For creator @lexiarvelo, the fight to protect her family’s land is now measured in days. “Okay, we are on day two,” she says at the start of her update, walking her followers through the aftermath of someone clearing part of her property without permission.
“Yesterday we did call the police to come because they said that we had to do that in order to stop them from doing what they’re doing,” she explains. A surveyor still hasn’t made it out, but the damage is already visible on camera. She pans to what’s left of the tree line: nothing but bare ground where trees used to stand. “A lot of people were commenting that, oh, where’s the tree stumps? If they took the trees down, there is no tree stumps because they rip the stumps out.”
She walks the property line, pointing out an orange barrier the crew has started putting up — an apparent attempt to stake a claim to land she says is hers. “This big diddy,” she says, gesturing at it. “They’re trying to put up this orange, I don’t know, barrier gate or whatever this is, to try to, I guess, claim whatever it is that they’re trying to claim.” Some areas have been spared so far, she notes, but crews are “still very much working these trees” on the other side of the boundary — land that, she’s careful to clarify, does not belong to her family.
What comes through most in the video isn’t anger so much as exhaustion and a genuine need for direction. “We’ve contacted several lawyers. If you guys have any suggestions on who to contact, what to do,” she says. “We’ve contacted the city, we’ve called the police department. We don’t know what else to do.” She lists what she does have on hand: the deed, the plot, the survey, all the documentation a homeowner is supposed to need. What she doesn’t have yet is an attorney willing to take the case — several she’s called have told her it’s not the kind of dispute they handle.
What to Do If Someone Clears Your Land Without Permission
Unauthorized land clearing is more common than most homeowners realize, especially on larger rural or semi-rural lots where property lines aren’t always obvious on the ground. It can happen by genuine mistake — a crew working from an outdated or misread survey — or, as this video suggests, as a more deliberate attempt to claim disputed land by simply acting first and sorting out ownership later.
The steps she’s already taking are the right ones. Calling the police to stop active clearing creates an official record and, in many jurisdictions, is genuinely necessary to get work halted in the moment — police can’t usually resolve a boundary dispute, but they can document who was on scene and when. A licensed surveyor’s report is the single most important piece of evidence in any boundary case; without one, it’s essentially impossible to prove exactly where a property line falls, no matter how many old maps or memories are involved.
On the legal side, not every attorney handles real property or boundary law, which is why several lawyers telling her it’s outside their scope isn’t unusual — the search should specifically be for a real estate or property litigation attorney, and many state bar associations offer free lawyer-referral services that can narrow that search quickly. Depending on the state and the value of the timber or land involved, remedies can range from an injunction stopping further clearing to monetary damages for the trees and land alteration already done.
In the meantime, continuing to document — photos, video, dates, any communication with the crew or their employer — is exactly the kind of groundwork that makes a case easier to win once the right attorney is found.
You can follow the ongoing situation and follow @lexiarvelo on TikTok for updates.
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