Snow flies over shoveling dispute
EASTLAKE, Ohio — In the winter 2015 version of the axiom "No good deed goes unpunished," a man was allegedly throttled and shoved for helping his neighbor clear her sidewalk.
Another neighbor, Larry Myers, 69, was arrested Wednesday, accused of assault in the Sunday incident here and released on a $3,500 bond. He will be arraigned March 17 in Willoughby Municipal Court and can't leave snowy Ohio until he appears in court.
This suburb about 20 miles northeast of Cleveland has at least 12 to 14 inches of snow on the ground, according to the National Weather Service. And Santas Patel, who uses a cane, needed some help to clear off the accumulating precipitation.
Her longtime neighbor across the street, Will Immke, volunteered to help.
Everything went well until Immke's shoveling came close to Myers' driveway.
From his vantage point across the street, Fred Verdone saw Myers, using his snow blower, start aiming the snow right back at Immke, who kept trying to clear it away.
"Myers was in the driveway with the snow blower and pushes it directly at him — not just once or twice, but several times," Verdone said.
Immke, who lives next door to Verdone, said he tried to reason with Myers to no avail.
"I said I was clearing the sidewalk so kids could walk on the sidewalk to the school buses. And he said they could walk in the street," Immke said. "And (then) I said 'Are you stupid?' And that's when he grabbed me by my throat and my face and shoved me back."
When asked about the incident, Myers, who bought his house almost 20 years ago, was very candid.
"I grabbed him like this, and I said, 'Leave my sidewalk alone,' " Myers said.
But that wasn't the end of the snow-clearing dispute. After Immke returned home, Myers came back out with a shovel and started to dump snow exactly where Immke had cleared it off.
The result? A frozen wall of snow on the sidewalk beside Myers' driveway.
"When everybody else around here cleans their sidewalks, I will clean mine," Myers said. The city of 18,000 residents apparently does not have an ordinance that requires property owners to clear their sidewalks.
Immke's mother, Linda Immke, just shook her head.
"When somebody is trying to do a good deed, let them do the good deed and mind your own business," she said.
The snowy confrontation as captured by a witness. (Photo: Eastlake Police Department Facebook page)