A tree stands between them

A lop-sided pine tree outside Karen Vinci’s Newport Beach condominium doesn’t look like anyone would ever make much of a fuss over it.

Some of the scrawny tree’s branches are turning brown and one side of it looks like it has been hacked off with a dull pair of garden shears.

But “save the pine tree” has become a battle cry for residents of the Park Lido neighborhood, where the wiry tree grows out of a brick planter box on Patrice Road. Some of the residents of this quiet residential area near Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian say they have had enough of their neighbor, Tom Gottier, who wants the tree cut down.

Gottier has called the police on Vinci at least twice in the last two weeks to complain that she was spraying water over his fence while watering the tree, according to police records.

Several Park Lido residents claim Gottier is a neighborhood bully. They’ve rallied around the pine tree as a symbol of their frustration with Gottier.

Vinci has started a petition to protect the tree from Gottier, and has already collected about 20 signatures, she said.

“The pine tree is a symbol of longevity,” Vinci said. “Why would he want it cut down? It’s been there for years and he never had a problem with it before. He just wants to control everything.”

Smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk outside his home one day last week, Gottier confessed he recently pruned back part of the tree that protrudes into his walkway.

The pine grows out of a planter box that separates Gottier and Vinci’s condominium homes.

“It’s a mess, it drops needles all over the place,” Gottier said. “I’ll go to the city if I have to.”

Gottier has lived in the neighborhood for the past 25 years, and said he remembers when the tree was planted. Now it’s grown too big and hangs over his front porch, he said.

Gottier has made several complaints to the Park Lido Homeowners Assn., which has ordered the property owners to have it trimmed.

“He’s objected to a lot of things over the years,” said Park Lido Homeowners Assn. President Leo Vortouni, who said there are no immediate plans to have the tree cut down despite several complaints from Gottier. “We’ve had a lot of problems with him.”

Gottier’s neighbors have called the police on him at least a half-dozen times over the past few years, according to court and police records.

One anonymous caller reported to police in July that Gottier liked to stand outside his house and “talk to aliens, [Adolph] Hitler and talks about wanting to burn things,” according to a police report.

“I don’t think he’s crazy, I think he’s just bored and wants attention,” said Patrice Road resident Deann Greenwalt, who has called police in the past to complain Gottier was trying to talk to her children while they were playing.

One of Gottier’s neighbors, Mark Landgaard, took out a temporary restraining order against Gottier in 2007.

Landgaard, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, claims that he and Gottier use to get along.

That all changed one day when Gottier abruptly threw paint in his face behind Landgaard’s home one day several years ago, Landgaard claims.

“He was saying things like ‘I own you, I control you, you’re stupid,’” Landgaard said.

As part of the restraining order, police removed two .22 rifles from Gottier’s home in August 2007, according to police records.

“He’ll still come out and stand in front of his house and toss me a look,” Landgaard said. “I know it’s only a matter of time before he starts up again.”

Gottier faced eight counts of indecent exposure and lewd conduct in a public place after neighbors complained he had exposed himself while walking around the neighborhood in a bathrobe on four separate occasions in 2004, according to court records.

The charges were later dropped.

“One time, my bathrobe did come open when I was putting my newspaper in the car — I turned around and didn’t even know it,” Gottier said. “I’m not that type of person.”

Gottier has called the police on his neighbors several times as well.

He called police twice in July 2007 to complain someone had let the air out of the tires of his car, according to police records.

Gottier called police twice Tuesday, once to complain that someone had tried to break into his garage and again to complain Vinci was spraying water at him over his fence, according to police records.

“They are a bunch of idiots,” Gottier said of his neighbors. “My next door neighbor [Vinci] — every time she opens her mouth she lies — She sprayed me with her hose with a big smile on her face. She’s always spraying things with the hose.”