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Cranky Man Tried To Have Entire Neighborhood Arrested Because They Wouldn’t Get Off His Lawn
The popular trope of a man telling people to get off his lawn may never be better personified than the case of Peter Langdon in 1900
A common stereotype in American culture is a cranky older man angrily ordering people to get off his lawn. However, this was never better personified than the case of Chicago man Peter Langdon, who applied for warrants to have everyone in his neighborhood arrested in 1900 because he claimed they were constantly trespassing on his grass.
The January 5, 1900 issue of the Chicago Tribune reported on the extreme aggravation of one Peter Langdon, the inhabitant of 7126 Eggleston Ave. in Chicago. The day before, he decided he finally had enough of his neighbors, particularly children, constantly trespassing on his lawn. Accordingly, he went to his local police station and completed an application to have his entire neighborhood arrested for trespassing.
Since Langdon didn’t know exactly who the children belonged to, he decided to take the easy way and have all the adults arrested and have the blame of the true guilty parties filtered out by the process of elimination, especially since many of them were regularly walking across…
