PA Governor Josh Shapiro Tried to Buy His Neighbor’s Land and When They Said No He Sent State Police

Josh Shapiro spent years telling Pennsylvanians that building a wall was wrong.

Now he's being sued for stealing his neighbors' land to build one of his own.

What came next — state troopers, stolen land, and a squatter's rights claim from the man who called Trump's wall immoral — you will not believe.

Josh Shapiro Lawsuit Accuses Him of Using State Police to Take Neighbor's Land

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro – the man who publicly declared he would sue before a single dime of Pennsylvania money funded Trump's border wall – is now in federal court defending himself against charges that he used state troopers to seize his neighbors' private property to erect an eight-foot security fence around his $830,500 suburban Philadelphia home.

The neighbors are Jeremy and Simone Mock.

They own a 2,900-square-foot parcel of land that sits between their house and Shapiro's in Abington, Montgomery County.

Shapiro wanted it.

In July 2025, the Shapiros approached the Mocks and asked to either purchase or lease the strip of land to build the fence.

The Mocks said no.

Negotiations went nowhere.

Then, in late August 2025, Shapiro's attorney contacted the Mocks with a message that should alarm every American property owner: the governor would be taking "alternative actions" to obtain the land.

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

Shapiro Claimed Adverse Possession on Land His Neighbors Pay Taxes On

After negotiations collapsed, Shapiro didn't accept the Mocks' decision.

He flipped the script entirely – claiming he had actually owned their land all along through a legal doctrine called "adverse possession."

His argument: because the Shapiros mowed that strip of lawn, cleared leaves, and planted shrubs since 2003, Pennsylvania's required 21-year clock had run out.

The land was now his.

Never mind that the Mocks had been paying property taxes on it for nine years.

Never mind that Shapiro's own team had previously acknowledged – in writing, according to the complaint – that the property belonged to the Mocks.

Never mind that Shapiro had offered to buy and lease the land just weeks earlier.

He claimed it anyway.

Then he sent state troopers to back him up.

The Mocks' lawsuit includes a photograph of two Pennsylvania State Police officers standing on the disputed property – property that surveys and tax maps confirm belongs to the Mock family.

Troopers told the Mocks the area was a "disputed" zone within a security perimeter and ordered them to leave their own land.

When the Mocks' contractors arrived to do work, they were chased away.

When the Mocks hired a surveyor, he was driven off too.

Shapiro's team planted arborvitae trees on the property over the Mocks' explicit objections and flew drones over it.

Pennsylvania taxpayers have already been billed over $1 million for security upgrades to Shapiro's private home — including $288,736 in landscaping work that may, at least in part, have been done on land that isn't legally his.

Republican state Sen. Jarrett Coleman subpoenaed the Shapiro administration demanding records, calling the spending "unprecedented." Pennsylvania's Treasury Department is now questioning whether state law even permits public money to be used on a privately owned residence.

The answer, based on the plain language of Pennsylvania's emergency procurement code, appears to be no.

This Is the Part That Should Make Your Blood Boil

Shapiro is running for reelection in 2026 with his eyes clearly fixed on 2028 and the Democratic presidential nomination.

He has built his brand as a reasonable, principled defender of ordinary Pennsylvanians against the abuse of power.

But here's what the record actually shows.

When a private citizen stood between Shapiro and something he wanted, he didn't negotiate in good faith.

He threatened "alternative actions."

He invoked an adverse possession loophole.

He deployed uniformed state police to enforce his personal property claim against private citizens.

He started construction first and sought an ethics opinion two months later.

Now Pennsylvania taxpayers are on the hook for over a million dollars in spending that state officials say may never have had a legal basis to begin with.

Sen. John Fetterman said it best back in 2024: "Squatters have no rights. How can you even pretend that this is anything other than you're just breaking the law?"

Fetterman was talking about someone else then.

He might want to give his governor a call.

Sources:

• Jonathan Turley, "How Gov Shapiro Became a Squatter and Got Sued by His Neighbors," Fox News, March 14, 2026.
• "Neighbors Claim Pennsylvania Governor Forcibly Annexed Property Using State Police," Courthouse News Service, February 9, 2026.
• "A Security Fence Has Sparked Dueling Lawsuits Between Gov. Josh Shapiro and His Abington Neighbors," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 9, 2026.
• "Pennsylvania Governor and His Neighbors Sue Each Other in a Property Dispute," FindLaw, February 13, 2026.
• "Treasury Officials Question Whether Taxpayers Can Legally Pay for Security Upgrades at Shapiro's Family Home," ABC27 / Spotlight PA, February 2026.
• "GOP Senator Threatens Subpoenas Over $1M in Security Upgrades at Shapiro's Private Home," Spotlight PA, November 20, 2025.