After town denied request, man removed median anyway, deputies say

INDIAN TRAIL, North Carolina (WPVI) -- A North Carolina man is facing charges for hiring a contractor to remove a median in front of his house after his request for the town to do it was denied.

WTVD-TV reports, Ryan Kevin Smith, 32, is charged with two counts of injury to real property and one count of felony conversion.

According to the Union County Sheriff's Office, Smith asked the Town of Indian Trail to have a portion of the median on Braxton Drive removed. The town denied the request.

Smith, an engineer with the City of Monroe, had previously hired a company called Classic City Mechanical to perform work on a road construction project.

At some point, the sheriff's office says Smith spoke with a superintendent with Classic City Mechanical about hiring them to remove the median in front of his home, but the superintendent refused, saying it was a conflict of interest.

That's when Smith allegedly spoke with another employee -- a foreman -- about doing the job. That employee agreed.

The sheriff's office said Smith paid the foreman with his own money to move an excavator from the City of Monroe job site, on company time, and take it to his neighborhood to remove the median.

He apparently intended to use asphalt left over from that project to pave the area where the median was removed. But deputies got there before that could happen.

Smith posted bail and is out of jail awaiting his first court appearance.