Minn. House candidate saws neighbor's garage in half, lawsuit alleges

Minn. House candidate saws neighbor's garage in half, lawsuit alleges

A Republican candidate running for a seat in the Minnesota House probably won't be getting his neighbor's vote after allegedly cutting his garage in half with a power saw.

According to a lawsuit filed in Itasca County District Court, Roger Weber cut away a portion of Mark Besemann's garage that Weber claims was on his property. Besemann had purchased the garage and house, located in Nashwauk, Minn., from Weber's sister in 2013.

According to court documents, Weber's father had owned the 40-acre property until 1978, when he transferred 39 acres — a mix of woods and hayfields — to his son, keeping a house, garage, and acre of land for himself. (Weber still lives down the road.)

When his father died in 2012, the one-acre property was passed down to Weber's sister, Ann Anderson, who lives in Arizona. The siblings subsequently feuded over the property line, the lawsuit states.

On April 22, 2013, Besemann bought the home from Anderson. Five days later, Besemann returned to the property to find his garage cut in half.

“I live a half-hour away, so I’m not over there every day. About a week after I closed on it, I drove in to see that half the garage was gone,” Besemann told the Duluth News Tribune. “I had a pretty good hunch who did it, but I waited a few days to call him. Someone who does something like that isn’t thinking properly. I didn’t want to get him any angrier. I didn’t know what else he might do."

Besemann is seeking $40,000, including $20,000 to fix the garage, and a small portion of Weber's property to act as a "buffer zone."

"It was a pretty rough way to greet your new neighbor," Besemann added.

The case has been delayed until Dec. 15. Weber, who is seeking the District 6A seat, faces two-term Democratic incumbent Carly Melin in the Nov. 4 election, the same candidate he lost to in a 2012 race.