A years-long battle over property rights changed how one Colorado woman used social media when she had to go “to war” with the local government over her own backyard.
Adopting the moniker of the Wicked Witch of the West, Taralyn Romero’s concerns over her property lines made her endure enmity from the public and officials alike after she bought a home in Kittredge, Colorado. There, the selling point of a creek running through the backyard had kickstarted a dispute over land rights with a neighboring park that had her welcoming a lawsuit when it had come.
“Now we can just go to war, and I don’t have to pretend anymore,” she told Fox News Digital amid a three-part series covering her saga against government overreach. “I said, ‘We’re gonna fight for this because owning property in this country is synonymous with the pursuit of happiness.’”
“I bought a house with a creek running through the backyard. That’s what was advertised to me. And on principle alone, I wasn’t going to let them rip it from my hands,” Romero detailed after she had a property survey conducted following the move there in 2021 showing that the land on either side of the creek belonged to her after contending with strangers traipsing through her backyard.
Whether on social media or during public meetings, the homeowner recounted how she’d been ostracized and cursed at, having maps thrown in her face and people ignoring private property signs to loiter on her land.
In response to the vitriol, Romero began her “wickedwitch_ofthe_west” TikTok account where she shared content as a property rights advocate after failing to find ready recourse from her land survey that detailed how Bear Creek ran through her property.
Instead, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners sued her and alleged the beach did not belong to her as their suit argued, “Bear Creek has slowly meandered south from its course over time and lies south of where it was when the legal descriptions were originally created.”
Even as Romero’s attorneys argued the deed detailed her property boundaries based on a map and not the current location of the water, the county argued that 35 years of public use without complaint from previous owners justified the ongoing use of her land for the park.
Ultimately, the dispute was settled with the county in 2023 when she agreed to sell a portion of her backyard that included the creek and the beach for $250,000 leading to the construction of a fence and signage placed at the new property line and the placement of a rope across the water that designated the divide between public and private land.
She explained to Fox News Digital that the experience changed her “entire view of our justice system and of our government.”
“I never thought for a second that [with] all the facts on my side, I would still be at risk of losing everything,” said Romero. “When it came to my property, they’re like, ‘You should share. And if you don’t want to share, the government should force you to share through prescriptive easement.’”
“But when it comes to their property, you know they’re going to freak out if you’re an inch over on their fence line,” she argued and added, “If I could say anything to the people who lied through their teeth and who conspired against me to take what I bought fair and square…I would say, ‘Shame on you. What you put out into the world, you get back. And good luck, because it was hell.’”
With nearly 240,000 followers on TikTok and almost 50,000 on X, Romero’s activism continued as she brought attention to stories like that of Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon in New York who’d been euthanized by the state government when they’d been seized from their home during a raid.
On X she maintained a pinned post, “This page will be used to bang the drum against Government overreach wherever it exists. Not just for property rights & freedom of speech but everywhere there is gross infringement in America. The key theme will be to bang the drum, spread awareness, & mobilize the people.”
This page will be used to bang the drum against Government overreach wherever it exists. Not just for property rights & freedom of speech but everywhere there is gross infringement in America.
The key theme will be to bang the drum, spread awareness, & mobilize the people.
— WickedWitch_ofthe_West (@WickedyWitchity) November 15, 2024
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Author: Kevin Haggerty
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