TORONTO, CANADA — A dispute between two neighbours in Toronto has gone viral after a supposedly “unhinged” elderly woman, who was initially accused of cutting down a fence between their two properties, exposed the truth and gained unwavering support from netizens.

The saga started in May this year when Ms Tiffany Mraj posted a series of TikTok videos on her account documenting her interactions with her “Karen” neighbours, an older Chinese couple. 

The term “Karen” is a stereotype and pejorative slang often used to describe a middle-aged or older woman who appears entitled, demanding or angry.

The first video posted by Ms Mraj shows the older Chinese woman, who later refers to herself as “Fence Lady”, supervising her husband while he uses a power saw to cut down a fence owned by Ms Mraj’s family which separated the two properties.

Ms Mraj continued to post several more videos, showing both verbal and minor physical altercations with the Asian couple who continued to remove the fence despite Ms Mraj's protests. 

When the series of “Fence Lady” videos were first posted, the majority of initial reactions were in support of Ms Mraj and her family, sympathising with having to deal with unpleasant neighbours, reported The Daily Mail. 

The videos reportedly amassed more than 3.5 million views in total before they were taken down, but not before other TikTok users had already re-posted and reacted to Ms Mraj's videos on their own accounts.

However, recent videos uploaded by “Fence Lady” on her own TikTok account have turned the narrative on its head, with many coming out in her support after learning the whole story. 

The first video, posted on Aug 18, saw “Fence Lady” addressing the allegations made against her. 

In the video, she explains that the fence had been restricting her access to repair her property’s drainpipe and air conditioning unit and that she had tried communicating her troubles to Ms Mraj’s family to no avail. 
 
As “Fence Lady” further elaborates on a survey from the government showing that the fence was indeed encroaching onto her property, Ms Mraj’s younger sister begins using a garden hose to spray water everywhere, supposedly watering plants in the backyard, but soaking “Fence Lady” and her husband in the process. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, the TikTok video has garnered over 1.8 million views, 164,700 likes, 2,294 shares and 5,594 comments.

Since then, “Fence Lady” has posted two follow-up videos, one on Aug 23 to thank viewers for their support, clarify the series of events and to ask for advice, and the most recent one on Sunday (Aug 27) to ask Ms Mraj to remove all private information that Ms Mraj had shared about her in her original series of videos. 

Ms Mraj has since taken down the original series of videos after the updates from "Fence Lady".

#TEAMFENCELADY

With the timeline of events now clear, many TikTok users have come out in overwhelming support of “Fence Lady”, even going so far to declare themselves as part of “Team Fence Lady”.

One TikTok user, who originally supported Ms Mraj, wrote: “I’ve never switched sides so quick. Bye, fence.”

Another user wrote: “Definitely always two sides to the story. Fence lady should be able to get to her AC and do other repairs. Fence is in the way.”

Other users focused on Ms Mraj’s younger sister’s seemingly deliberate and malicious actions in the first video.

One TikTok user wrote: “The way she made sure to stop spraying you when the camera pointed at her, watching her.”

Another user expressed her disbelief, writing: “Her spraying her with water????? OMG they need to be taken to court.”

The follow-up videos from “Fence Lady” drew similar reactions, with many showing support through advice for her situation.

A top commenter wrote: “Please talk to a lawyer! You definitely have options to pursue!”

Another user wrote: “Hopefully the stress from all this isn't bad. Lawyer up!!! Team Fence lady.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the two follow-up videos on TikTok have garnered over 1.35 million views, 101,800 likes, 794 shares, and 3,520 comments in total.

The public spat between the neighbours and how the tide was turned against Ms Mraj and her family highlights how there are two sides to every story.

As viral news site Distractify puts it, "it's really hard to love thy neighbour when one is trying to remove your fence and the other spreads half-truths via social media".