CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – A dispute among feuding Chesapeake neighbors boiled over, with one neighbor putting up three surveillance cameras to videotape the backyard of the other neighbor.
That led to a trespassing charge, and a call to 10 On Your Side.
Lisa Geisel is angry.
“It’s creepy, it is creepy,” Geisel said.
The fact her neighbor, Paul Ingle, admitted to putting up three cameras on his fence directed at the Geisel’s backyard.
“Absolutely 100% creepy,” Geisel said. “When you are in your backyard you expect to feel safe, you expect to feel secure. You have an expectation of privacy in your backyard.”
This happened July 4, and Ingle was charge with “Trespass, after being forbidden to do so.”
UPDATE: When the case went to court in August, the charge was Nolle Prosequi, or withdrawn.
The Geisels sent 10 On Your Side a picture of Ingle leaning over his fence onto the Geisels property and putting up a camera that was clearly overhanging their property.
“My neighbor leaned over the fence and installed three cameras – one facing my back yard and deck, one facing my front porch, and one facing my bedroom window,” Geisel said.
10 On Your Side confronted Ingle about the trespassing charge, and why he put the cameras focused on her backyard.
“Am I being a good neighbor? I’m being a neighbor like they are,” Ingle said.
Ingle said he put up cameras once the Geisels put up theirs.
“When I came home, that camera was pointed right here,” Ingle said pointing to a door off his all-concrete backyard.
That is a claim the Geisels flatly deny.
10 On Your Side viewed all 10 cameras in the Geisels’ video surveillance closet, and all of the camera angles are point at their own property and not at Ingle’s. We also looked at Ingle’s phone to see all of his camera angles, and it is true all of the camera angles were on the Geisel’s backyard.
We pointed that out to him.
“All your cameras are clearing shooting over their fence, and none of their cameras are shooting over your fence.”
Ingle responded: “Sir, that camera was shooting my property Thursday night, and they put their cameras up first.”
It is unsure how Ingle would know that, but it is true that the Geisels started the surveillance camera war.
But after talking with Ingle, he agreed to take down his three cameras.
He climbed a ladder, and said, “taking it down isn’t hard. Not hard at all.”
In the spirit of paving a new path forward in being neighborly, Ingle agreed to pull the cameras.
We went to Lisa Geisel and told her Ingle took his cameras down.
“Thank you. I cannot thank you enough,” Geisel said. “10 On Your Side got it done when the police couldn’t.”