Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s neighbors are suing the Democrat, accusing him of stealing a slice of their land to erect an eight-foot-high security fence around his private residence in an \u201coutrageous abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n
The neighbors, Jeremy and Simone Mock, are currently duking it out with the governor in court over a 2,900 square foot parcel of land located between their two homes in Abington, Montgomery County, court papers show.<\/p>\n
The Mocks alleged in a lawsuit filed last month that Shapiro and his wife, Lori, unlawfully seized the stretch of land after initial negotiations to buy it from them went up in flames.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s neighbors have accused the Democrat of stealing a slice of their land to erect an eight-foot-high security fence around his private residence. Josh Shapiro \/ Facebook<\/p>\n
Shapiro claimed in a countersuit that he owns the disputed land due, citing an \u201cadverse possession\u201d loophole that makes it his because he has maintained the sliver of property for decades.<\/p>\n
The land-grab tit-for-tat kicked off last year when the Shapiros first sought to erect the huge fence and upgrade security following an arson attack on the governor\u2019s official residence<\/a> in Harrisburg while they were all sleeping inside on April 13.<\/p>\n Shapiro initially offered to pay the Mocks for the 2,900-square-foot section of land, which he for decades had believed was his, to be able to build the fence, the suit said.<\/p>\n The negotiations, however, fell through when the neighbors couldn\u2019t agree on a price.<\/p>\n The Mocks allege that\u2019s when Shapiro and his wife unlawfully claimed ownership of the property \u2014 even planting trees and having State Troopers stationed there.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania,\u201d the Mocks\u2019 lawsuit argues.<\/p>\n The neighbors claim Shapiro had State Troopers stationed on the property after unlawfully claiming ownership, the lawsuit states. Eastern District of Pennsylvania<\/p>\n Shapiro initially offered to pay the Mocks for the 2,900 square foot section of land, which he had believed for decades was actually part of his own property, but the negotiations fell through, according to the suit. Eastern District of Pennsylvania<\/p>\n \u201cTo begin, the Shapiros suddenly claimed, without evidence, they owned the Mock Property through \u2018adverse possession\u2019 despite their previous acknowledgments that the Mock Property was owned by no one other than the Mocks and despite having never been awarded the Mock Property through adverse possession by a court,\u201d the court filing states.<\/p>\n The law allows for an occupant to legally acquire the title of someone else\u2019s property if they\u2019ve occupied the area for over 21 years. <\/p>\n The Shapiros purchased their home in 2003 and long believed the disputed 2,900 square foot section of land was part of their property, meaning they had maintained it for more than the required 21 years, their countersuit claims.<\/p>\n As the issue continues to play out in court, Shapiro\u2019s office suggested the entire saga was a political stunt. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Governor looks forward to a swift resolution and will not be bullied by anyone trying to score cheap political points, especially at the expense of his family\u2019s safety and wellbeing,\u201d his office told NBC<\/a> when the dueling suits were filed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s neighbors are suing the Democrat, accusing him of stealing a slice of their land…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33,14671,28,30,29,302],"class_list":["post-135717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-lawsuits","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}