In 2020, a Maine man cut his neighbor’s garage in half with a Sawzall over a boundary dispute; the lawsuit later ended after mediation, but the sliced garage was still standing in 2026

Gabriel Brawn used a Sawzall to cut his neighbor’s garage in half, but the damaged structure in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, is still standing even after six years. The property dispute that triggered the incident has been settled through mediation, and a new boundary agreement established that the property line ran along a retaining wall that was a few feet north of the garage, yet the structure looked very much the same when the Bangor Daily News revisited the case in August 2026.Brawn cut the garage in 2020 because he believed that part of it stood on his land, and the disagreement involved neighboring properties on Grove Street, where Brawn lived in the house in which he grew up. He had returned to the property with his family in 2012, with the neighboring home and garage belonging to Blake Ritter and his mother. Brawn had worked in construction and maintained that he had cut the structure precisely along what he believed was the property boundary, and six years later, he told the Bangor Daily News that he would do it again.How a boundary disagreement escalatedAccording to the Bangor Daily News' original July 2020 report, the relationship between the families had deteriorated after the death of Steve Ritter, Blake's father, in 2016. Brawn said that he had previously maintained a friendly relationship with Steve Ritter, who had lived on the neighboring property. The dispute involved the exact location of the boundary between the two lots, but the properties' deeds did not agree on where the dividing line lay, and the neighbors fought over ownership of a narrow strip of land beside the garage.Brawn hired a surveyor in May 2020 to establish the boundary, and believed that the survey placed the line through the middle of the garage. He then used a Sawzall, which is a reciprocating saw that is commonly used in construction and demolition, to cut through the portion that he believed stood on his property. The remaining half of the garage and the debris were left on the neighboring side, which also prompted the Brawns to install fencing between the properties. The disagreement involved years of tension between the neighbors, interpretations of the property boundary that differed and competing claims over land that had once formed part of a larger family property.The lawsuit ended after mediationBlake Ritter and his mother wanted to sue Brawn and his wife in Piscataquis County Superior Court after the garage incident, and the complaint sought approximately $450,000 in punitive damages, along with $35,000 for removing debris and replacing the garage. The two sides agreed to dismiss the lawsuit after mediation in January 2022, according to court documents cited by the Bangor Daily News. The public report did not establish the terms of any private settlement, and Brawn said that he had not paid anything as a result of the incident.A separate boundary agreement was signed in November 2021, and resolved the question of where the property line ran. It placed the boundary along an existing retaining wall a few feet north of the garage, and under that agreement, Brawn lost a few feet of land he had believed belonged to him.Why the garage remains unchangedNeither Brawn nor Ritter lived in their former homes by August 2026; Brawn had moved to Sangerville, Maine, in 2023, while Ritter had also moved away, and a friend of his was living in the neighboring house. The new resident said she had wanted to buy the house before the dispute and still wanted the property afterward. She did not need the garage and said she hoped to remove the remaining structure and an adjoining entryway, and replace the space with a walkway to the backyard. That work would cost thousands of dollars, she told the newspaper, although she did not have a final estimate.The half-garage has remained a visible feature of the neighborhood long after the legal dispute ended for residents on Grove Street, with one neighbor telling the Bangor Daily News that people had used it as a landmark when giving directions to nearby homes. The property line has been settled, the lawsuit dismissed and the original neighbors have moved away, but the garage, however, has yet to be removed.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.