Neighbors Lawn Needs Mowing, So Guy Burns Down Offending Neighbor's House

I was in trouble until yesterday.

I've been dashing from crisis to crisis this week, which meant some things I really should have gotten done weren't completed.

The worst part of my lawn, and my lawnmower, a
few days ago after I let the lawn's growth
get ahead of me.  

One of the things that didn't get attention until yesterday was parts of my lawn. I hadn't had time to mow some of it lately, and it was a hayfield.

Normally, I'd be just annoyed with myself for not getting to the lawn, and it's not the World's Worst Sin to have a slightly unkempt lawn.

Or so I thought.

Then news surfaced from near Atlanta, Georgia last week,  where police say a man named Phillip Roger Bennett was upset about what he thought was the unkempt appearance of the lawn across the street from his place.

So he did what any other normal neighbor raving lunatic would do. He burned down the house with the supposedly unkempt, unmowed lawn.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Bennett kept his lawn very neat and tidy. The guy across the street, Marty Corbitt, did not. Bennett and Corbitt had been feuding about this state of affairs, apparently.

Bennett has a criminal past, and Corbitt called the cops after an argument over the lawns several days ago, and the fateful one last week, according to the Journal Constitution. Bennett returned, threw a brick through Corbitt's window, threw gasoline in and lit the Corbitt house on fire.

Corbitt and his three year old daughter escaped, but his house was destroyed.

Bennett is in big trouble: According to the AJC:

"Bennett is charged with first-degree arson, aggravated assault, first- and second-degree criminal damage to property, damaging public utilities, second-degree burglary, possession of tools for the commission of a crime, reckless conduct, criminal trespass and making terroristic threats."

Of course, I’m a little confused by some people’s obsession with a perfect lawn, even though everybody except Bennett is not quite so over the top with this. I don’t even like lawns all that much. I guess that makes me un-American.

And spending hours and hours and hours making sure a lawn looks like the world's top golf course with  nary a trace of crabgrass or a dandelion is absolutely foreign to me.

Still, this news about the unkempt lawn and the arson in Georgia got my attention. I finished mowing my lawn yesterday. It still isn't perfect, it never will be and I don't want it to be. But at least I think it's good enough that I don't think any of my neighbors will burn my house down because of my ugly lawn.