A Fayetteville, North Carolina, woman said in a TikTok video that she and her household woke up to find workers clearing wooded land she said belongs to them behind their backyard fence. Alexia Arvelo, who posts as @lexiarvelo, showed a maintained yard on one side of a wooden fence and a muddy, torn-up stretch of ground on the other.
She said the land behind the fence had not been cleared before and that they went outside that morning to tell the crew the area was theirs. “They ended up clearing it anyway,” she said in the first video, which she captioned, “Y’all… they’re clearing our land and I have QUESTIONS.”
Arvelo pointed to markers and said the property ran from one marker to another. She asked on camera what had been surveyed, saying the plat they received when they bought the home did not match what the crew appeared to be using. The first video drew about 3.6 million views, about 226,800 likes, and more than 6,200 comments.
Crews stopped on one stretch after police were called, she said
In the follow-up TikTok video, Arvelo said they called police after being told that was required to try to stop the work. She said a surveyor had not yet come out and that surveyors in the Cumberland County area were booked. She showed orange fencing and said workers appeared to be putting up a barrier.
She told viewers there were no stumps left because, she said, the stumps had been ripped out. “Thankfully they have not touched these yet,” she said of trees closer to the house. She added that work was still going on on another side, which she said does not belong to them.
Arvelo said they had contacted the city and several lawyers. She said one firm told them it handles this kind of case, but could not take it because of its workload. She asked people in the Fayetteville area who had dealt with a similar dispute to leave their names in the comments. Disputes with companies can take unexpected legal turns, as when an Ohio woman was sued for over $25,000 after leaving a one-star Google review.
In a Day 3 TikTok video, she showed a white sign on the ground near orange construction fencing. The sign read “TREE PROTECTION AREA DO NOT ENTER” and included a Spanish line with the same warning. She said that the sign had not been there before.
She counted fallen logs and said they came from the cleared stretch. She said they had property markers and had shown workers their plat. She also said there was no easement on their deed as far as they knew, while adding she is not an attorney. She said an apartment complex was supposed to be built in the area behind them.
“I have no more privacy. My privacy is gone,” she said, describing lost shade and greenery. She later put the situation this way: “Everybody’s business now.” She said they would wait until Monday for a surveyor and more answers.
In a later update on TikTok, she said no one had come back onto the side she was filming. White string and purple-topped stakes were visible on the ground. She said the protection sign was still lying on the floor and that felled trees were still sitting there. She again asked for a Cumberland County surveyor or an attorney who could take the case. Arvelo has said they have a deed, a plot, and a survey and are still trying to get a surveyor on site and a lawyer who can take the file.
According to North Carolina General Statute § 1-539.1, a person who enters another person’s property without permission and cuts, injures, or removes trees, shrubs, timber, or wood may be liable to the landowner for triple the value of what was injured, cut, or removed. The statute text provided for this report also notes that a mistaken property line does not, by itself, cancel that liability to the owner.
Viewers focused on tree-damage claims and lawyers. One commenter wrote, “Call a lawyer because you’re going to be a VERY RICH LADY! Tree laws are very very serious and you can get up to 50 grand per tree. Call a lawyer.” Another commenter who identified as a property lawyer wrote, “Property lawyer here. One of my client was paid out 20k per tree after 3 months in court. Exact same situation.”
Other comments included, “You are going to get paid,” “I wouldn’t have said one word until they were done,” “Tree law. You just won the lottery,” and “Retirement fund has begun.” One commenter warned, “they’re going to build on it anyways then make you go to court hoping you don’t have the money to fight their lawyers. if they do lose, they’ll try buying it from you.”
Published: Aug 30, 2026 09:20 am