Land disputes are no joke, friends…

And you and I know they can get ugly in a hurry.

But this is a story about property rights that has a happy ending!

Read on to get all the details!

The farmer and the restaurant owner.

“Once upon a time there was a man who owned a piece of land next to a thriving restaurant.

Now this man had owned the land for a long time, (22 years), and it was undeveloped.

He had bought it cheaply, but it had great highway frontage, and he had always dreamed of building a little used cars lot or gun shop on the tract, as his retirement pastime.

Now, the man had had the tract zoned as a commercial lot when he bought it, but when news leaked about the upcoming development, the restaurant owners petitioned the zoning board to overturn the commercial zoning and re-institute the original agricultural zoning.

By the way, all land in the mythical state of Kentucky is zoned as agricultural by default.

This was unfair, illegal, and generally rude, but the restaurateur’s brother was the county zoning commissioner, so things naturally turned against our would-be entrepreneur.

After fighting the good, clean, play-by-the-rules sort of battle and losing, our would-be entrepreneur gave up.

He decided to accept the county zoning.

He had another idea.

Not to see the tract go idly unused, the enterprising retiree decided to pursue another business venture.

He raised hogs. Lots of them.

Two hundred and four, to be exact, on his little 12 acre tract.

For those of you unfamiliar with the climate in time-lost Kentucky, the summers are downright southernly in their humidity and heat.

As you can imagine, a rather malignant odor grew up around the thriving hog farm.

Patrons of the restaurant ate elsewhere, anywhere else to be exact.

Okay, we’ve had enough!

In a matter of weeks, the zoning commissioner reversed his earlier ruling, returning the commercial status of the lot.

It is another caveat of Kentucky zoning law that land can always be used for a purpose lesser on the scale of hierarchy than its current zoning.

Everyone, especially the restaurateur, was surprised when the hog farm remained in operation.

Nothing, not even substantial financial offers, could convince the new farmer to quit his now beloved occupation.

Exactly 3 months, and four days after the opening of the hog farm, the restaurant closed its doors for good.

The farmer, in a fit of depression, ceased hog farming and decided to open a small sporting goods store instead.

It remains there to this day, alongside his newly-acquired restaurant.”

Here’s what people had to say on Reddit.

This person had a lot to say.

Another individual chimed in.

This Reddit user shared their thoughts.

This person asked a question.

I love it when the little guy wins!

The little piggies did their job.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.