For years, New Town wondered who was trimming trees under the cover of darkness. Fourteen years later, the person behind the legend tells the story.
By Clark Kent
Illustrated by Peter Parker
Depending on who you ask, this month's Community Hero may not be a hero to everyone who utters the name. Vigilante might be more accurate. But whether someone is remembered as a superhero, a vigilante or even a villain, there is always an origin story. For the Midnight Pruner, it began before New Town was ever placed on a map.
The person behind New Town’s longest-running mystery was once involved in a traffic accident after overgrown vegetation obscured a stop sign. The experience left a lasting impression: something as ordinary as an untrimmed branch could become an extraordinary safety hazard. Years later, in 2012, that tragic lesson collided with a new frustration.
For all the speculation over the years about which New Town resident was behind the clippers, there was one problem with the theory: the Midnight Pruner doesn’t actually live in New Town. The Pruner lives nearby, has friends in the community and has spent plenty of time running through and visiting the neighborhood.
The future Midnight Pruner was training for a first marathon. To keep training from taking time away from family, runs often began early in the morning, before anyone else was awake. Several carefully measured routes passed through New Town, and as the mileage increased, so did the collisions with low-hanging branches.
“They kept hitting me in the face and the head,” the mysterious trimmer recalled. “I was ducking and grooving and moving, trying to avoid the tree branches, and I finally got fed up with it.”
The solution was already close at hand: a pair of ratcheting pruning shears purchased years earlier. Remarkably, those same clippers are still in the Pruner’s possession today.
On a day without a scheduled run, the Pruner got on a bicycle and followed the familiar route. The test was simple: if a branch was low enough to hit the Pruner’s head while riding, it was too low. Out came the clippers, and the tale of the Midnight Pruner was born.
A Legend Grows in the Dark
It wasn’t supposed to become a regular operation. But once the anonymous runner began noticing obstructed sidewalks, the branches became difficult to ignore. The work eventually extended beyond New Town to other places along regular running routes.
There was admittedly a little attitude involved, too. During those early outings, the runner-turned-pruner stacked trimmed branches in yards as a not-so-subtle message to property owners: these are your trees; please keep them from obscuring the sidewalk. The Pruner says the cutting itself was done from the sidewalk, primarily addressing branches hanging into the pedestrian path.
That also helps explain one of the biggest complaints residents had at the time: some cuts weren’t exactly arborist-approved.
“I didn’t go all the way back to the base of the tree,” the mystery trimmer explained. Instead, a low branch would be pulled down, clipped above the sidewalk and left for the property owner to finish properly.
Residents noticed, and they had opinions. By August 2012, neighborhood conversations ranged from appreciation that runners could finally navigate sidewalks without being slapped in the face by branches to serious concerns about damaged trees, trespassing and an unidentified person roaming the neighborhood before dawn.
Soon, the mystery escaped the neighborhood Facebook groups and made local news. Police were contacted, and KSDK Channel 5 reported on New Town’s mysterious nighttime tree trimmer, later returning to the story with a follow-up as the controversy continued. The General Assembly warned that trees had been damaged and that the person responsible could face prosecution if caught.
Through all of it, the person at the center of the controversy had virtually no idea any of this drama was happening.
“I didn’t know it was a big deal,” the unwitting folk character said.
From Controversy to New Town Folklore
After completing the marathon, the intense training subsided and so did the regular pruning. It wasn’t until years later that a mutual acquaintance mentioned the neighborhood’s mysterious tree trimmer. Suddenly, the person behind the pruning shears realized who everyone had been talking about.
By then, something unexpected had happened: the Midnight Pruner had become part of New Town culture. There were Edward Scissorhands jokes and a Lionel Richie “Is it me you’re looking for?” poster. By 2014, residents were joking that you knew you were from New Town if you knew about the Midnight Pruner.
Over the years came supposed sightings, residents establishing humorous alibis so they wouldn’t be mistaken for the culprit, and eventually calls for the Pruner to return as low branches again overtook sidewalks. In 2024, someone even appeared at the New Town Amphitheater wearing an “I AM THE MIDNIGHT PRUNER” shirt.
“Impostor,” the real Pruner said.
Perhaps the ultimate sign that a neighborhood controversy had achieved folk-hero status came when Pauly’s Pizza, where Kurt’s Kolaches is located today, offered a Midnight Pruner slice. Naturally, the actual Midnight Pruner went and ordered one. “It was good,” the anonymous trimmer confirmed.
Is the Midnight Pruner Still Out There?
Fourteen years later, New Town has changed. Doorbell cameras are everywhere, the trees are larger, and some of those branches are hanging low again.
The Midnight Pruner has noticed.
In fact, the Pruner never completely disappeared. There have been occasional trims over the years, sometimes openly during daylight. The unlikely folk hero says safety has remained the motivation, whether clearing a pedestrian path, improving visibility for motorists or removing vegetation obstructing traffic signs. On other occasions, permission has been requested before entering private property to clear an obstruction.
The person behind the legend has no interest in recognition, confrontation or revealing a secret identity. But there is something the Pruner would like New Town residents to know.
“I would like for people to clean up their own trees,” the Pruner said. And if they don’t? “If nobody’s going to do it, then somebody’s got to do it.”
Those original pruning shears are still waiting.