to his pepper encounter before characterizing it as someone else’s fault.
The comments shifted.
Several people asked Gary directly: “Were you in Ellen’s garden without permission?”
Gary’s response to this question was to not respond, which was its own kind of response.
More people commented. A woman named Darlene who lives four streets over said she had also had fruit go missing from her garden over the past three summers and had always blamed birds. She tagged Gary in this comment. Gary did not respond to that either.
A man named Robert said he had a garden on the side of his house that backs up to the path Gary uses when he walks his dog, and that he had noticed fruit missing from his plum tree twice.
Gary still did not respond.
The post was deleted by Gary approximately eighteen hours after he posted it. By that point it had generated seventy-three comments and what I can only describe as a significant community conversation about garden theft that Gary had not intended to initiate.
I posted nothing. I simply let the conversation happen.
Frances, however, posted one final comment before the post was deleted. It said: “Carolina Reapers are available at most garden centers and are a delight to grow. I highly recommend them.”
Fourteen people liked that comment.
The formal notice and after.
Gary received his formal HOA notice the following Wednesday. It cited section 8, clause D of the Willowbrook Estates CC&Rs—the provision regarding respect for neighboring private property—and formally documented the board’s finding that he had accessed a neighboring property without authorization on multiple occasions. It warned that future violations would result in fines and potential referral to civil authorities.
He did not appeal the notice.
I know he received it because his behavior changed immediately and completely. The step ladder disappeared from its spot along his fence line. I could see the top of it from my yard when it was there, and it was gone within twenty-four hours of the notice being delivered.
More significantly, that fall Gary knocked on my front door.
I opened the door.
He looked at me with the expression of a man who has thought about something for a long time and has arrived somewhere he did not expect to arrive.
He said, “How many years did I take from your garden?”