You Might As Well Live in the Putt-Putt Windmill

An elderly Florida couple (yes, there are other types of Florida couples) have spent 15 years cowering in fear from a plague of golf balls that beset their home on a daily basis. Roughly 200 errant shots per day come whizzing in from the neighboring Stonebridge Country Club, striking windows, roof tiles, garden gnomes, even the homeowners themselves.The wife, Dorothy Abbott, was once hit by a ball. William, her husband, has narrowly dodged a few. Yet the injury and the thousands they have spent repairing their home have not resulted in any change whatsoever from the club.

⇥For more than 15 years, the Abbotts have battled with Stonebridge, which they said has gone through at least three owners, trying to get reimbursed for the repairs they’ve had to make to their home, and ultimately to get the first hole redesigned to end the problem once and for all.⇥⇥For more than 15 years, the Abbotts say they’ve gotten nowhere.⇥

⇥⇥They’ve talked to the club managers and sent dozens of letters through the years. They’ve talked to lawyers, and they’ve talked to Collier County sheriff’s deputies, too.⇥

⇥⇥Still the golf balls keep coming.⇥

⇥⇥“I did meet with the general manager at the country club,” said Cpl. Ron Turi of the Sheriff’s Office’s North Naples community policing unit. “Unfortunately, it’s a civil situation.”⇥

It would be one thing if the Abbott home was purchased as part of a community built around the course, but their house had actually been in place for seven years prior to Stonebridge opening. One would assume the course has more resources as it pertains to legal representation, but given the extensive and frequent damage the couple’s home has sustained, coupled now with media attention to the Abbott’s plight, it’s shouldn’t take much more than a forceful hand on their part to effect a change from the course, if not financial compensation.

(H/T to SbB)

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