The worst thing that ever happened to TikToker @wickedwitch_ofthe_west was when an entire town rioted against her for not wanting people to trespass on her property.
“I basically found myself at the center of a real-life Salem witch trial because I had begun exercising my property rights in a small little mountain community of less than 1,000 people, and that really made folks mad,” said @wickedwitch_ofthe_west.
For decades, people in her neighborhood had been accessing her backyard with permission from the prior owners. Unfortunately, that was something she was never informed of, so when she saw 55 people in her backyard, she told them to get off her property.
Her backyard was not very big, and they were starting fires and trashing the place. She was also liable if anyone got injured.
These people got so mad about her kicking them out that they wrote emails to the government. The government scheduled a town hall meeting at a local church. Before she knew it, she was on trial in front of the whole community.
They accused her of harassing them for exercising her property rights when they were trespassing. They also brought up how she was taking away the “park” for kids to play in, but the so-called park was her backyard.
In a follow-up video, she provided some more details about the property. She and her fiancé purchased the property in early 2021. They paid $40,000 over the asking price, but felt that it was worth it.
There was a creek running through the property, so they thought they had hit the jackpot because the property was more likely to maintain its value over time. The entire property was 0.68 acres, and about half of that was being shared with the public.
At the time, they didn’t know the land was being shared because it had not been disclosed. She ended up suing the previous homeowners in January 2024 after she had fought and settled with the government, which had sued her in June 2022 in an attempt to take her backyard and make it an official public park.
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“Now, they did get some of my land in order to get them off my back as part of the settlement deal, and I settled with them in the spring of 2023, which is less than a year,” explained @wickedwitch_ofthe_west.
“That is record time not only to get sued by a government entity, but to wrap it up and settle and have a public meeting to announce that a settlement deal has been reached.”
Immediately after that, she sued the previous homeowners for $1.5 million for several counts of fraud because they had allegedly deceived her into entering a contract for the house under false pretenses.
She had plenty of evidence to prove the validity of these claims. By the summer of 2024, everything was finished up.
“My reputation had been run through the mud as some wicked witch who stole the park from families and children, when in reality, I bought something fair and square,” said @wickedwitch_ofthe_west.
“I did all my due diligence, and unfortunately, I was defrauded. But we did get some semblance of justice in the end.”
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
