I just read your story. I'm so sorry about that. Often there are folks who think that they are doing the right thing just because it's something they WANT to do.
I respect the restrain that you had.
Your story reminded me of back when I had a very large raspberry plant patch along the back side of my orchard. One February morning new owners of the neighboring property cleaned their place up and piled a giant mound of branches near our property line then set it on fire.
While they were enjoyably talking the fire got away from them... Crossed the border, burned through my dormant raspberry patch, and boiled the sap in 2 rows of my fruit trees. They hopped the fence and helped me put the fire out. After a short apology I never heard another word about it.
Later I mentioned to another neighbor that I was offended at the damage they caused my plants and felt they should either pay for it or replace it. She told the offenders how I felt.
The folks who burned my raspberries and fruit trees were so offended that I could have such an unreasonable expectation. It would cost them over a thousand dollars to replace what they burned so they were not going to do it.
The next season they did the same bonfire... When I saw the fire I quickly turned on the irrigation water to flood down that strip of my land to make it too wet to catch fire.
The neighbors were offended that my actions insinuated they might not watch the fire properly. They told me there was no reason to "Act like that."
I was afraid to ever plant anything on that portion of my property again.
Some people actually think it makes them feel or look stronger to add insult to injury. In my opinion it just reveals their true foul character.
