Quesha Foster Caught a Neighbor Watering Her Own Lawn From Foster’s Outdoor Spigot, and Foster Says Police Later Charged the Woman With Criminal Trespassing

A garden hose ran from the outdoor spigot on Quesha Foster’s house to the green lawn next door. Foster recorded what happened when she walked out and found her neighbor holding the other end.

The Florida homeowner, who posts on TikTok as @ladyqueworld, shared the confrontation in a series of videos over four days in late October. In the last of them, Foster said police had charged the neighbor with criminal trespassing.

A Hose From Foster’s Spigot to the Lawn Next Door

The first video went up on Saturday, Oct. 24, according to BIN: Black Information Network, which reported the story on Oct. 28. In it, Foster asks the woman why she is watering her grass from Foster’s home.

Foster called it theft. She told the neighbor she planned to call police and contact her homeowners association, BIN reported.

When Foster asked whether the woman would pay her water bill, the neighbor offered to do exactly that. Foster’s answer, as BIN described it, was that the neighbor would have to, because the police were being called.

The Nerd Stash, which covered the first videos on Oct. 26, reported that Foster lives in Florida and that the clip had drawn millions of views. Neither outlet named the city or the neighbor. The Nerd Stash also reported that the neighbor apologized, and that Foster said the same neighbor had once warned others not to come onto her property without permission.

A Police Car, Then a Trespass Warning

A second video, posted Sunday, Oct. 25, showed a police car pulling up to the two homes and an officer speaking with the neighbor, according to BIN. The Nerd Stash noted that footage had no audio and did not itself show what action officers took.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Foster posted a third update. She said the neighbor had been charged with criminal trespassing and barred from her property, including her driveway and yard. Foster said police had warned that the woman would be arrested if she came back. BIN presented that account as Foster’s own claim and did not cite a police statement or court record.

In Florida, entering or staying on land other than a building after being told not to is covered by Section 810.09 of the Florida Statutes, trespass on property other than a structure or conveyance. The statute treats the basic offense as a first-degree misdemeanor. Notice can be given in person or by posting or fencing the property. Neither outlet reported which statute, if any, was used in this case.

The same law spells out who can order someone off a yard. Under the statute, an “authorized person” includes the owner, the owner’s agent, a community association acting as the owner’s agent, or a law enforcement officer with written authorization from one of them. A person who defies a personal order to leave from one of those people is still charged at the misdemeanor level, while certain circumstances, such as being armed, raise trespass to a third-degree felony.

The statute also covers what Florida law calls unenclosed curtilage, the open ground right around a home that is regularly used along with it. Entering that ground with intent to commit an offense other than trespass is a separate violation under the same section.

How Long Had the Hose Been Running?

The question that drew the most attention online was how long the water had been flowing. Foster told viewers that what she had heard was that it had been going on for years, BIN reported, though she could not confirm that.

Commenters on her videos pointed out that the hose looked long enough to reach the back of the neighbor’s yard, The Nerd Stash reported. One wrote that Foster had been running a whole botanical garden on her own dime.

Lawn water adds up quickly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program estimates that about 30% of an average family’s water use goes outdoors, out of roughly 320 gallons a day, according to its fact sheet on outdoor water use. In dry regions, outdoor use can reach 60%.

Florida yards can use even more. A University of Florida IFAS publication on yard irrigation found that the average Florida home irrigates about 3,179 square feet and uses at least 991 gallons each time it waters, assuming a perfectly efficient system. Typical systems run at 40% to 50% efficiency, so a typical watering can use more than twice that amount. In some Florida counties, the highest water users put 60% to 70% of all their water on the lawn.

Water use and lawns keep coming up as flashpoints between neighbors and utilities alike, from Raleigh’s request that customers cut back on lawn irrigation as Falls Lake dropped, to an Ocala homeowner whose new sod was hit with water-softener salt, damage the company hired a lawn crew to fix after his video went viral.

A Lock on the Faucet

Foster has since installed a lock on her outdoor water connection, according to BIN, and she said she was thinking about putting up a fence.

She also emailed her homeowners association and planned to contact her water company. She wanted to find out how long the use had gone on and whether her bill could be reassessed, BIN reported.

Other viewers recommended locking outdoor faucets, The Nerd Stash reported, and one said they were now considering a doorbell camera. Some worried about finding an unexpectedly high water bill of their own.

Beyond her apology and her offer at the spigot to cover the water bill, neither outlet reported any response from the neighbor.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Bramfab – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons