Tonight on 20/20 ` we're in New York with the boys who went from their Mt Eden bedroom to Brooklyn. I'm proud that, like, a lot of the people that say we, like, suck have, like, crashed. Playing to massive crowds and shaking up the dance scene, Mt Eden are the biggest thing you've never heard of. We fly, do shows, fly some more, do another show. ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS Plus ` we put the neighbour from hell into the hot seat. Sick and tired of listening to this <BLEEP>. I said is it illegal to be a <BLEEP>? I just had the feeling he was gonna do something. And these neighbours don't just yell over the fence. MAN: He's smashing my house. MAN: He's smashing my house. WOMAN: He's smashing your house? If somebody makes you mad enough, you snap. Holy Jesus. And I'm just, like, screaming, 'Get out of the house! Get out of the house!' Captions by TVNZ Access Services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 Kia ora. I'm Sonya Wilson. Now, they're one of NZ's most prolific exports, yet you may not have even heard of them. That is of course unless you're already a fan of their grimy bass and head-shaking sounds. Mt Eden, formally known as Mt Eden Dubstep, have carved themselves international fame after what were very humble beginnings in Auckland's Mt Eden, of course. For those of you who haven't heard of this niche music scene, these guys are heavy-hitting DJs in EDM ` that's electronic dance music. Hannah Ockelford had the fantastic job of, uh, going to New York and catching up with Harley Reiner and Jesse Cooper. ELLIE GOULDING'S 'ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN' ELLIE GOULDING'S 'ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN' # That was the year # I knew the panic was over... Peace, love, unity, respect ` if you ask a fan what it's about, they'd probably tell you that. From amateur bedroom producers... # ...happen, happen, happen, happen... ...to EDM pros. # Anything could happen. # Anything could happen. # Anything could happen. # Anything could happen, happen, happen... # We've been, like, playing the festival circuit for, like, two or three years now. We've played EDC Orlando, three times at EDC Vegas, we've played at EDC` Coachella. Coachella. ...Dallas. We've played at, yeah, Coachella; we've played at Ultra. Harley Rayner and Jesse Cooper of Mt Eden became fixtures on the American scene after their songs went viral and their fan base exploded. ELLIE GOULDING'S 'ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN' CONTINUES It was their internet popularity that got them seen, signed and shipped to the States ` literally from their bedrooms to Brooklyn, from total amateurs to sought-after stars. Forget the bush, the beach and the barbeques; welcome to New York. This is the place to make connections, home to the industry's most powerful, truly a land of opportunities. ELECTRONIC MUSIC What's up, man? What's up, man? Good to see you, man. They've teamed up with Ultra Records, home to the likes of Calvin Harris and David Guetta. You become the tastemaker, and that's really what these streaming services are all about. Nice. From the live shows, they do very well. They're selling out. Everyone that is into the dubstep genre is aware of them, and now we need to break them beyond, uh, their niche market. ELECTRONIC MUSIC But to get to the top, Jesse and Harley have left everything they know. It's just them and their girls carving out a whole new life. This is my girlfriend, Monica. This is my girlfriend, Monica. Hi. This is my girlfriend, Monica. Hi. Monica Neary from Donaldson's Dairy. ELECTRONIC MUSIC We fly, do shows, fly some more, do another show, stay at home, wake up, make some music. So yeah, we live a good life. (CHUCKLES) It had to be done. How hard do you work? How hard do you work? When we're here, we're in with the team, we're focussed, we're working, and that's... that's our job and that's... we know what we've gotta do, whereas in NZ, if we'd stayed there, we would just probably faded, eh? So, how did a couple of cruisy kids from the village... (IMITATES RECORD SCRATCHING) ...morph into an international EDM sensation? I didn't know Harley, I mean, that well until I went over to his house and saw that he had a pair of, uh, turntables. 11 years old and making mixes for fun. That was our whole weekend ` just like, go to Real Groovy, buy CDs or vinyls and take them home, put them in the computer and mix them. put them in the computer and mix them. What kind of music was it back then? Rap music. Yeah, rap music. I got the nickname of, uh, DJ... What was it? (CHUCKLES) BOTH: DJ Fresh. BOTH: DJ Fresh. (LAUGHS) BOTH: DJ Fresh. (LAUGHS) We didn't play instruments either, so there was kinda no way we were ever gonna, like, dream of, like, being musicians. We're just trying to get a track ready for tonight. When did you guys start getting cool? We're still not really cool. We're still pretty geeky and stuff. I'm not so sure about that. Either way, their sound was considered cool. We, like, formed a business officially and called it Mt Eden. Mt Eden Ltd. (LAUGHS) Yeah, we... we're lucky we got that one, eh? I just added the sample back in just to hear what it would sound like. Sounds pretty cool. Yeah, it sounds quicker, eh? Harley quit his architecture degree, and Jesse packed in his building job. A handful of people complain about how we, sort of, shot to the top of the scene in NZ without having been there and been, like, making music for, like, 20 years like everyone else. Tumeke. (LAUGHS) Too much, bro. I think NZers have a bit of a tall poppy syndrome. Once you get big, yeah, people try and hold you down. We were getting higher fees than, like, the... the well-established, like, locals, which we kinda felt guilty about, to be honest. That's typical of these guys, unassuming and ` let's be honest ` fun-loving. (IMITATES ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Get in! Get in to the chopper! People wanted to hear original music. So we pretty much took a year off to try and... (CLEARS THROAT) find our musical being, trying to learn everything, trying to catch up. It was then that they heard a new sound. I was really influenced by that set. Cos it was like drum and bass, was like,... (IMITATES SLOW DRUMMING) And then it all of a sudden just dropped into this really slow kinda hip hop, but it still had the drum and bass feel to it. And I was, like, 'Man, what's that sound?' It was dubstep. Inspired, Mt Eden came up with a game-changer ` this song, Sierra Leone. MT EDEN'S 'SIERRA LEONE' MT EDEN'S 'SIERRA LEONE' WOMAN: # Oh. Oh... # No one else at the time had done a nice sound of dubstep. If you listen back, it's like everything's really aggressive, dark, sounds like it was made in a dungeon. Cos dubstep was more about, um, the grittiness of it, I think, rather than the prettiness. It went viral, and Mt Eden rose to the top of the dubstep scene. MT EDEN'S 'SIERRA LEONE' PLAYS MT EDEN'S 'SIERRA LEONE' PLAYS WOMAN: # Oh. Oh... # Sierra Leone kind of opened the door for us, and it's still going hard when we play at our shows. And it's funny cos that... that tune's so old, and I'm... I'm sure we've played that tune well over 10,000 times. Louder! Louder! CROWD: # Oh... # Just a couple of years on, and these guys boast more than 100 million hits on YouTube. But popularity doesn't equate to dollars. Cos everyone's downloading. Mt Eden is the best. (CHUCKLES) Can I ask what sort of money you do get for shows? Around the 10... 10,000, and then you've got your manager's fees ` that's cut off. And then... then you've got our accountant's fees, then you've got... You know, it keeps cutting. And then we're just left with... And then we're just left with... We're like this. (LAUGHS) We're squeezing it from the nipple, like, you know... (LAUGHS) We're barely not getting any milk. If YouTube hits equalled units sold, would you be a wealthy man right now? Oh, yeah, definitely. That would be pretty handy to have all those... all those views as, like, $1 or something. Just another challenge their passion has to overcome. DUB MUSIC It's good to be back home. (LAUGHS) Readjust to the whole... It is a big adjustment, eh? It's a rare trip home ` time for a couple of local shows and a catch-up with family. Yeah, just, like, living in New York, everything's so fast, uh, and so much to, kind of, embrace at the same time. Coming back to NZ, has it been hard to slow down? It's been great. I'm loving it. I don't think I would get as much work done here than in New York. Everything... People are always putting out awesome music, people always wanna meet up, co-lab features and all that sort of stuff. I think that's good. I think we've made a good move, moving to New York. Once people see it getting big overseas, no one can really say anything about you. I think that's one thing to understand, is, like, you know, if there's artists out there who don't know how to handle haters, just let your fans deal with it. Yeah. Just let them, cos it's gonna generate, like, a cycle of, um, drama and all that sort of stuff. There's a cycle of a different sort at Harley's. Let's make some perfume. Fresh flowers distilling the smell of home,... I've never tried jasmine before, Harley. I've never tried jasmine before, Harley. You've never tried jasmine? ...a smell Harley wants to take to New York to share with his girlfriend. When you said 'smell of home', I was thinking we could put all sorts of things into it. Given where you guys are at right now, does New York feel like the best place for you to be? I think it's really good for us to be there. Just looking at all the things that we've done ` pretty much none of those things would have been possible without us actually being there. What about you and Jesse ` have you had to negotiate through some things in your own relationship? Yeah, of course, there's, like, business things, but, um, we always say before we get into a negotiation, 'Let's not let this affect anything except our business.' Uh, and I think Jesse and I are closer than ever, so... Cool. Cool. Uh, we've never been, like, as tight as we are now. And despite their rapid rise, they're more focused than ever on breaking into the mainstream, moving on from just dubstep for the dance floor. We usually, um, have a few drinks in the green room, and then we say a little something before we jump on. Me and Harley are, like, 'Yeah, we're gonna fuck this up.' (LAUGHS) And then we run on to stage, and then it's just a whole different ballgame. ELECTRONIC MUSIC We always interact with the crowd a lot. So, like, we've gotta get them on our same energy so we're all on the same wavelength. We want everyone to go home feeling like they had an awesome night and it was a night to remember. We've done shows where there's 30,000 people, and then we'll come to a show where there's, like, 100 people. We, like, genuinely have a good time, and I think it's hard for people not to, like, feel that and also, like, get on the same vibe as us. > Can you dance to dubstep? Can you dance to dubstep? Yeah, it's more of a head-nod thing. Uh, yeah, it's really... (LAUGHS) I don't know how to... It's hard to explain. Dancing or just nodding, the fans are, without a doubt, happy. When we're seeing the whole crowd, they look like they're having a good time. (LAUGHS) They're on something. BOTH LAUGH BOTH LAUGH Are drugs a big part of dubstep? It's big. It's big. I'd have to say it's pretty big, yeah. The way people are producing music is, like, it shakes your whole body at some of these shows. Like, they have 100,000-watt sound systems, so I think that's where the drugs probably come into play. Which one's this one? Which one's this one? Do you wanna listen? ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS BOTH: # I can't believe that it's gone. # Jesse's girl, Talia, is at most of the shows. Harley actually introduced us, um, when we were 15, and we spent the summers, like, um, on his trampoline in his backyard. She's a critic and a fan. Yeah, it's safe to say that Talia's like my, uh... my little secretary. She always keeps me, like, in line with dates and everything. In the beginning, Jesse would just make this music, like, after having a shitty day being a builder. And he'll come home and, like, make this music, and he'll upload it, and then just the impact that it has on people, and, like, got them through really tough times and really great times. The whole point is to make people happy. Yeah. Like, Jesse's the most happiest, positive guy out there and just making people so happy as well. (LAUGHS) It's an attitude for keeps, cos nothing comes easily in New York. OK, ready? OK, ready? All right. OK, ready? All right. Oh, yeah, step out this way. BOTH LAUGH But given the size of the audience these young guys from our village command, they may well end up being one of our best exports that the world has heard. I miss home, but home will always be home, and home will always be there. And it'll always be the same. My mates will always be doing the same thing. My mates will always be doing the same thing. Are you musicians now? Yeah, I guess so, yeah. I think we just have this bond. When we play, we play as a team. Are you guys proud of what you've done? People aren't supposed to be proud of themselves, eh, but... I'm proud how far we've come, moving from NZ to here. I'm proud that, like, a lot of the people who said that we, like, suck have, like, crashed. (LAUGHS) And we haven't crashed yet, so we're good. BUBBLY ELECTRONIC MUSIC Now, Mt Eden have got an album coming out in the next couple of months, apparently. So keep an eye on our Facebook page for details of that. Next up on 20/20 ` having trouble with your neighbours? Well, imagine living next door to this woman. They call her the neighbour from hell, and tonight she is behind bars. America's nastiest neighbour. The woman who's been called the neighbour from hell. You've been called the neighbour from hell. You've been called the neighbour from hell. I have. Are you? Are you? I don't think so. replacing it with beautiful Mac's Green Apple for a real fresh vibe. I'm using Bacardi rum, the original white rum from Cuba. It's mojito weather. 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For more delicious Bacardi mojito recipes, head to themix.co.nz I'm proud that, like, a lot of the people that say we, like, suck have, like, crashed. 1 INQUISITIVE MUSIC Welcome back. It seems everyone has a nasty neighbour story, but Kim and Greg Hoffman say theirs takes the cake. They say their neighbour Lori Christensen, a single mother and a former Girl Scouts leader, made it her mission to ruin their lives. If there were a nasty neighbours hall of fame, this woman would be a shoe-in. And these videos? Part of a highlight reel that's earned Lori Christensen an enduring if unflattering nickname. They call her the neighbour from hell, and tonight she is behind bars. America's nastiest neighbour. The woman who's been called the neighbour from hell. You've been called the neighbour from hell. I have. I have. Are you? I have. Are you? I don't think so. I think I've just been trying to protect myself from being stalked and being bullied. Bullied, she says, by her neighbours Greg and Kim Hoffman. But you won't be surprised to hear that the Hoffmans and the courts see things quite differently. Actions speak louder than words. Her actions have shown very simply that she is the aggressor. Flashback to 1999, when Lori Christensen and her daughter moved into this four-bedroom house just across the street from the Hoffman family. They say things went from cordial to combative six years ago because of a spat between their daughters. And immediately, she pretty much went off on me, cos she was yelling` She was screaming at you. She was screaming at you. She was screaming at me. She was screaming at you. She was screaming at me. Had she screamed at you before? No, she had not. And I turned around and started to walk away. But walking away from the wrath of Lori Christensen wouldn't be that simple. The Hoffmans learned the hard way after Kim, a recovering alcoholic, suffered a dangerous relapse. She collapsed in front of me. She collapsed in front of me. She collapsed in front you. She collapsed in front of me. She collapsed in front you. Yeah, and I had my son call 911. (SIGHS SHAKILY) Christensen expressed her condolences in her own special way. She starts swearing at me. 'You should have died. 'Why don't you drink some more Scotch?' As the tension escalated, police were called over 100 times to this once quiet neighbourhood. It took quite a while for Kim and Greg Hoffman to convince me that this was not a 'he said, she said' event. Police chief Lynne Bankes told them to start videotaping Christensen's behaviour. Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo-whoo-whoo! Way to go, Jake! What their camera caught would prove to be the game changer in this conflict on the cul-de-sac. Here's Lori using a remote control car to simulate drunk driving during Jake Hoffman's 12th birthday party ` another apparent dig at Kim's alcoholism. She started calling me a son of an alcoholic in front of my friends, and it wasn't something my friends were aware of, so it was an embarrassing situation. Then there were these giant signs covering Christensen's garage with insulting messages, like, 'I saw Mommy kissing a breathalyzer.' But the video that got Christensen the most attention was this bizarre mock striptease. As you might imagine, the Hoffmans got a restraining order that barred their neighbour from having any contact with them. But Christensen repeatedly violated it. It got so bad, police even stormed her home to arrest her, landing her in jail twice. She lost her government job and was eventually barred from returning to her own home. In the spirit of trying to get along with the people who you live across from, why not just stop? I didn't want to get` Why do I have to get along? Why do I`? You've been behind bars now because of all this. You've been behind bars now because of all this. Why do I have to live my life to make them happy? This week, after trying to withdraw a guilty plea on felony charges of violating a restraining order, Lori Christensen agreed to share her side of the story with us. You wanted to reverse your guilty plea. You wanted to reverse your guilty plea. I did. She argued that the whole Hoffman brouhaha was mostly about jealousy. That's part of what you assert ` that other people were jealous of you; the Hoffmans specifically were jealous of what you had. Absolutely. Absolutely. You believe that's where this stems from? That and Greg wanting to have a relationship with me. A relationship? It's just another thing that Lori creates in order to justify her behaviour. It just never existed. Did the neighbour from hell want to deny or at least apologise for some of her behaviour? No. Kim said when you asked, 'Why don't you drink some more Scotch?', you prefaced it with, 'You should've died.' That was after her kid stole my bike and she came out drunk, and I looked at her` But is there ever an excuse to say that to someone? But is there ever an excuse to say that to someone? Why not? Why not? Don't come out` Most people would say no, especially in front of children. You know what? She comes stumbling out, and she's, rah, rah, rah, drunk and all bitching at me, 'Leave my kids alone. You can't talk to my kids.' I go, 'You know what? Kim, go and drink some more Scotch. Maybe you'll die.' Absolutely. And you don't feel bad about saying that? No. Why? Because that's where she was headed. Christensen also admits to those garage door signs but says they weren't all directed at the Hoffmans. 'I saw Mommy kissing a breathalyzer.' Yes. That was New Year's Eve, and all the Met Council buses, that was the logo that year. I have pictures of every Metropolitan Council bus driving down the street that said, 'I saw Mommy kissing a breathalyzer.' I'm a MADD supporter. So it wasn't directed at Kim Hoffman? So it wasn't directed at Kim Hoffman? Oh, absolutely not. I guess I find it hard to believe that advertising MADD in such a manner really is gonna be very effective. As for that suggestive driveway dance, Lori says she was fed up with Greg Hoffman constantly videotaping her. That doesn't look bizarre or, as some people have said, crazy? Why should somebody`? Why should a guy that shaves his head be standing across the street videotaping me every night? Do you not find that bizarre? If the guy wants to sit home watching me, I'll give you something to record and watch me. At that point, during a break, we got a taste of the Christensen temper for ourselves. Move on. It's <BLEEP>ing sick and tired of listening to the same thing over and over. Let's talk about what happened in 2012. The Hoffmans` Let's talk about what happened in 2012. The Hoffmans` Let's do it. After things settled down, we moved on. There was the moment when police had to break in to your home. I mean, at that point, are you thinking, 'This isn't worth it'? I mean, at that point, are you thinking, 'This isn't worth it'? Do you know what that was? But you were engaging when you weren't supposed to, and if you` But you were engaging when you weren't supposed to, and if you` No, I wasn't <BLEEP>ing engaging. Christensen insists the local police, including Chief Lynne Bankes, had had it out for her from the start. Lynne Bankes and I have never talked. Um, I have a conversation recorded with Lynne Bankes where she called me a monster. And, uh, Lynne Banks never` Why do you think she thinks that of you, though? Why do you think she thinks that of you, though? Why? Because I was a single gal and I was assertive. And she told me I was a <BLEEP>. I says, 'Is it illegal to be <BLEEP>?' Are you a <BLEEP>? I can be. I'm assertive. I hold my own. But I'm also a very compassionate person. Sitting in my office across from me, I said, 'Lori, why? Why can't you just stop this?' And she looked me right in the eye and said, 'It's my lifelong goal to make these people's life miserable.' If you're a bully, we're not gonna let you act like that in this community. If you're just plain mean, there's gonna be consequences. Tonight Christensen is awaiting more consequences ` a sentence on her latest felony charge. She faces up to 10 years' probation and remains barred from her home. It's on the market, in case you're interested. But Lori's sure not giving it the hard sell. How do you describe that neighbourhood? How do you describe that neighbourhood? Ghetto. Pretty low class. I guess, you know, it's social classes. We were just at a different rung than the rest of the neighbourhood. If you could say anything to the Hoffmans, what would you say to them? Get a life. Leave me alone. Move on. Move on, Greg. It's never gonna happen between us. Luckily, the Hoffmans seem eager to do just that. Knowing that she is not gonna be back in this neighbourhood is unbelievable. So your long, hard fight ` does it feel worth it now? Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh yes. People shouldn't have to get up and move or relocate because you have a neighbour that is making your life miserable. We took our neighbourhood back. Next on 20/20, these neighbours are at war and have pulled out the heavy artillery. MAN: You'd better get some cops up here with guns, cos this son of a gun is crazy. WOMAN: 911 emergency. WOMAN: 911 emergency. Somebody's hit a pole. Somebody did what to the power lines? People are walking around. People are walking around. What a crazy... They should shoot that... MAN: Somebody is gonna shoot him. MAN: Somebody is gonna shoot him. Where's the <BLEEP>ing cops? MAN: Somebody is gonna shoot him. Where's the <BLEEP>ing cops? Holy Jesus. I gotta watch all of this! (CHUCKLES) 1 INQUISITIVE MUSIC Welcome back. Now, these neighbours aren't just yelling at each other over the fence; they've gone to war, and one of them has called in the heavy artillery. Now, have a watch as one man fixes his boundary dispute by knocking his neighbour's house down. It's like a movie. A truck flattened like a pancake. He didn't care. In the annuls of neighbourhood mayhem,... I've called 911, guys! ...it doesn't get much crazier than this. Unbelievable. There's somebody on a tractor on Pioneer. Oh my gosh! I can't understand you when you're screaming. He's smashing my house. He's smashing my house. Smashing your house? And it's your neighbour? I'm getting the <BLEEP> out of here. Neighbours terrorised by a bully in a bulldozer. I was afraid I was gonna die. I'm glad we're both alive. Dan and Mary Davis and Barb Porter are retirees who came to Port Angeles, Washington, looking for a bit of paradise. Why did you want to move here? Oh, it's a beautiful place to live. Oh, it's a beautiful place to live. And we like to fish, and the water's right here. Clinging to the northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula, this town of 20,000 is a pit stop for giant oil tankers and a port of call for lumbermen and fishermen. More recently, the place has served as a scruffy setting for the mega-hit movie Twilight. But even if you blended a drop of vampire blood with a dose of that old cult classic... Killdozer, where a bulldozer is possessed by an alien demon, you'd have a long way to go to outweird this story. But before we meet the neighbour from the dark side, let's trace his path of destruction, beginning with a vacant modular home Dan was building as a rental unit. This is where my house sat. And this is where it wound up ` next door. He shoved my house through the fence, collapsed both the storage buildings. It was way over there, and it ended up here. And that's my house there. He headed towards this small house here, and it looks to me like he destroyed that house. To say nothing of Dan's pickup truck, which in the end could've been carried away with a spatula. All of this courtesy of a bulldozer driven by a very angry logger ` their neighbour Barry Swegle. I talked with his brother Jeff. Barry's actually an easy-going guy. I'm almost smiling just because of the juxtaposition of` I'm picturing him up on the dozer knocking down houses as an easy-going guy. I'm trying to get my head wrapped around that. Well, I guess things change, you know. If somebody makes you mad enough, you snap, you do things you'll probably regret. I think that's what happened here. He... He snapped. Long before Barry snapped, crackled and popped his way through this neighbourhood,... We have a dozer that's completely armed. ...a fellow down in Colorado climbed in an armour-clad bulldozer in 2004 and laid waste to a good chunk of the town of Granby. The dozer's engine finally died. The man killed himself. Miraculously, up here in Port Angeles, no one was injured in Barry's wrecking spree. But what set him off? What do you think was his big gripe? It really boils down to one of the neighbours, and that's Dan Davis. Barry kept telling me that Dan was pissing him off, doing little things to get him mad. They say good fences make good neighbours. Well, not in this case. Seems Mr Davis had been trying to build a fence between his property and Barry Swegle's driveway. How far back did that go? How far back did that go? Oh, it goes back for years over that fence up there. I think he wanted something that didn't belong to him and he was mad because we were fixing it. Taking the long view, as in from outer space, there's Dan's property and, adjacent to it, Barry's driveway. You can see how Barry's trucks and heavy equipment wore a path across the corner of Dan's property. Um, Barry had logging equipment. His only way in and out was through this road. So you need a pretty good sized entrance to make the turn. So you need a pretty good sized entrance to make the turn. ...to make the corner. My place was surveyed when I bought it, and then I had it surveyed again so I could put a fence up. So I thought, 'I'm gonna put my fence up there.' Barry didn't want that. With the fence up, you have to drive a little bit slower. You can do it just fine, but you gotta go slower. He'd knock it down, we'd go put it back. He'd knock it down, we'd go put it back. Now, Dan Davis was not about to be intimidated, but he's 75 with a bum knee and bad eyesight. By contrast, Barry Swegle is a 245-pound Paul Bunyan in love with machinery. Instead of Babe the Blue Ox, rusting carcasses of his old toys line his driveway. If you knew Barry, you know, he's a big boy. Auto-glass repairman Jason Bondy. So, you know, I'm 300 pounds, and I'd be kind of scared of him if he went sideways. Sideways, backwards, inside or out, Jason says there was something else that made Barry dangerous. He didn't know me from Adam and just flat out said that he had a meth problem, you know, and he's trying to get help and nobody will help him. Both Barry's brother and local authorities confirmed Barry had a history of drug use and a penchant for paranoia. He said we were the leaders of a gang that was coming through our property and, uh,... ...stealing his fuel, his batteries. ...stealing his fuel, his batteries. ...stealing his fuel and his batteries. He thought that, uh, this mobile home had them surveilling him in there ` the government or somebody was watching him. Even law enforcement had a growing file on the odd fellow living at 2313 East Ryan Drive. He was out here with his backhoe, with his excavator digging up his yard and digging 20ft-deep holes in this driveway right behind us. He was just digging up holes? He was just digging up holes? Just digging holes. Barry's bizarre brew of anger, heavy machines and paranoia finally came to a full boil on an otherwise beautiful morning last May when he turned his attention back to his neighbour Dan and that fence of his. He was saying something. I couldn't understand him. He was just bouncing up and down, giving me the finger. Well, first time in my life I ever did it; I gave him the finger back. And he drove off. And then I called the sheriff. Communications, Susan. Communications, Susan. Yeah, Susan, my name is Dan Davis. I says, 'Well, something's gonna happen here. Barry's been tearing our fence down for... '10 to 12 years, and, uh, I think he's gonna do it again.' He just drove by here, and just harassed the hell out of me. About two and a half hours later, then, basically, things hit the fan. He's smashing my house. He's smashing my house. Smashing your house? When we come back ` forget the fence; he's gonna try to take out the whole neighbourhood. Yeah, now he's tearing the neighbour's place down. Holy Jesus. I gotta watch all of this. You will too ` next. 1 INQUISITIVE MUSIC Dan Davis and his neighbour Barry Swegle have been skirmishing over this fence for years. He'd knock it down, we'd go put it back. He'd knock it down, we'd go put it back. So like a run-up to a miniature war, Dan drew his red line in the sand ` literally, with spraypaint ` rightly guessing the squabble was about to turn nuclear. So I drove down to Rite Aid, got two disposable cameras, came back because I just had the feeling he was gonna do something. Dan's no photographer ` in fact, he's all thumbs ` but still managed to fire off these shots just as Barry's dozer was about to take its first bite. BULLDOZER RUMBLES And I heard the bulldozer start. He was coming up our fence line, and immediately, he started tearing out my retainer wall. He took my fence out up to this point. And I thought that's exactly where he was gonna stop, but he didn't. Oh, no, Barry is just getting started. What shocked me was when that house started moving, it was... (BLOWS RASPBERRY), and I... (CHUCKLES) Something like that gets my curiosity up, and I'm interested. Who wouldn't be? And thanks to a neighbour's cell phone video, we have your exclusive ringside seats to Barry's rumble in the rubble. Watch this. He's smashing my house. He's smashing my house. Smashing your house? He's smashing my house. Smashing your house? My house ` he's smashed it. And listen to this 911 call. Dan's doing play by play of his own catastrophe. Now he's backing up over my truck ` right over my new diesel pickup, right over the top of it. It was a hell of a nice pickup, and when I see him go over that truck, I think, 'Holy Jesus. I gotta watch all of this,' you know. The method to this madness suggests Barry is nothing if not thorough. Demolished house ` check. Crushed pickup ` check. Up next ` the power poles. You'd better get some cops up here with guns, cos this son of a gun is crazy. 911 emergency. 911 emergency. Somebody's hit a pole. Somebody did what to the power lines? People are walking around. What a crazy... (SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY) MAN: Somebody is gonna shoot him. Where's the <BLEEP>ing cops? By the time sheriff's deputies scream on to Ryan Drive, the electric lines have been flashdancing with 115,000 volts. By now, the whole neighbourhood is in a panic and with very good reason. WOMAN SHRIEKS INDISTINCTLY I can't understand you when you're screaming. Like a crazed storm trooper, Barry has suddenly changed targets, blasting through several backyards and fences on his way to demolishing two more neighbourhood homes. Yeah, now he's tearing the neighbour's place down. After punching a hole in the side of the third house, he takes aim at the main residence of Dan and Mary Davis. Mary's bedroom takes a direct hit. And I see a lady standing in the doorway, and I'm just, like, screaming on the top of my lungs, like, freaking out, 'Get out of the house! Get out of the house!' Next, Barry takes out Mary's office and the living room where she'd been sleeping. On foot now, Deputies Kirtani and Backus race to catch up. We were ramped up. There's no two ways about it. The information we were getting and what we were dealing with. The information we were getting and what we were dealing with. ...screaming at us to shoot him. Did you have your guns up on him? I had my gun aimed at him, and I got his attention by waving my free hand. He looked, and he immediately surrendered. Barry was booked on charges of malicious mischief, burglary and assault with a bulldozer, which, by the way, sits in a chain-link jail of its own, seized as evidence but a tad too big for the sheriff's weapons lock-up. I think this was my first ever bulldozer as a weapon of choice. The bizarre behaviour with the bulldozer and the threat that poses to public safety. Mr Swegle now shuffles between jail and court, awaiting a judgement on his fate. His attorney hints that diminished mental capacity is likely to be part of his defence. As for the final tally of damages, it runs like this. Pickup truck ` $40,000. (BLOWS RASPBERRY) Tractor ` $16,000. (BLOWS RASPBERRY) Boat ` $8000. (BLOWS RASPBERRY) Various homes and buildings ` $300,000. Images of Barry's neighbourhood block party ` priceless. CLASSICAL MUSIC CRESCENDOS I'm doing my best not to laugh at the man with no teeth. Uh, next on 20/20, nextdoor.com ` is it the new neighbourhood watch or just plain old snooping? And this nextdoor.com thing is spreading like crabgrass, currently sprouting in nearly 20,000 neighbourhoods, growing its membership by 500% in the past year. OK, so what is it, exactly? Well, think of nextdoor.com like a hyper-local Facebook in your hood. Only locals can join; only locals can access the site. Time just to go... (EXHALES) At depression.org.nz, I can take you GENTLE MUSIC Sometimes I feel like depression is a modern illness. It feels like I'm too busy; we're just too busy being busy. What we need to do is just stop. We need to take time out just for us. I'm an active relaxer, so I've got to be doing something, and just the simple thing of making a meal is really therapeutic for me. You know, I feel good about it at the end. Time just to go... (EXHALES) At depression.org.nz, I can take you through a personalised programme where you'll learn how taking time to take care of yourself can help you through depression. Depression.org.nz ` I'll see you there. I'm proud that, like, a lot of the people that say we, like, suck have, like, crashed. 1 INQUISITIVE MUSIC Welcome back. Now, it's billed as a customised social network for individual neighbourhoods, a way to connect, to problem-solve, even to fight crime. Nextdoor.com is a high-tech neighbourhood watch, where neighbours can post personal observations and security-cam images. But is it also just another way to spy or gossip? LAID-BACK MUSIC WHOOSH! Early one Wednesday morning, surveillance cameras captured the FedEx guy dropping a package at Cecil Lawson's place in San Jose, California. OK, so you've got FedEx guy... OK, so you've got FedEx guy... Couldn't get the gate open. He drops it over. Lucky it wasn't fragile. Inside that package ` thermal underwear. Now, watch this. Seconds later, a guy pulls up in a Porsche and purloins those underpants. That's pretty brazen. Sorry, so, somebody driving a $70,000 Porsche is stealing thermal underwear from your driveway. Yes. He was right there. The proof is in the pudding. A week later, replacement underwear arrives and, bang, the same guy snaffles it. Cecil posted his video evidence on a new social network called Nextdoor.com. So we have a video. Everybody started actively looking for the guy. A neighbourhood manhunt triggered with the click of a mouse. This incident with Cecil's stolen underwear, um, you` you broke the case. Well, I guess. I just followed him to the light and took a picture of his licence plate. The thermal underwear bandit is now facing... hard time. And this sleepy subdivision could be the blueprint for the neighbourhood of our future, bristling with cameras united online. Guard dogs? (YAPS) Not required. I feel you're under less scrutiny if you're in North Korea. I mean... (CHUCKLES) Well, again there's a trade-off between, you know, keeping yourself safe and having a police state. You want to feel empowered. And this Nextdoor.com thing is spreading like crabgrass, currently sprouting in nearly 20,000 neighbourhoods, growing its membership by 500% in the past year. OK, so what is it exactly? Well, think of Nextdoor.com like a hyperlocal Facebook for your hood. Only locals can join; only locals can access the site. You post comments and videos, but unlike Facebook's frivolity, it's more local events and recommendations for dentists or electricians. This guy in San Francisco posted a video of a raccoon attacking his dog to warn neighbours. Another guy in Alaska posted a video of a neighbour's house on fire. And as we've seen in San Jose, a lot of people use Nextdoor.com to talk about crime. The police no longer are responding to burglar alarms. Dave Coburn is what they call the lead of the local Nextdoor.com. He's eager to show off lots more surveillance video shared on the site. So this was a neighbour's house at 6 o'clock in the morning. You can see there's two suspects. There's one there, and there's another one coming through the bushes. Bang, he's in the car. Bang, he's in the car. He's in the car just like that. Bang, he's in the car. He's in the car just like that. And so this gets posted on Nextdoor and everyone in the neighbourhood is wary to look out for these guys. A jaw-dropping 64% of the people in this neighbourhood have signed up. And here they are yucking it up at a little soiree round at Dave's house. Advertised, of course, in the events section on Nextdoor.com. Most folks here are loving the increased sociability. It gives you information, things happening in the neighbourhood, so everyone watches out for each other. We have a couple of people that have just moved in who are reluctant to join. They may be carrying on an extra-marital affair. They may be carrying on an extra-marital affair. LAUGHS: I don't know. Are there any aspects of it you don't like? I think it's paranoia a little bit among some of the homeowners. We don't like the worry, but we like the preparation. Nextdoor.com founder Nirav Tolia thinks he's gonna make our world a better place. We look at today where almost 30% of Americans don't know a single neighbour by name. We ask ourselves, 'How did that happen?' I'll tell you how. People have retreated indoors to watch TV and tool around on the internet. We're more suspicious. We assume our neighbours are weirdoes. Ironically, Nextdoor.com wants to use the technology that drove us indoors to reverse that trend. And these guys have global ambitions. We think Nextdoor is for every neighbourhood. Every neighbourhood? Every neighbourhood? Every single neighbourhood. Nextdoor.com wouldn't be the same without the glorious video sharing. And it's cameras like this little baby, the Dropcam,... So that's it? So that's it? Yeah, that's the whole thing. ...that are getting all the money shots. Dropcam and Nextdoor are totally separate companies, but it is a perfect marriage. There's a potentially slightly creepy aspect to this. There's a potentially slightly creepy aspect to this. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, I suppose there is. You can rig a Dropcam to be motion activated, to send you a text when it's triggered; you can watch live on your phone from anywhere in the world what's happening at your house. Melissa from Seattle was vacationing in Idaho when she got a text from the camera in her garage. And this is what she saw ` live. The first thing I thought is, 'Oh... Oh my God, is this` is this really real?' That's real. A real dude in a ski mask in her garage. And that's happening live. I called my neighbour. A neighbour who immediately called 911. Police arrived, and the thief ran off, dropping everything he'd taken. Dropcam won't say how many cameras they sell, but they will say their servers are uploading more video every day than YouTube. This country's gonna be bristling with cameras recording everything that any of us ever does. I think it's ultimately a good thing, because we put the video in control of each individual user. Ever wondered what your pets get up to when you're not home? Now you can know. Ever wondered whose dog is pooping in your yard? Now you can catch the little rascal. Ever wondered why a package is damaged? Yep, that's pretty good evidence right there. You have these cameras rolling constantly? You have these cameras rolling constantly? All the time. This is our future. We could all end up like these good people in San Jose ` a virtual neighbourhood watch with video evidence of your every move. SWING JAZZ MUSIC If you want to see any of tonight's stories again, and I reckon that, uh, old guy in the neighbourhood story might be worth another watch, head to our website. It's... You can also email us at... Or go to our Facebook page ` we're at... And let us know your thoughts on tonight's show. Well, thanks for all your feedback. We're interested in your stories, as always, so keep those ideas coming in. That's our show for tonight. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next week.