Rogue Gardeners

Another absolutely fascinating, and just a little bit strange, occurrence in front of our building today. I'm at work in my office as usual. Window open. Suddenly I hear,

"It's just awful. Just awful. It's ruining my property value. Disgusting."

I look out and see an old couple standing in front of my building staring down at that little plot of dirt that seems to be in front of everyone's houses in Park Slope.  This plot is our plot, well, my landlord's plot. Right there outside the window. Ours is full of green plants.  I'm guessing they are weeds of some sort.

Then.....

The old man proceeds to cut down all of the plants.

What is even more strange is almost every neighbor comes by at some point. 

"Hey there, so-and-so. Up-ending another garden, eh?"

"Keep up the good work, so-and-so!"

It's not my property and it's really not my business, but oh man, stuff like this gets up under my craw.  What if I WANTED those tall, green, weedy things in that plot of land? What if I don't care about so-and-so's property value?  And most importantly, what gives this old dude the right to come onto someone's property and just start digging??

I couldn't keep quiet. I went outside and said, "Excuse me sir, what are you doing?"

"Well, my name is so-and-so and I'm the local garden gnome around here."

Say. What???

"Sir, the next time you have a problem, would you mind leaving me a note on my door instead of uprooting another person's property?"

"Sure, sure."

We'll see. I have a feeling this isn't the last we'll see of the garden gnome.