Turf wars: Dog walker rips up artificial grass
Artificial lawn is a rapidly growing trend in Christchurch but one man took exception to a berm in Halswell, causing $1000 worth of damage.
A homeowner said she was left shaken after a man was captured on her CCTV cameras ripping off her artificial grass on the berm outside her property at 8pm on Monday. After she posted the footage online, one of her neighbours knocked on her door the following night saying he had been keeping an eye out for the offender.
“He said he found the guy walking the same dog down by the Halswell shops at almost the same time. He confronted him and the guy was dismissive then he showed him a screenshot photo of him and said ‘This is you mate eh?’,” she said.
The neighbour told her the man’s facial expression changed and he took off running down the road with his dog.
“They took a photo of his back and they tried to chase him but lost him,” she said.
The woman said she and her husband found a pile of artificial grass they had only laid two days beforehand ripped off the berm and dumped in their driveway on Tuesday morning.
They checked the CCTV camera and saw a man walking a dog looking at the berm. He walks over to the edge and starts pulling at a corner. Then he walks to the other end and is seen pulling the artificial turf off the whole length of berm.
He tosses it into the driveway and does the same with another small section before walking away.
The woman said she and her husband rang the police and posted the video on their community Facebook page.
“We wanted to find this guy. What’s his problem? It cost a lot of money. My husband only did it two days before. We did the back of the house as well and hired extra help to do it They worked so hard three of them and in five minutes he just ruined it,” she said.
“I’m scared to go out of the house now in case he comes back. With all the news about stabbing in Australia you don’t know who has mental health issues that could be triggered. You don’t know what he could do,” she said.
She said the working couple with two young children did not have time to maintain their garden. Their previous house in Rolleston had real grass and the whole family had suffered health issues.
“I have asthma, we both have allergic rhinitis and our children have eczema. Every time my husband mowed the grass we would be sneezing and my face would swell,” she said.
She said they consulted the council before covering the berm.
She was overwhelmed with gratitude for the community’s support, she said, and Lifestyle Lawns had contacted them offering to replace the grass for free.
“The community and our neighbours are trying to watch over us – that’s a big thing for us,” she said.
Lifestyle Lawns owner Hayley Petheram said she wanted to help as soon as she saw the video online.
She said installation involved removing existing grass and compacting the soil before putting down a concrete-like base rather than putting it over existing grass.
The artificial turf is stapled every few millimetres and topped with a sand infill which weighs it down and prevents anyone ripping it off too easily.
A police spokesperson said police were currently working to identify the suspect seen in the CCTV footage. No arrests or charges have yet been made.
Simon Slade, winner of NZ Gardener’s Best Lawn competition, said he preferred natural grass but what the man did was out of line.
“A lot of people out there in different situations don’t want or can’t mow grass. It’s people’s personal choice,” he said.
He worked on his lawn as a hobby and enjoyed the challenge of striving for perfection. “It keeps you fit in body and mind actually that’s my biggest take away.”
Smartgrass owner Jack Kennedy said some people hated artificial grass but the dog walker had taken it too far.
He said professionally laid artificial grass was very hard to rip up and looked real. “It looks nice and no one is going to take offence because you would never know it was artificial. Unfortunately he pulled it up with great ease with one hand. You should need a whole rugby team to do that or good tools.”
He estimated he had installed more than 100 berms in Christchurch for properties with high use areas, people with low maintenance properties, plus dogs and children who could turn real grass into a mud bath.
“It’s huge. It’s probably one of the biggest trends in landscaping at the moment.”