DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — A dispute between two North Dallas residents over a tree felling turned into something law enforcement officials say they've never seen before.
Jeannie Trebisky recalls the moment she walked out into her backyard and saw eyes staring back at her from what her neighbors called an art installation.
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“My heart stopped because all I could see were eyes staring at me,” Trebisky said.
She said this was in retaliation for her neighbor's crape myrtle tree, which had been pruned after hanging on the fence above the pool and dropping its flower leaves. “I was so anxious that I Googled what the photo meant. One of the captions that came up was, 'Be prepared to be very scared.' To me, it was threatening. It was something.”
The grandmother, who lives alone in North Dallas, said she had a legal right to cut down the tree and that her neighbors did not object at the time.
But her neighbor, who declined to be interviewed, told CBS News Texas that too many trees had been cut down, exposing Trebisky's backyard patio to anyone who wanted to look down on it from her second-story window. I spoke outside.
“She's afraid of me looking into her garden, but I'm not,” Trebisky said.
After the incident, a neighbor placed a sign along Trebisky's backyard fence, but Trebisky quickly removed the sign.
But soon she woke up to a mural of three big eyes installed on the fence.
Dallas law enforcement officials declared them illegal graffiti and ordered them removed. But again they were replaced by silkscreen images… This time, according to Trebisky, the city had not yet ruled.
“I just feel anxious every morning,” she says. “I mean, you can’t even enjoy your backyard if you see something like this.”
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Trebisky said the creepy images are scaring her grandchildren and even her dog.
And civil lawyer Jeremy Wilson believes this violates private nuisance laws.
“I think there's an argument here,” Wilson said. ”[It’s] This person is very likely to be a nuisance. She doesn't seem to have any purpose in this piece other than to annoy her neighbors and harass her, but I wonder if that could be a remedy for her. ”
Trebisky says he is prepared to sue and go to court unless the city forces him to remove the facility.
