Are you guys good neighbors? I’m not. Well, I’m not a bad neighbor, per se, but I only regularly speak to one of my neighbors, an elderly widow. We chat all the time and she’s got tons of neighborhood tea. I have spoken to another neighbor a few times and we’re on “waving at a distance” friendliness now, but I’ve truly never spoken to the family who lives on one side of my house, nor have I ever spoken to anyone else in the neighborhood. I mind my business and expect other people to do the same! And I don’t even live in some fancy gated community with eight-figure homes, like Prince Harry and Meghan. The Sussexes live in their lovely, 8392-bathroomed Montecito mansion, where they maintain tight security. I would imagine they aren’t stopping by their neighbors’ mansions unannounced, nor would they appreciate it if one of their neighbors stopped by without calling. That’s exactly what happened in 2020, apparently – one of their neighbors stopped by and security stopped him and asked him to go. Now the dude is getting his fifteen minutes.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s security guards have been accused of rudely brushing off an elderly neighbor after moving into their mansion in Montecito, Calif., in 2020. Frank McGinity, an 88-year-old US Navy veteran, who lives close by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex claimed that he approached their home soon after they moved in to gift them some films he has made about the history of the area. He recalled the alleged exchange in a chapter of his memoir, “Get Off Your Street.”
“I have a big house next to Harry and Meghan’s property and I live in the guest house while renting the main house out on Airbnb,” he said, according to the Montecito Journal via the Independent.
“Harry and Meghan live on old McCormick property and I went up to their gate with the films on a CD, but they weren’t interested,” he claimed, adding that the couple’s security guard turned him away. “The gate guy turned me away and wouldn’t take the film, just saying ‘they’re not interested.’ I was trying to be neighborly. We don’t see them very much around here. It’s surprising they came here. People are typically older. It’s where the elephants come to die.”
McGinity said he lives a “tiara’s toss or two” from the Sussexes’ property.
The California-based royals moved into the property in July 2020 with their son, Prince Archie, 4. The couple welcomed a daughter, Princess Lilibet, two years later. Page Six exclusively reported that they paid $14,650,000 for the 18,000-square-foot home, which features rose gardens, century-old olive trees, a tennis court, a tea house, children’s cottage and a pool. It also has a two-bedroom guest cottage.
[From Page Six]
I mean… considering what we know about the security threats against Harry and Meghan, as well as what we know about the operations of the British media, I would think that their security would turn away every single person who got close to their property. This is one of the ritziest neighborhoods in America – it’s not the kind of community where neighbors “drop by” unannounced, especially complete f–king strangers. Considering this guy wrote about it, I can only imagine what he stories he would have sold about the Sussexes if they had let him in.
PS… I love all the details about their home. They really invested in a great property. What’s also great about the Sussexes’ Montecito Mansion is how their smart real estate investment has made Salt Island seethe for three full years. I still believe that William and Kate’s real estate hysteria is mostly about the fact that the Sussexes’ house is so nice and “grand.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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Santa Barbara, CA – Prince Harry plays his last polo game in Santa Barbara before heading to London with his family to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. Harry’s side Los Padres won the Lisle Nixon Memorial Final event in “sudden death” extra time 15-14 against Mokarow Farms on Sunday (May 29). Harry’s Argentinian friend and teammate Nacho Figueras scored the winning point. There was no sign at the game of Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle. Harry was named as “H. Wales” on the scoreboard.
Pictured: Prince Harry
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Santa Barbara, CA – Meghan Markle watches her husband, Prince Harry, at this latest polo game. The royal played for Los Padres at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club on Friday (June 17). Harry’s side is taking on Folded Hills.
Pictured: Meghan Markle
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Santa Barbara, CA – Meghan Markle consoles Prince Harry by putting her hand on his knee after his Los Padres polo team lost a semi-final game against Folded Hills at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club on Friday (June 17). Meghan also hugged Harry’s teammate and pal, Nacho Figueras. The prince was also hugged by Nacho’s wife, Delfina Blaquier. Harry’s side was vying for a place in Sunday’s Chaval Athletics USPA IntraCircuit Final.
Pictured: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
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Prince Harry and Megan Markle catch a train back to London and are all smiles after spending the day in Manchester at the One Young World Summit.
Pictured: Megan Markle, Prince Harry
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New York City, NY – Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, seen during the red carpet arrivals at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala held at the New York Midtown Hilton Hotel.
Pictured: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry
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New York City, NY – Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, seen during the red carpet arrivals at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala held at the New York Midtown Hilton Hotel.
Pictured: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry
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San Francisco, CA – Prince Harry, ‘chief impact officer’ at coaching platform BetterUp, appears onstage with BetterUp co-founder and CEO Alexi Robichaux at the ‘BetterUp Uplift’ two-day event at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA. Harry and Alexi spoke for 40 minutes onstage at the event. They discussed children, International Women’s Day and their respective careers. BetterUp is based in San Francisco.
Pictured: Prince Harry
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New York, NY – Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and her mother Doria Ragland depart The Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards at Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.
Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle
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New York, NY – Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and her mother Doria Ragland depart The Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards at Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.
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Dude you are a random stranger, neighbor or not I do not have to let you into my house. And if I hired someone to make sure that no one got into my house, them letting random people regardless of their age, amble on up around my children when I’ve gotten death threats??!!! The sheer entitlement people have when they try to wrap it in ” being friendly”.
Right???
This old guy has ZERO self awareness. No one knows you dude.
Sandy8. I know right. Never approach a gated home with security with a bag or box of old films and expect to get in. Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame old fart and stay off my lawn.
@Sandy8: Right? The fact that 2020 was the year drones were sent to film Archie playing in the garden, must have played a part in toughening their security policy. So I either wouldn’t have been interested in whatever odds and ends that embalmed walking mummy had to gift.
What if greatgrandpa had been sent by papps to give the Sussexes a video containing recording devices? Although that nosy relic must be thanked for his service, he’d better just sit home and sip his bergamot herbal brew till the Lord calls him back.
Notice how this old fart makes a point of specifying that the Sussexes live on “the McCormick property.” Gee, he’s really tactful and seems to have had their best interests in mind. Even someone like me, who doesn’t have security guards, wouldn’t want my specific neighborhood out there in the public. No wonder they didn’t accepted his poisoned apples. Good for them.
Anyway, what he did reminds me of Toxic Tom’s move of showing up to their house uninvited, and bringing a bouquet of flowers as a ruse.
The fact that he’s making a public dig at them years later over nothing proves their security read him right.
Much ado about nothing. McGinity is a regular Montecito Journal contributor. He also has a self-published personal travelogue, “Get Off Your Street,” which he recently updated for the 4th & last time. Of course, Brit media, ever alert for Harry-Meghan, picked up on the little MJ blurb, magnified it and turned it into a dig-slam-snub. Bonafide journalists, of course, would find out whether McGinity regularly puts out the welcome wagon for all new neighbors, not just H-M. Everybody’s observations re: pandemic period, random stranger, etc. all valid. My first thought was, I wonder if Montecito has a Green River ordinance in force (from back in the day when towns tried to discourage traveling salesmen).
Personally I think he was advertising his AirBnB. Can’t believe the BM isn’t renting it permanently.
Chances are, after this article, they will be.
And his memoir. Who else would read about this guy’s life, when the most interesting thing is his being a neighbor to the Sussexes?
@ecsmom shhhh! 🤫🤫Don’t give those p of s any ideas! They read this blog!
I live in a gated community. If you’re not a resident, to get in, you have to pull up to the Guard Gate and you have to give your name and show pic ID. Then either have to have to be “on the entry list” of that resident (whereby the Guard will write up the parking pass for that building’s garage and let you through), or the Guard calls up to the resident to say, “So-and-So is here to see you”, and you can either allow or deny entry.
NO ONE gets in to “drop off something” without a call going to the resident and asking if they want to allow a person in, You can drop something off, and it’s put in the Guard House across the driveway, until the resident comes and claims it.
He’s a neighbor, so he’s already behind the gates.
@BeanieBean — yes he’s in a gated community but there’s another gate with security to access the Sussex’s property. He sounds like a grumpy old fart.
As a millennial with no threats on my life and no need for security – someone comes to my secluded door with some sort of random ass package? I’m not answering it.
I check Amazon. Package coming? Nope.
Text husband. Package? Nope.
No way in hell am I answering the door. I have little kids. I don’t know this person. F@ck that.
Also. Do people remember that during this point of the pandemic people were still wiping down their groceries?!? It was NUTS.
Trump was stealing PPE from blue states and selling them to the highest bidder. No one had masks unless you did home improvements / construction then you might have a few n95s. One state governor had to buy things from the Korean government and smuggle them in using a private jet and then used grocery trucks to disguise the PPE just so that it wouldn’t get confiscated by the Trump administration. Add that to a recent hospital stay due to a miscarriage?!? Jesus they must have been stressed out of their minds.
Keep walking with your CDs dude. The way to be neighborly during a pandemic is to leave a note at the gate saying
hello! Hope you are all healthy and happy. Welcome to the neighborhood.
I hope you enjoy living here. It’s a wonderful and special place. We usually have a number of summer events that hopefully one day we can resume. I’m hope you will find them as fun and delightful as we all do. Hope to make your acquaintance in a less globally stressful time. All the best.
Sincerely – 335 revenge dr, john wick
That was the state of Maryland. The governor at the time was Larry Hogan, a Republican who is married to a Korean woman. She had the connects. He was one of the few Republicans who saw Trump for the dangerous idiot that he was.
The more I think about this- the weirder it is.
Summer 2020. Height of lockdown. No tests available. No PPE. No vaccine. Trump trying to kill everyone in liberal states.
I was living on the east coast at the time. And it’s bizarre how differently it effected other areas. But by us?
I think at this point we had refrigerated trucks outside our hospitals, morgues, and even the funeral home about ten minutes from us. Covid was showing that while it did go after the lower hanging fruit in many instances (those who refused to distance etc) – it also took out the healthiest and most careful among us. Sometimes when I look back on it I feel like I’m the only one who remembers what it was really like. It was a generation spanning life altering two year plus long event that caused massive amounts of trauma to so many people. And everyone acts like – thank god that’s over. And when I think about it – really think about and remember it – it feels like too much for my brain to hold.
Someone else please tell me they remember the early days of Covid.
@moxy
I think the event was so consistently traumatic that huge collections of people have blacked it out of their memories. Personally, I dissociated for most of those two years so even though I vividly remember the news being on constantly at my parents’ house, I can’t recall anything else.
@moxylady: It’s not just you. There are some interesting theories about why nobody talked much about the 1918 flu pandemic which – not to minimize COVID – killed something like 40 MILLION people worldwide, mostly healthy young adults and young kids. In a world with far fewer people than today, at a time when plenty of people were documenting history. (Compare that to stories about the Titanic 6 years earlier, for instance, which seems to have endlessly fascinated people ever since.) The conclusion is that there’s something about the collective consciousness of humans that reduces/whitewashes/forgets/denies the shared experiences that threaten to annihilate us.
@MoxyLady
Oh honey, saaaaaaame. I am a rideshare driver. I still follow all covid era protocols: I wear a mask at all times and disinfect my car every day. You would be amazed how many people get in my car unmasked and coughing/sneezing. And they never apologize for that. They literally don’t care if they infect anyone.
Every once in a while I’ll get a rwnj who tries to start crap about my mask and I have to politely shut that down.
Sometimes I wonder if there has been a plane of existence shift and some people are living on a plane where covid didn’t happen and the rest of us are still on the original plane of existence. I know that is ridiculous but man, the overwhelming majority of people in the US learned NOTHING from the pandemic.
Given the timing, his complaints about not getting access by dropping by uninvited is really strange.
Also just tiaras away? Seems like an odd turn of phrase.
RE the 1918 pandemic, I remember as a kid we used to walk in the cemetery across the street from my grandparents’ house. Sometimes they, or a great aunt, uncle, other older relatives would come along. They’d always take us by one second that had many many small white stones in rows. They’d explain that’s where all the children were buried who died from that awful flu … so many, one after another after another… too fast to organize burials in family plots, so just all together with all who died during that time. They knew some of them from their childhoods or knew who were their parents’ brothers or sisters, who lived on which street. It was sad and sweet at the same time. There was another section with all the soldiers from the military base a few towns away.
I thought of that when COVID hit, all the little white gravestones, all lined up, like little teeth, row after row and thought “is that what this is going to be like?” It’s one of the reasons I took it so seriously, was cautious.
If it wasn’t for those walks and hearing the oral history of that time, I don’t think I’d have had any awareness of that influenza outbreak or how bad it was.
@Moxylady, it is extraordinarily strange. California had one of the most strict and longest Covid 19 rules. It wasn’t a secret that the elderly were more susceptible and needed to be more vigilant. Social distancing wasn’t a joke. Apparrently the BM forgot all about Covid. We know Boris Johnson & Wootton did. Harry & Meghan were vigilant regarding Covid. An 88 year old? man “approaching” unknown security people during Covid makes no sense.
@Lionel: Yes, it’s fascinating.
Nobody seems to have forgotten the first world war, though, or the second, or the atomic bomb, and those are shared experiences that threatened to annihilate us. I don’t know if the flu seemed like just another horror of wartime/ the immediate postwar period and we collectively forgot because of the timing; it seems that polio, for instance, is more vividly remembered, though it’s possibly because that’s still in living memory for some people. Of course in the case of covid, it has been so politicized that it’s in a lot of people’s interest to say it was all a conspiracy to get the gov’mint vaccine in people’s arms (to this day I don’t understand what some people think vaccines do) or it was just a cold, lol, which is basically thinking it never really happened.
As an aside I find it slightly funny that the rabid anti-gubmint/big pharma folks are also so antimask, you’d think they’d all want to wear them to stop the government using facial recognition technology on them.
Horrible Daddy Markle is not the only geezer the tabloids can hire to make some butt hurt nonsense.
It was the height of the pandemic. Why have a complete stranger in your house or accept a gift. Ridiculous
Security was right in turning him away; the neighbor did exactly what they knew he would do: he went to the tabloids about his visit. For all we know, a paparazzo paid him to make this unannounced visit. His age has absolutely nothing to do with what he did.
So, three years ago?! At the height of all the madness and upheaval that H&M were going through? Never mind the pandemic. Really? Did he think just because he’s old they’d just let him in? And then he decides to write about this one this incident in a book? sigh. BTW, has he figured out yet how long it took for the bike to get from the bike shop to the Sussexes? I guarantee you that bike went through some things re security check.
As IF this bitch would have let any of us plebeians in if we went and knocked on his door.
Racist old man is going to racist.
I can’t believe that anyone reported on this. Some unknown ambles up to the Sussexes’ front gate in the middle of Covid season with a box of who knows what and is miffed that he does not get a warm welcoming hug. Given the death threats and harassment Harry and Meghan face, he is lucky that the security sent him away without a good old beat down. Now here he is, 3 years later, blabbing about this. Security was right.
Summer 2020 was also the height of COVID and lockdowns. Even without security concerns, people were not generally making neighborly visits. An 88 year old should know better.
Not to mention, H&M had huge security threaths, for all the security knew it could’ve been explosives or anthrax hidden in those CDs. A veteran should know that.
Or recording device.
Or a computer virus that would allow someone to spy on their computers.
I haven’t had a cd drive on my computer in years and years. Do they still come with them? They must, right? Also I’m sorry. The “history of Monticello”? we know. White people stole the land from the indigenous people, committed genocide, oppressed the non white immigrants and enslaved people.
If you wanted H&M to actually take time away from their busy ass lives as parents and trauma abuse cult survivors trying to find themselves and heal themselves – maybe something a little more interesting. Like the complete set of Octonauts or first hand accounts of vets from his unit who fought in x war.
Which makes me think he wasn’t initially working with the British tabs. They would have known to do something juicy and interesting.
@Moxylady, you make some very good points. Neither my work computer nor my personal MacBook had CD drives in 2020. This guy was probably someone who fancied himself a local historian & worked as a docent at the local history museum, where history began with the first white guy who walked through the area (probably a trapper) with the local indigenous population represented by a cabinet full of baskets & obsidian projectile points.
And who the heck went visiting to strangers during that first summer of the pandemic??!! Nobody but nobody would let someone into their home at that time that they didn’t know, and possibly not even someone they did know!!
Summer 2020 also not long after Meghan miscarried. They had so many other things to think about, not some random old man rolling up to their property uninvited. That is the whole point of a gated community and security: that randoms cant just enter your property or hand you things unsolicited.
Brazen Rebel – 👍 …..COVID lockdown was literally the first thought I had as I was about to write my comment to the article. This is another wacky story for tabloids to write about the Sussexes. I mean we are now in 2023, three years on from said event. The Sussexes have fully moved on from the royal institution – evicted from Frogmore Cottage, stripped of royal security, live thousands of miles away from England, work for their income, support themselves from their own income – yet the tabloids are hounding them for any sliver of information or photograph to push out a story.
Now that they’ve disappeared from royal life – they were all telling them to disappear and be quiet – and settled to a private life, the tabloids still can’t leave them alone. Why?
LOL! I think I might change my name to Brazen Rebel! Iove it!
🤗 glad you’re able to have a chuckle 🤭 about it…my apologies for the error. 🤗
@brassyrebel, I find this article unbelievable, one, if he is a navy veteran and still has his marbles, he would know that as a veteran of Afghanistan and a Prince, there is no way in hell that an unsolicited visitor with a PARCEL would get within a country mile of Harry! The security probably said to Harry and Megan, someone is delivering a parcel, are you expecting one, and the minute they said no, that would have been it, and the old man doesn’t even know if they spoke to Harry and Megan, maybe trade for his air b@b isn’t so good, because I know for a fact that Harry would NEVER disrespect a veteran
Yeah but, with all due respect, this is not even a matter of disrespecting anyone, veteran or not, any more than his age is a factor. This is a matter of a stranger going — uninvited — to the home of people in the public eye. The Sussexes are people who have had others try to get into their inner sanctum before, including Meghan’s crazy dad, and the 1/2-sister when she lived in England. Sometimes it’s people seeking clout off of the Sussexes’ names and sometimes it’s undercover media people, or their surrogates. You just never know. So, I really don’t care whether his claims of being a veteran are true or not, one just doesn’t act like he does and expect to get the red carpet rolled out for them, or else they’ll go the media. Clearly, judging by his actions in going to the media 3 years later, his motives in “dropping off film” appear to have been to get a story out of it. So, in my opinion “being a veteran” (if true) doesn’t absolve people from being in the wrong and it doesn’t afford them special privileges into someone’s home uninvited.
I’m GenX but I’ve gotta say it.
Okay boomer.
Too old to be a boomer – Silent Generation. But not so silent, it seems.
Dude’s 88, definitely not boomerdom.
Too old to be a boomer. Nice try at putting down an entire generation.
Oh, please. Three years ago, the minute they moved there and with Covid lockdown, and this guy toddles over to give them films of Montecito history? This is so nosy neighbor looking to borrow a cup of sugar.
I can see someone feeling a certain kind of way if a neighborly gesture was rebuffed. But all that means is that these particular neighbors are not going to be your friend. On the other hand, don’t come bearing clutter to a new inhabitants’ residence. You know full well you could upload your “movies”’ to YouTube and point them in that direction instead of making them feel bad for not wanting to watch and keep your home movies.
Covid was rampant. It was especially hard on pregnant women. I get that he’s sad three years later that their security didn’t want to expose H&M to a random ass dude with a supposed bag of CDs who could have been a plague rat. Context is key right?
Why am I getting major MAGA Covid is a hoax come rent my Airbnb British media vibes from this dude?
Also the mention of vet status as though they snubbed a veteran by not welcoming him with open arms at the height of a deadly global pandemic.
They have scraped through the bottom of the barrel.
Also thats where old people go to die? Tell that to Katy perry and Ellen etc. Monticello isn’t some sort of a rich people assisted living center. Trying to make the area sound dull and boring for the WanKs. But honestly I bet H&M
Would have loved that. Old people WHO MIND THEIR OWN DAMN BUSINESS.
MAGAT for sure.
His only election contribution was to a Republican candidate (although way back in late ‘90s). That, not being sensitive to a pandemic, and being both pretentious (“tiara’s throw, “BIG house”) and obnoxiously self-important do rather point towards MAGAville.
He turned his home into an Airbnb right next to Harry & Meghan? Yikes
He probably wants the attention to get publicity for his AirBnb.
This dude has probably offered up his home to the British tabloids. If he hasn’t already, they are on their way and will pay him tons of money to camp out there.
thats what they did for Thomas Markle. They rented out the property opposite.
Nothing about an airbnb next door sounds safe, nothing. With Harry and Meghan’s history of being stalked, it’s sickening.
He’s seemingly house poor. Doesn’t want to sell the property- can’t afford to keep it. (i am sure insurance and taxes are BIG) Lives in the guest house- being paid by the tabloids.
Are they renting his “air bnb” or just giving him free publicity.
In Montecito- there have to be zoning laws, right?
I found that interesting. I know in Hawaii it’s become a bone of contention amongst neighbors, having so many strangers in & out of their residential neighborhood or within their apartment buildings. I remember one person being quoted as saying they’re awakened in early morning hours by the sounds of people wheeling their luggage along the sidewalk, looking for their rental.
I would have thought that Airbnbs and the like were heavily discouraged or even outlawed in this kind of gated community? It would actually be funny if this man’s blatant attempt at self-promotion ended up bringing attention to an illegal sublet.
OMG who approaches a gated home with probably in some kind of bag or box old films. Their security was on high alert as it was. So some old guy with stuff could be a new trick and was told no. The man should have known better because they are always in the news. What he could have done if he really wanted them to have the stuff was to leave his name and how he could be reached with security but no he wants to jump on the let’s be an a hole to the Sussexes with my sad story.
Wait, wait, this happened in 2020? And it’s just getting talked about now? The tabs are sure getting desperate for any shred of so called “news” they can get about Harry and Meghan. Good grief as Charlie Brown would say!!
They have scraped through the bottom of the barrel and are now tunneling through manure and panning said manure for gold.
But shit is shit.
Fool’s gold
Oh man, just stop. What’s next? An article about how their plumber stepped on someone’s toe? That their gardener had his back to them while he was mowing the lawn and didn’t speak to them? Also, I don’t imagine that the neighbours would be too thrilled about an Airbnb in that neighborhood. Just saying.
You know Kate and William were happy when the Sussexes lived in cottages. Frogmore looks like a really nice house but in their view, it was smaller. They were prob still mad about frogmore too though. For the Sussexes to a end up in this gorgeous house with a pool, lush landscape and a view of the ocean? Green w envy comes to mind.
Right!!!!! They’re so mad the Sussexes live in a modern day home and not some struggle castle or struggle cottage like they do on that island. The Sussexes $15 million 10000 bathroom 1000 bedroom stately palatial Montecito mansion looks better than anything they have on salt island.
Egg is probably seething with jealousy about the rose gardens 🤣
….and it has en-suite bathrooms unlike Buckingham Palace where you have to traipse down a corridor to pee.
At Versailles they just peed and pooped out in the open. Everywhere.
Kind of makes me think that it must have been similar in the British palaces ans how gross it is knowing that some long dead person most likely shit wherever you are walking.
@Moxylady
They even walk on the long dead rotted bodies of their hordes of relatives, as H described in Spare, when he met up with chucky and bully in the frogmore gardens just after phillip’s funeral.
Like he said, theyre a death cult.
@moxylady
Someone told me that about Versailles about a decade ago. I was shocked. They had no concept of sanitation or cleanliness apparently. He told me that when Japanese royalty came to visit they were horrified and had to show them how to keep clean.
Is this supposed to make Harry and Meghan look bad? Why are they expected to greet everybody who wants to drop by especially during the pandemic. Let’s also remember that Harry and Meghan suffered a miscarriage soon after they moved in.
I’m not a tech-head but I imagine there are potential phishing or hacking techniques used via cds’. Certainly our security at work tell us never to use gift usbs’ or ones found on the street.
That’s what our IT training tells us as well. Don’t put unlabeled CDs in your computer (not that we have CD drives in our computers…) or unknown USB drives in.
88 years old and he hasn’t learned manners or common sense or how to keep his mouth shut.
I only have one neighbor and I reluctantly say hello to him, he is a very judgy person that mows his lawn three times a week, a very small yard, then weed whacks or pressure washes every other day of the week. The noise pollution is enough to drive me mad.
I totally agree with the timing of the neighbor dropping by, they were literally running for their lives at that point.
That much pressure washing is going to ruin whatever it is he’s cleaning. Also there is a better use for water. People are so strange.
Maybe he has wicked bad OCD?
I’m thinking bored & doesn’t know what else to do with his time.
OCD has come to mind, he is always doing something out side, and he HATES my bee and butterfly pollination patches.
Yeah, sorry. everyone in my general nearness knows, if you’re not on the list, you can’t come in. No exceptions unless I myself, in my own voice, make the exception. It’s not about whoever that person thinks they are. It’s about me and safety.
If the person truly had wanted to give the Sussex family a gift, he would’ve left an open note at the gate with his contact information explaining he is a near neighbor and wanted to welcome them personally. Surely someone would’ve contacted him
Someone in need of money (note the plug for his AirBnB just next to their home), sells his story to the tabloids, about going to Stranger’s house, and being turned away by security. Security says A, so said person runs to the tabloids to cry that Stranger’s said A. What a loser. I hope the cheque was at least five figures.
LOL. All the dude had to do was write a nice letter introducing himself and drop it off with the tapes. I’m sure he insisted on doing it in person.
Also, tapes? In 2020? I’m a huge film buff and I got rid of my tapes over a decade ago. I had a whole bookcase full.
CDs, but same technology point–outdated at that time.
This happened in 2020?? Uh, I don’t blame their security team at all! A) They literally escaped what is in truest form, a cult. They’ve been dealing with pap intrusion since it was known that they were in California, their security was obviously on high alert. B) It’s a freaking pandemic! I definitely get trying to neighborly but that was really not the time to be meeting strangers.
Weird timing that this story is just now coming to light.
The Invictus Games are set to start soon, so tabloids new angle is to use veterans to try and bash them. Also, what is this guy’s history, cuz my father was a 30 year military vet and no way he could afford property by H nM on his retirement benefits
This guy probably had a high paying job after his military service and/or family money plus compound interest on his investments.
Your take on his being used because he is a veteran is interesting. The tabloids would certainly use that angle to make it look like H is a hypocrite.
I think it’s the veteran angle too.
But for a guy to be able to afford this house …. He might have bought decades and decades ago? Or was he a mercenary? They can make bank.
He’s an accountant. I googled him. Or retired accountant. And he was in the Navy. He published some sort of local Irish history book last year or the year before. The local paper–Montecito Journal–published an article about that & called him a globetrotter. I think being an accountant has served him well. And maybe there was an inheritance or something, or his wife had money.
@Carty, that’s a logical take. The Independent manipulated facts with some creative writing. They jumped on FM being a veteran (he did serve in Japan). But, they ignored he became a CPA in ’73 and started his own accounting firm in 1980.
He bought his property in 1990 for $630,000? It does not border the Sussexes and a quick search says it’s not listed on an Airbnb. I may have missed somethng. It is a bit over 4200 sq. feet home on a 1.2 acre site. Didn’t see anything about a guest house.
More importantly, for the British Media, is to create a story about the Sussexes. It was their security team that would have said no. Security teams are given a list of things. They follow the list. The security team would have said no. In any case if this story was actually true.
But, hey, the British Media’s focus is on what “might” have happened in Montecito 3 years ago during Covid lockdown with an 88 year old man.
Instead of focusing on Dan Wootton’s illegal f*ckery. That the BM is not reporting on this says so many things. Proving Harry’s points once again. Black nail polish, off the shoulder dresses, avocadoes, car doors, nylons, etc., were given a lot of BM real estate. Apparently, writing about Wootton’s nefarious, illegal activities isn’t news worthy to the BM? Effin sh*tshow.
I looked the geezer up. Frank McGinity published a book, Get Off Your Street, back in 2014. The 4th edition was brought out in April of this year… considering that this incident happened back in 2020 and we’re just finding out about it? This is probably to drum up sales for his book. And considering who Frank is…who is this man friends with?
I looked him up too. His property is not adjacent to the Sussexes at all. lol We don’t know if he actually put that in his book. Maybe. Interesting they’re focusing on him being a US Navy veteran (maybe). When he’s known as a globetrotting accountant. https://www.montecitojournal.net/2023/07/11/mcginitys-travels/
Security is there for a reason. You don’t just accept gifts from every Tom, Dick & Frank that show up at the gate.
God. He looks like every entitled old white man that’s every tried to grab my butt.
Globe trotting accountant.
Money launderer?
I wonder which American would say “tiara’s toss or two from the Sussexes’ property”. I think they’ll likely say “a stone’s throw away from” the Sussexes’ property”. Is he really an American veteran?🧐
So a review of the book is written by Richard Mineards, a rather odious and condescending retired anti-Sussex former Brit reporter who claims to live in the neighbourhood or near it? Sounds like the guy is an accountant and owns a large accounting firm, so his owning a residence in the neighbourhood isn’t something I would question. Is this possibly just an anecdote the author happen to tell Mineards who I’m sure asked him about Harry and Meghan and then puts his own “twist” on it? Did Page Six interview Mineards for this article and not the author?
But they quoted the neighbor saying those words. It doesn’t add up.
Tamsin, What you wrote makes sense. Richard M has tabloid connections: the British inflected “tiara toss away,” plus the sudden mention of “unneighborliness” 3 years after the fact seems likely it came from this guy.
Hang on a minute–his memoir was published in 2014? But they Sussexes didn’t move to Montecito until 2020? Did he add this little tidbit to the latest addition, is that it? Wow.
An 88 year old man in the US said this ‘ McGinity said he lives a “tiara’s toss or two” from the Sussexes’ property.’? Sorry, old men only use toss in relation to baseball/footballs. Of course security is not going to accept a gift from a rando. Does living by the Sussexes mean he cannot be working for tabloids? Apparently that is exactly the case.
Yup, that’s def not an American phrase.
Those are Richard Mineard’s words. He’s a Brit that lives in Montecito and has written unfavorably about the Sussexes before.
Thank you! I was wondering where in the world that came from.
Does he happen to be renting this man’s house?
But he quoted the neighbor saying those words. It doesn’t add up.
@MSTJ
Here is the paragraph:
“It covers my travels over the last 25 years,” says Frank, who lives a tiara’s toss or two from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Riven Rock.
The tiara’s toss crack was not in the quote, it was in the aside written by the author of the article.
Thank you.
The Independent’s editor is Geordie Greig-good friend of Camz. The Independent came across the Mineards blurb in the Montecito Journal linked above. Nothing very exciting there. (McGinity has said the new chapter is about the 2018 mudslides). (the origin story in the MJ came out at least two weeks ago)
The Independent is attributing a lot of words to McGinity that he never said and Page Six is only amplifying them. The whole Riven Rock subdivision is on McCormick property-it was an 87 acre estate. I’ll repeat McGinity’s property does not abut/or is adjacent too the Sussexes. It’s more like a 2 streets over thing.
The history of the McCormick family is pretty fascinating. Something tells me Katharine McCormick and Meghan would have enjoyed each other’s company and had dynamic conversations.
https://www.historynet.com/meet-the-smuggler-who-brought-birth-control-to-the-us/
Thank you so much for posting this article!
Katharine McCormick has impacted and improved my life through her support of progesterone research and I am proud to know about this lady!
It would be awesome if her descendant’s misguided publicity seeking led to her becoming better known.
Thanks again @Agreatreckoning!
YW @ElleF. I love that late in life she got a prescription for birth control just because she could. She fought for important issues. I don’t think McGinity is related to the McCormick’s. He’s probably just fascinated by the history. I also don’t believe he said what the Independent claimed and Page Six reiterated. If he did then shame on him. If he didn’t, well then, more proof of the lying ways of the BM. His property is about 5 football fields away from the Sussexes(if you used a straight line). He’s at the opposite end of Riven Rock Road that would border their property. The Sussexes are on a different road.
Other factoids about the McCormick’s (I have farming in my ancestry so I find it interesting), they invented the grain reaper and founded International Harvester.
Katharine McCormick’s story is one that needs to be retold.
Today’s main takeaway: Sussex security is doing a great job. Well done, security team. You kept out a fifteen-minutes-seeking, whiny loser who would have used whatever intel to talk to the press.
Bingo! End of story.
Maybe the security guard was rude but considering how they get harassed by paparazzi the guards are likely super cautious.
It’s not like he was run over and killed by a motorcade.
@Nic919 Touché!
The security guard was not rude. His job is to keep suspected criminals away from his principals and who are we to say what assessment he made of the old snitch in front of him.
Kingston, I suspect the security guards were professional. This guy considered it rude that they didn’t let him in or take his CDs (if that’s what they were). Security did what they’re supposed to do. It sounds like this guy is just a nosy neighbor hoping for a way in the door, and he didn’t get it.
Maybe he should get a hobby that takes up more of his time.
And I think this is another journalistic fantasy. Neither his name is mentioned nor he speaks on video for it to be fact. As we know in his attempts to bully Harry, William and his team of paid trolls is capable of anything.
Massive eye roll. Security detail is not there to make friends, they are working and they are there to protect the family. Your 15 minutes of fame expired 30 minutes ago. What an idiot.
There are a lot of crazy people out there. IfI had been receiving as much hate as the Sussexes and some rando showed up at my door with a CD he wanted me to watch, I would be leery too.
I am glad people are siding with Sussexes and calling this guy out because “nice guys just trying to be friendly don’t go running to the tabloids.”
Excellent. This tells me that Harry and Meghan have great and serious security and they don’t allow randos around them and the family. Keep up the good work guys!
I always think that a person’s intent when offering g something is what matters and their response to someone saying “No” is a sign of what their initial intent was. An offering should mean that a person has the right to say “Yes” or “No”, so to be upset that someone says “No” means that you feel that the person doesn’t deserve autonomy to say “No” to your requests. His age, military background, proximity to them or his claimed intention doesn’t mean that they or in this case, their security, don’t have the right to say “No”. It was three years ago. During Covid, a miscarriage and a move to what they hoped would be a more safer place for them and their child. We know that the media planted someone to live in the home next to her dad in Mexico and his dumb trifling self took the bait. We know they paid Meghan’s neighbor in Canada to put up cameras in their backyard to spy on her. We know that the paparazzi was willing to use drones to photograph the inside of their home and the backyards of several of the places they have stayed at. We know they were willing to cut the wire of fences to gain access to them. Any stranger trying to give them something unusual would definitely be a red flag for their security. Him plugging his book and his Airbnb and then being upset years later that he was told “No” even with all that information, shows he was never trustworthy to begin with. He is after all talking to the media that is stalking a family that said “No” to being bullied and racially attacked.
Way to go dude. Announce to the world you’re a rent-a-snitch in a celebrity laden where you will let the tabloid hacks bunk down in your AirBnB. People may be avoiding him like the plague.
Dude that is around the time Meg lost a miscarriage?
I can’t decide which story is more thirsty and inane. A story about their ability to water their lawn or a story about a idiotic neighbor trying to visit during a pandemic and being stopped by security.
Also COVID anyone? 2020 was a scary darn time! His elderly a$$ should have been home protecting himself instead of wondering around to other people’s property.
This is another British media rant against the Sussexes. It’s no big deal. This man is a stranger. Why would he think the Sussexes owe him their presence? He was politely turned away for good reason. The British media blows this issue up when there’s nothing here really.
We have lived in our home for 10 years, and not one of my neighbors has ever been inside. Being a neighbor does not mean you have automatic access inside their property.
This sounds fishy as hell to me. As a military veteran, you’d think he’d understand that Harry being a fellow vet with 2 tours in Afghanistan, not to mention being chased out of his own family and country under threats of death, can’t have random strangers wander up to his property with “something to give to him”. My tinfoil hat theory is that someone paid him to do it.
Harry’s security team turned away the sheriff that rang the intercom at 3 o’clock in the morning to tell Harry about Prince Philip’s death so this guy shouldn’t take it too personally. His memoir sounds fascinating though lol.
I’d like to hear from the sheriff about how the palace had to reach out to the local law-enforcement authorities and had no other way of getting in touch with Harry that’s the real story.
Yeah, my only takeaway is that H&M’s security is doing what they’re supposed to do.
The Murdoch press is pathetic.
Non story. It’s Like the White House and Buckingham Palace security would let packages from strangers and unannounced visitors to their properties 🙄. According to actual and factual reports, Death threats to HM are very real. Of course their security would be very strict .
At the same time, I’m sure the neighbor just wanted to be friendly and welcome HM to the neighborhood. He’s a US Navy veteran and I support our military, I don’t think he meant any harm. My dad was in the US Navy for over 20 years and they wouldn’t let unannounced visitors to the base.
If HM knew the intentions of the neighbor they probably would accept the package. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the outlets exaggerated the story like they always do with HM. They haven’t even followed up with the Lies that HM are divorcing . As they know it’s Fake news. Focus on WK marriage problems that’s your Real Story 😀
I wonder how he would have reacted if a black person just showed up to his house? He should tell that story to the families of all the black kids and people that got injured or kill for innocently going to another person house.
Maybe they didn’t want to see anyone right after they moved in. Didn’t Meghan have her miscarriage the day they moved into the Montecito house? They definitely wouldn’t want to see random strangers during that time, even if back from the hospital. The neighbor wouldn’t have known that but the security guard most likely knew what was up. I don’t know why the UK tabloids are dragging up stuff from years ago. So what if they didn’t want visitors in their property.
Overall our little street is a fun bunch. We all got really close during the height of Covid. We attend each other’s bday parties, weddings, backyard cookouts etc. I’m actually the neighborhood childcare provider so lots of them know and trust our family which is a true honor imo. Except one woman directly across from me who has made it her mission to make the rest of us miserable. She has verbally assaulted five people/families on our street – including me, the most recent as of two weeks ago and as always unprovoked (she came screaming up at me while my back was turned), but Becky done fucked up and was stupid enough to walk onto my driveway to do it so I video’d her and called the cops on her and they told her to never speak to us again or they’d arrest her. So there’s your answer about whether I’m a good neighbor. 🤣
She would hate Meghan and Harry and totally would try some dumb shit like this old grouch.
The man is a gazillion years old from a different time where people actually talked. He may be awful and he may just be old.
I know all my neighbors, but I’m from the south. I think the security should have taken his number and let the assistants know.
I agree Elsa. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are blameless! And the security guard was very correct in letting no one in without a confirmed appointment. But the guard could have taken the neighbor’s ID and contact info, accepted the package and after confirming that it was not dangerous, then could have let his employers or their assistants make the decision as to what to do with it. Sounds like perhaps the guard overstepped his bounds a bit.
The documentary told us what it was like at Tyler Perry’s house with the paps just before they moved into Harry and Meghan moved into their own home, aside from the fact that it was height of Covid. I think the guard was just doing his job. It wasn’t a time for someone to welcome someone else to the neighbourhood with a cake or a casserole, quite aside from the fact of the unique situation of the Sussexes. Unless he was writing about the neighbourhood, there was no need to bring up this story. However, he did make the mistake of talking to Richard Mineardes.
Once you say “yes” to one, they all try to get a yes. I think the guards did the right thing, also, good security isn’t going to take a package from a stranger or their number, then they end up taking everyone’s number and that is not their job. It’s also not the assistants job to run interference or pay attention to everyone in the neighborhood who wants to play welcome wagon.
I’m sure this guy is the nosy neighbor everyone hates. And nowadays who just drops in uninvited? Especially to people you don’t know. Did he try this with Oprah?
Also …. COVID 19. Just saying!!
I think living a “tiara’s toss” away may be doing quite a bit of heavy lifting here – I wonder how close he really lives to the Sussexes.
Like, I live in Toronto now, and Megan filmed “Suits” here years ago. So, technically, I am also a “tiara’s throw” away from Meghan… just, like, a really hard throw. Into the past. Basically almost neighbours!
The guy lived there. He had to know that you don’t just walk up to someone’s gate like that! What a load of bull!
The right thing to do when an 80yo neighbor shows up is honor then. Takes the tapes. Say thank you very much. Get his name and send a thank you note. How hard is that? Honor old folks.
LOL. You’re funny. Honor old folks because they’re old? It doesn’t matter if they’re a stranger? Like old folks can’t be bad. Hate to tell you, old folks can be bad and not worthy of any honor.
No, not in 2020 when it was very scary in California.
This was when we were washing our groceries and disinfecting the mail.
My sister and I checked on some elderly neighbors we knew periodically to make sure they had food and our phone numbers, but that was done knocking then standing 10 feet away from the door.
Lockdown was taken very seriously in California in 2020.
As in you didn’t open your door if someone knocked, you hollered who’s there or you looked out the window
Our parks were closed and playgrounds roped off, beaches closed, a number of cities had 1000-5000 fines if you were wandering around the city. Churches were closed.
We could walk around our neighborhood but that was it that summer.
So no, some random old man wouldn’t be welcome or let in. Not at that time.
We would leave groceries on my parents doorstep, we shopped so they wouldn’t have to go out. Unless you lived in the same house you didn’t spend time with your immediate family.
I think people truly have forgotten how bad things were then
I’m so glad you’d let ppl who’d be threatening u to come in and welcome them with cookies – u r sooooo much better than the Sussexes ❤️
Then when 80yr old neighbor keeps showing up at their gate what then? Look, security is security and their job is is to keep strangers and their gifts away. NO security person in their right mind is going to accept a package from a stranger because god knows what’s in it. You especially don’t do this when there has been death threats. Why do you have to “honor” someone you don’t even know because of their age?? Uhm what????
I don’t understand how the Unroyal reporters survived before Meghan’s arrival. Their level of desperation should be embarrassing to the country. They will never admit that chasing them away was a missed opportunity. Charles, Camilla, William, Catherine, Edward, Sofia, Beatrice, and her spouse don’t generate the clicks they need to maintain their lifestyle.
He knew Harry and Meghan were new neighbors because the right-wing Santa Barbara newspaper probably published their arrival in an edition. The newspaper has recently filed for bankruptcy. The last thing they would be interested in is a package of old tapes from a neighbor they had yet to meet formally. The story has so many holes, which I’m sure everyone has discovered. I don’t believe he owns the mansion, and I’m not sure he lives in the guest house of a neighboring property, but I’m willing to wager he was a prop for a collaboration between the newspaper and paparazzi. Usually, when people buy a home, they have researched the property and the community. It’s what helps them make that decision.
In 2020, California was on lockdown, as were most blue states. No one was opening their door to strangers, least yet an elderly man most likely unmasked with a box of dusty CDs. Saying no to a stranger is not rude; it’s proper, especially when you’re constantly under the veil of violent threats. I note there was no mention of the book’s title or the author’s name. So I’ll take $200 on another made-up story. Thank you, Kaiser.
Creep
I have been on my block for 22 yrs. I’ve been inside two neighbors homes. One of my neighbors my husband knew from childhood, he was a friend of his parents. The other because I lost my key and I was in their house for 20min. None of my neighbors has been in mine, aside from the family friend. When Covid was running rampant, if you didn’t live in my house, you didn’t come in my house. This guy is weird and entitlted.
So entitled neighbor wanted an audience with the Prince and Duchess and turns up with a “welcome gift” as an excuse to get some face time, then gets butt hurt because their security did their job but apparently weren’t obsequious enough to random rich guy popping in. Got it.
I just want to know what a “tea house” is. Sounds intriguing.
Call_Me_AL, In Harry & Meghan, I wondered if the tea house is where Meghan was doing Yoga. That will give you an idea of what the tea house there is like.
Read allegedly by a blogger that this man was sent by Brit tabloid (DF?) to gain access by ingratiating himself with the Sussexes. Believable as the Brit tabloids write lies and made up stories. If they were able to plant someone on them is quite believable. They have lived there for 3 years why would they need someone to show them around? Why didn’t he show up when they first moved there. I think Harry and security picked up he was a phony.
This supposedly happened 3 years ago so why news now? Paid by tabloids in my opinion.