Neighbors claim Pennsylvania governor forcibly annexed property using state police

PHILADELPHIA (CN) — Two next-door neighbors of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro claim in a Monday lawsuit he’s been forcibly taking control of their property using state police.

According to Jeremy and Simone Mock — who live next door to Shapiro and his wife Lori in Rydal, Pennsylvania — the Shapiros met with the Mocks in July 2025, seeking to build an eight-foot security fence on the Mocks’ property, along their respective properties’ border line.

The plaintiffs say in the complaint filed in Philadelphia federal court the Shapiros first offered to purchase a portion of the Mocks’ property to construct the fence. As discussions stalled, the parties began instead negotiating a lease agreement for the strip of land, according to the Mocks.

By late August 2025, however, as negotiations again fell through, counsel for the Shapiros purportedly informed the Mocks that the governor would be taking “alternative actions” to obtain the land he sought.

“What followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General,” the Mocks wrote in their complaint.

With no apparent way to purchase the land, the Shapiros suddenly began claiming they already owned the property through “adverse possession,” conflicting their own previous acknowledgments of the Mocks’ land ownership, according to the Mocks.

Claiming ownership of the land, the Shapiros began planting large trees on the strip, flying drones over the property and chasing away the Mocks’ arborist and surveyor, the plaintiffs claim.

The Mocks claim Shapiro personally directed Pennsylvania State Police to patrol the Mocks’ property along the border line.

On multiple occasions, the police have insisted the property was “disputed” and ordered the Mocks to immediately exit their property, the Mocks claim.

Additionally, when the Mocks attempted to install a fence along their property line with a separate neighbor, state police reportedly forced the couple to pause construction, claiming the fence contractors were approaching a “disputed area” within a “security zone.”

“That so-called ‘disputed area’ is and has always been the Mocks’ property,” the Mocks write.

The Mocks listed in their complaint several documents pointing to their continued ownership of the property, including a survey obtained by the Shapiros, county tax assessment maps and the Shapiros’ own statements made during their claims of adverse possession.

“The Shapiros clearly knew the area of the Mock property that they are occupying unlawfully is owned by the Mocks,” the Mocks write. “The Shapiros continue to occupy the Mock property without permission or any legal justification whatsoever.”

When reached for comment, a legal representative for the Shapiros referred Courthouse News to a quiet title suit by the Shapiros in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Monday. In the suit, the Shapiros assert that they have been in “open, exclusive, hostile, continuous, adverse, and actual possession” of the contested property under a claim of right since May 2003.

The Shapiro family first contacted their neighbors regarding an interest in erecting a security fence in July 2025 — approximately two months after an arsonist set the governor’s Harrisburg residence ablaze.

Shapiro, his wife and their four children were inside the home during the April 13 attack, having finished a Passover Seder hours earlier. All members of the family, as well as guests and staff members, escaped unharmed, although the fire severely damaged the governor’s residence.

The would-be assassin pleaded guilty in October 2025 to attempted murder and arson, and was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison.

The assassination attempt spurred the security improvements the Mocks contest, according to Shapiro spokesperson Will Simons.

“While working to make those security improvements, the zoning process revealed a personal property discrepancy indicating that the fence line that has existed for more than 23 years did not exactly match the map on file with the township. The Shapiros reached out to their neighbors in good faith and repeatedly attempted to resolve the matter amicably. Unfortunately, the neighbors were unwilling to reach a fair resolution and have proceeded to harass and threaten the Shapiro family as they push an ownership claim over a small piece of the Shapiros’ backyard — a small sliver of property those same neighbors never attempted to claim or control during their first eight years of living next door,” Simons said in an email.

Simons added the neighbors’ lawyer Wally Zimolong — their third — also worked to help President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania.

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