In a leafy Philadelphia suburb, a petty neighborhood dispute has escalated into a bizarre saga, with mundane issues of land surveyors and town ordinances morphing into one of political attacks and confrontations at the property lines.
On the one side sits Josh Shapiro, governor of the largest swing state, Pennsylvania, and a rising Democratic star who is running for reelection and has political aspirations that may reach the White House. On the other sit his neighbors, the Mocks.
At issue is a narrow 10-foot-wide peninsula, a comically small spit of land along the Shapiros’ property line that broadens slightly into a small chunk of someone’s backyard. Whose yard depends on whom you ask.
On paper the land belongs to the Mocks. But the Shapiros, seeking to build a security fence, have claimed in court to have squatters’ rights, a longtime feature of property law.
Now it’s devolved into dueling lawsuits, accusations of political motivations, state police interventions and angry yard signs. Shapiro claims that for more than two decades he has cared for the contested area as his own land. The Mocks, who have been paying taxes on the disputed segment, see it as a land grab from the most powerful man in the state.
Drones have been flying overhead, and a secondary squabble has erupted over removing a large tulip-poplar tree.
This is far from the type of multimillion-dollar lawsuit that has embroiled President Donald Trump in questions about abuse of power and intimidation. At most, Mock v. Shapiro (and Shapiro v. Mock) will result in a resized yard for one of the two parties.
Yet it’s created a political distraction for Shapiro, with stealthy opposition research efforts underway and claims of political motivation.
Stacy Garrity, a Republican running against Shapiro, has started using the issue in her campaign, posting fake Valentine’s messages with Shapiro’s face reading: “I love you more than I love my neighbor’s yard.”
The Mocks have hired Walter Zimolong, a prominent Republican attorney who has called himself the “‘go-to’ lawyer in Pennsylvania for conservative causes and candidates for office.”
“This is not a political action or ‘stunt’ — it’s a straightforward defense of the property rights of two innocent people,” Zimolong said, adding that he was hired because the Mocks struggled to find a lawyer who did not have conflicts of interest with the state government.
Neither side disputes the reasons for enhanced security, and they agree on the sobering reason the governor wanted to erect a fence: In the wake of an arson attack last year, where a man set fire to the governor’s mansion, state police began tightening security, both at the official residence and his personal one.
The saga began when Shapiro sought to build an eight-foot fence at the edge of his property and went to the town to obtain a permit. A surveyor discovered that the land next to his driveway — where the fence line had been for years, and which he’d treated as his since moving into the home in 2003 — actually belonged to the Mocks.
For most of the time since the Mocks bought their home in 2017, there has been peace between the two — no known conflicts but not a particularly strong relationship either. The Mocks access their front door through a different street from the Shapiros; their border is blurred by wooded backyards.
The contested area is a narrow stretch of land smaller than 3,000 square feet, which juts out from the Mocks’ property in the back and separates the Shapiros’ driveway from that of another neighbor.
In July, the Shapiros met with the Mocks and told them the dilemma. Initial conversations were cordial, and the Shapiros offered to purchase the property.
Because the land was in the deed for the Mocks’ property, they had been paying taxes based on it, but it wasn’t something they had maintained.
Shapiro believed it was always his, according to his suit, in which he claims his family mowed the lawn, planted trees, cleaned debris, removed leaves and installed an electric dog fence around the area.
Unable to come to agreement on purchasing the property, the sides tried to arrange a lease, which also fell apart.
The Shapiros’ attorney, Walter Weir, Jr., said that the Mocks continued to move the goalposts and were not negotiating in good faith. The Mocks asked the Shapiros to pay the associated legal fees, but as negotiations dragged on those ballooned from $12,000 to more than $30,000, Weir said.
In the fall, according to the lawsuits, things grew hostile.
“What followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General,” says the complaint from the Mocks.
Shapiro’s claim relies on a long-standing property land claim called “adverse possession,” which in Pennsylvania means that someone who maintains property uncontested for more than 21 years can claim it as their own.
Without a court ruling in his favor, which could take years, Shapiro has been unable to build a fence on the land. In the meantime, he has planted trees and, to address concerns raised by state police, made “alternative security arrangements” in the area, according to his suit.
State police have been stationed in the area since the governor was inaugurated three years ago, which included the period before the arson attack, according to his office. The governor’s legal team concluded that the property belongs to the Shapiros, and they were within their rights to continue occupying the land, according to the governor’s office.
“This dispute over a small piece of the Shapiros’ backyard has been turned into a shameless political stunt by their neighbors and members of the Republican State Senate, who are now harassing, and exploiting the Shapiros,” said Rosie Lapowsky, a spokeswoman for the governor. “We look forward to a judge ruling on the merits.”
The legal actions have coincided with an investigation by a Republican-led state Senate committee over the use of taxpayer funds to make upgrades at the Shapiros’ property, including the disputed land. Shapiro allies have suggested that Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward may have had a behind-the-scenes role in the land dispute. She has said that she spoke twice with the Mocks, but her spokeswoman said she had not advised them and had no prior relationship with them.
“Gov. Shapiro likes to play both sides of the fence, and it is a pattern of behavior we have all come to experience from him,” said Erica Clayton Wright, a spokeswoman for Ward, who accused Shapiro of holding a “sense of entitlement.”
Jeremy Mock is a registered Republican and donated $90.22 to Trump’s campaign in 2016, according to federal records. Simone Mock has no party affiliation and an inactive voting status.
At one point, Shapiro alleges, the Mocks entered the property and posted signs claiming they owned the area, according to the countersuit. “This is my property,” read one. “Hippity Hoppity, stay off my property,” read another, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The Mocks also attempted to enlist the local police to help them obtain possession of the land, claiming that the governor was trespassing, according to Shapiro’s suit. It is unclear whether they got involved, and messages left with the local police department were not returned.
In October, the Mocks attempted to build a fence of their own, one that would go through the disputed area. They also hired an arborist to remove a large tulip-poplar tree in the disputed area.
But any efforts to enter the disputed area have been blocked by state police, who once demanded they remain “on the other side of the green post,” according to a video obtained by The Washington Post.
“Look, this is our property,” one of the Mocks responded.
“It’s a disputed land,” the officer said. “As far as we understand, this is a gray area. Everybody knows it. That’s what the attorneys are for, that’s what the court’s for, to figure it out.”
He continued to urge them to leave the property line, which they ultimately did.
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