Is a video of police threatening to arrest a man who volunteered to clean up an elderly person's overgrown lawn for free real? No, that's not true: The opening segment of the video showing a police officer warning someone to step aside or "there's gonna be problems" is from an incident unrelated to anyone cleaning up a lawn, according to a spokesman for the police agency involved. Several variations of the video using the same police clip have been posted on social media using different scripts and different lawn care video clips. The police spokesman called it "disinformation" that can "fuel public hostility and heightened risks to officer safety."
The claim appeared in dozens of TikTok posts, including a video (archived here) published on TikTok on August 26, 2025, with a caption that read:
Cops Pulled Up While I Was Mowing This Dangerous Overgrown Property #lawncare #mowing #edging#CopCam #BodyCam
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
@luka.de.promas Cops Pulled Up While I Was Mowing This Dangerous Overgrown Property #lawncare #mowing #edging#CopCam #BodyCam ♬ original sound - Luka De Promas 🪽
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Nov 3 04:35:38 2025 UTC)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of TikTok)
The video transcript begins:
Police officer: Step aside, because if you get in my way, there's gonna be problems.
Narrator: I didn't break any laws. I just wanted to help someone who couldn't afford help. Today, I went to mow the lawn for an 80-year-old widow. She lives alone on a fixed income, and her front yard had grown wild after weeks of heat and rain. She told me the city had already warned her clean it up or get fined. Thing is, she can't afford to pay the $300 the city charges to cut it, so I offered to do it for free. I'd barely gotten halfway through when two police cruisers pulled up, lights on, doors swinging open. One officer steps out and says, You need to shut that mower off. Now I was confused. Thought maybe they were checking in, but then he told me I was trespassing and under investigation for unauthorized property maintenance.
The video shows a man using a weed eater, a leaf blower, and other tools to landscape an overgrown lawn. The narration continued:
I pointed at the lady standing on her porch, waving frantically. She asked me to help. I said she gave me permission. They ignored her. One of them told me the yard fell under a municipal code that made it restricted property because of pending fines. The woman kept pleading, trying to explain, but they wouldn't listen. One officer handcuffed me right there in front of her. Turns out the local department offers a paid lawn service, and if neighbors or charities step in for free, they interfere with city business. I sat in the back of the cruiser watching that poor woman cry on her porch. I wasn't charged. They let me go later with a warning, but they told me next time it would be a citation for disruption of municipal process. I'm going back this week to finish the job before they find her, even if it means getting arrested again. If you want to hear what happens next, just type, stand up in the comments.
The same script is duplicated on other variations of the video, sometimes with the elderly homeowner being a military veteran.
The police officer seen in the first part of the video is with the Ontario Provincial Police (the OPP) in Canada. This was confirmed by Sergeant Ed Sanchuk, the spokesperson for the West Region OPP headquarters. Sanchuk posted a video (archived here) about this on Instagram in April 2025 after the earliest versions of the video appeared online.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Instagram)
The OPP spokesman made it clear the video of the OPP officer was unrelated to lawn care and there never was such an encounter. He said:
Hi, everybody. The Ontario police is aware of a video circulating on social media featuring an individual claiming to have been confronted by police while completing lawn care. The beginning of the video features a brief clip of OPP officers. The OPP can confirm that this incident detailed in the video is untrue. This did not happen. The video has been fabricated by manipulating two unrelated videos and providing false contextual information. The OPP officers pictured did not speak to any individual completing any lawn care, and the event described in the video did not take place. Disinformation such as this can fuel public hostility and heightened risks to officer safety and undermine community trust. We urge the community to remain vigilant and critical of the information they encounter online. We'd just like to take this opportunity to thank the public for bringing this information and this video to our attention to allow us the opportunity to confirm that the contents are inaccurate. The OPP remains committed to the transparency and safety of the communities we serve. I'm Sergeant Ed Sanchuk from West Region OPP headquarters. Please make sure you take care and stay safe.
