6 years after sawing his neighbor’s garage in half, man says he’d do it again

By Kathleen O’Brien, Bangor Daily News Staff

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Six years after cutting his neighbor’s garage in half over a property dispute in Dover-Foxcroft, Gabriel Brawn said he would do it again.

“I’d do it every day,” Brawn said. “I’m not ashamed of it or embarrassed by it. I think anybody who’d gone through the same situation, if they had the ability, would have done the exact same thing.”

Today, neither Brawn nor the neighbor he feuded with live in their respective homes, but the remains of one of Maine’s most extreme neighborly disputes still stand. The act stunned people throughout the state and beyond, generating headlines worldwide even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

While the fight between the two men appears to have quietly fizzled out, the partial garage shows how disputes between neighbors can drag on and leave visible marks on the community for years afterward. 

“You would think that they would’ve torn down the rest of it or at least fixed it up so it looked decent,” said Reggie Moore, who lives across the street from the halved garage. “I think it’s an eyesore, but am I too concerned about it? Maybe a little bit, but not really.” 

Brawn and his family moved to Grove Street in Dover-Foxcroft — into the home he grew up in — in 2012. The property once included the 0.23 acres next door that now holds a single-family home and the garage, which is owned by Blake Ritter. 

The deeds for the two properties disagreed on where the property line between them lies, but Brawn was friendly with Ritter’s father, Steve Ritter, who lived next door. The fuzzy property line was never an issue during those years, Brawn said. 

That ended after Steve Ritter died and his son took over the property. 

“Blake got the idea in his head that the property line was somewhere else so they put a stake in the ground and told me that was his property,” Brawn said. 

The pair clashed over who owned what and tensions rose until 2020 when Brawn used a Sawzall to cut Ritter’s garage in half, as he believed a portion of the structure sat on his property. 

“I’d had enough and couldn’t take it anymore,” said Brawn, who previously worked as an arborist but now works in construction. “Legal or not I’m taking that thing down, but I did it with precision, I didn’t do it like a crazy man. I went over and precisely cut it — it’s laser straight.” 

Ritter and his mother sued Brawn and his wife in Piscataquis County Superior Court in August 2021. The Ritters demanded about $450,000 in punitive damages from the Brawns and another $35,000 to clear the debris and replace the garage, among other things. 

Both sides mediated and agreed to dismiss the lawsuit in January 2022, court documents show, but records do not say if the two parties settled or what the terms of that agreement could be. 

Brawn said he didn’t pay anything for the act and received “no legal repercussions whatsoever.” Ritter did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent through his lawyer. 

A new boundary agreement was signed in November 2021. It determined that the property line between two homes follows an existing retaining wall a few feet north of the halved garage. This meant Brawn lost a few feet of land he believed to be his. 

Today, a friend of Ritter lives in his home and plans to soon take ownership of the property, as Ritter moved out years ago. She was interested in buying the house before the garage debacle and that desire didn’t waver following the dispute, she said. 

“He [Ritter] was willing to give me a good deal on it and we figured it all out,” said the woman, who asked not to be named or photographed due to the contentious nature of the dispute. “I didn’t need the garage, I just wanted the house. A garage can always be rebuilt.” 

She moved in roughly five years ago and initially “didn’t get along” with the Brawns, but the pair soon moved past the residual tension from the property dispute, she said. 

“It was a little bumpy the first few months I was here, but after that it leveled out,” she said. “Gabe realized I wasn’t playing around, the settlement paperwork was done and I wasn’t dealing with the drama.” 

One of the first things the woman did upon moving into the house was erect a 6-foot-tall fence between her home and the neighbors. She hopes to have the remaining half of the garage and an adjoining entryway removed next summer and replace the space with a walkway to the backyard.  

The project will cost thousands, the woman said, but she didn’t know the exact expected cost for the work. 

Meanwhile, Brawn moved out of his house in 2023 after he and his wife divorced, but his ex-wife still lives there, said Brawn, who now lives in Sangerville. Property records show Brawn still owns the house. No one answered the door when a BDN reporter visited the property.

Disagreements between neighbors are not unheard of in Maine, though they rarely escalate to a point that captures the attention of media across the country and beyond. While some disputes result in legal action, the evidence of those are rarely seen years after they’ve been resolved.

Earlier this year, a Brooklyn man accused of poisoning his neighbor’s trees to improve the view from his Rockport vacation home had to pay a $3,000 fine, ending a years-long dispute. 

And just a few weeks ago, a couple returned home to find their Portage Lake property had been ripped apart and police found their neighbor sitting atop a skidder in the middle of the road, police reported at the time. 

Today, residents on the street report the area is peaceful and neighbors largely keep to themselves, but the incident hasn’t been forgotten. 

“I don’t get involved, don’t ask questions and mind my business,” Ritter’s friend said. “It makes life a lot more simple and keeps everything peaceful. Given the house, peace is needed.” 

When Reggie Moore moved to Grove Street last September, people used the garage cut in half as a landmark for where to turn to reach his home, he said. 

Juli Larrabee, who lives with Moore, heard tales of the dispute and resulting damage around town, but hadn’t taken a hard look at the carved-out garage since moving across the street last year. 

“I can’t imagine how angry you’d have to be to chop down a building like that,” Larrabee said. 

Despite the conflict being years in the past, Brawn said he still hears comments and jokes from neighbors about it. 

“Almost everywhere I go: ‘Hey, you cut any houses in half lately?’” Brawn said. “That’s my legacy, I guess.”