She appeared to be moving quickly.
The two large black bags were already tied at the top.
She dragged the bin toward the swimming pool, paused beside the edge, and looked toward the house.
Then she lifted the first bag.
I would eventually watch that footage many times.
Not because I enjoyed seeing what happened.
Because I wanted to understand how someone could become so convinced of her own authority that throwing garbage into a family's swimming pool seemed like a reasonable way to settle a disagreement.
The recording showed her hesitating for a fraction of a second.
She looked toward the clear water.
Then toward the house.
And for one brief moment, she appeared to reconsider.
But she lifted the bag anyway.
That decision changed everything.
The new president arrived only a few minutes later.
She entered through the adjoining service path as arranged, expecting to review the pool's condition with me. From behind the tall fence, she heard movement near our patio and saw the former president handling a black garbage bag.
At first, she didn't understand what was happening.
Then she recognized the woman in pink.
She took out her phone.
By the time she began recording, the former president had already moved the bin near the pool.
The new president filmed through the narrow opening beside the gate, capturing the first bag entering the water and the former president lifting the second.
She remained out of sight.
Not because she'd planned a trap.
Because she was stunned by what she was witnessing and wanted an accurate record before confronting someone who had repeatedly disputed other people's accounts of her behavior.
She recorded the second bag.
My arrival.
The confrontation.
The violation notice shoved toward my chest.
And the trash bin being kicked over.
Then she stepped through the gate.
Exactly as the new president had intended, the documentation showed what happened without requiring anyone to rely solely on an argument between two angry homeowners.
But the video also captured something none of us noticed at first.
Before throwing the first bag, the former president had looked down at her phone.
A message appeared on the screen.
She typed a short reply.
Then she put the phone away and lifted the garbage.
Later, when investigators reviewed other evidence, that brief interaction would help connect the backyard incident to a cleanup crew already scheduled to arrive.
At the time, I didn't know that.