Occurred on December 29, 2018 / Malvern, Arkansas, USA
Info from Licensor: "We were visiting relatives in Arkansas which we do about 4 times a year. Every time we visit, my brother in law has some project to do and more often than not, something goes a little crazy so I keep my phone ready to record. There is a pine tree that is soon to fall, so my brother-in-law asked our mother-in-law if she wanted us to cut it down. She said no, it is on the neighbor's property, let them cut it down so if it falls on her house, it is their responsibility.
I then asked Yolonda if she wanted us to cut down a dead tree that has been dropping limbs on their house for about a year. Yolonda specifically said 'No I don't want it to fall on the house, let's just let it fall on its own, limb by limb'. I said 'Okay'. But as soon as she was out of earshot, My brother-in-law said 'Hey, let's go cut that tree down'. I said, 'but what if it falls on the house?'. He said 'I've done this a hundred times, I know how to do it, it won't fall on the house'. He was correct, I guess.
When he started to cut it down, I started the video rolling. Though he doesn't drink, I thought this had the chance to become a 'Hold my Beer' moment. He cut a notch on the side of the tree facing the yard and then began to cut on the side of the tree facing the house. He said this would ensure it fell in the yard. I asked if he wanted to tie a rope to it with the truck pulling it toward the yard. He said 'No, I've done this many times, it won't' fall on the house'. For over 9 minutes, he cut on that tree. I was far enough away I thought. He stopped at one point and said 'Hey, let me know when it starts to fall'. At about 8:50, I saw the tree begin to move, I yelled at him several times, in a matter of seconds, the tree began to fall towards me! I start running out of the way and wasn't even sure I'd captured it falling as when I looked back at the video it just showed the ground. In the final picture, I had been standing where those large limbs were so I barely escaped getting hit but when I watched the video, I did catch the tree falling! He was sick to his stomach and said the problem was, the tree was so big, he wasn't able to cut all the way through so it twisted and fell towards me and on the truck. His solution? He needs a new, bigger chainsaw! The good news, the Cummins engine in that truck was worth enough, I helped them sell the truck before I left and the ban on visiting was lifted so I'll be back getting more videos in the future, holding my brother-in-law's beer!"