Gate opens up latest tiff between neighbors

The dispute ends with a man going to jail. Now he's out on bail, his neighbor says she's scared.

By HELEN ANNE TRAVIS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 13, 2007

ZEPHYRHILLS - He had been a good neighbor to Ann Wojda for more than a decade. Then one day in 2004, Stewart Loeblich - the same man who had months before taught Wojda how to grow a rose bush from a single clipping - chased her sons in his car with a semi-automatic handgun.

Loeblich, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, was convicted of aggravated assault with a weapon.

The incidents have continued since, Wodja said, accusing the 55-year-old Loeblich of threatening her, spitting at her children and banging things together in his yard for hours to hassle her family.

"I wish I understood what was going on," said Wodja, 49.

The latest dispute between the two neighbors - which ended with Loeblich going to jail - is over a 16-foot metal gate that Wojda and her husband installed two years ago.

Loeblich's property sits behind Wojda's and he has to travel through the fence gate to reach his home, she said. It's the only path to his property from the road.

"He could put his own driveway in but he chooses not to," Ann's husband, Chester Wojda, 51, said.

This year the Wojdas' property was vandalized. They started closing, but not locking, the gate.

This didn't sit well with Loeblich.

According to deputies, this year Loeblich had been caught on the Wojdas' outdoor security camera breaking the gate off, bending it, and slamming it on the ground.

On one video clip he broke the chain that held the gate to the pole and then "defiantly threw the chain" into the Wojdas' yard, according to deputies.

Loeblich was charged Tuesday with aggravated stalking. He was released Wednesday on a $5,000 bond.

"I am scared," Ann Wojda said. "I am getting an ulcer from all the stress."

But the family doesn't want to move.

In the past 15 years, they've added a bathroom, remodeled the master bedroom and invested in 30 acres across the street from their home.

Chester Wojda said Loeblich won't run them out of their house.

"I would like him to move."

Helen Anne Travis can be reached at 352 521-6518 or htravis@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 12, 2007, 21:44:19]