Police called after neighbourhood dispute over pot plant
A neighbourhood argument over a pot plant has escalated so dramatically that police had to be called.
More than 23,000 households each year look for help to settle arguments that can't be resolved over the fence, showing it's becoming increasingly common practice in Victoria.
What began with Ying Pratt moving a neighbour's pot plant back onto his property ended with two car loads of police and an ambulance rolling up.
"He kind of pushed me backwards, put the pot plant back at my feet, and then you know pushed my husband who came over to see what was happening," Ms Pratt said.
"I went to his garage and got a hand saw and started hacking at our bushes. This was in front of our children," she said. "Mind boggling behaviour really."
The neighbours tell a very different story - that there's been bad blood for a while, and on this day, they say they were abused and provoked.
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Good fences may make good neighbours, but they're also responsible for most of the arguments between them, accounting for more than a third of Victoria's 20,000 annual complaints.
Other sore points include trees, parking and dogs.
Victoria's dispute settlement centre provides a free mediation service to settle minor disagreements and keep them from clogging the court system.
"The mediator will work with neighbours who might have issues with each other, to talk through those range of issues, help them see the other person's point of view and ultimately come up with an agreement or a way forward," Dahna Bond from Dispute Settlement Centre in Victoria said.
