Madison Capital Times, WI - A tearful south side woman called police on Wednesday because a cottonwood tree she planted about a decade ago in her South Shore Drive backyard was dying, and she had suspicions about her next door neighbor possibly having something to do with it.
As it turned out, he allegedly did.
John Garver Jr., 59, was given a citation for criminal damage to property after police investigated the situation, said Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain.
Garver allegedly poisoned the tree by drilling holes into a large root of the tree that was on his property, then pouring the chemical weed killer Roundup into the holes.
The investigating officer said a small white funnel was protruding from one of four holes on the top of the root, with a tinted residue inside the funnel. A short distance away sat a container with a chemical-smelling liquid inside