STERLING, Conn. (WTNH) — A frustrated man in Sterling said a group of hogs from a local farm are tearing up their lawns.

Michael Grenier said he first saw livestock from a neighbor’s farm on his Pine Hill Road property on Sept. 30.

For the next two weeks, he said they came back in droves (the term for a group or herd of pigs), as many as 22 at a time every day. That included what appeared to be babies born outside the farm.

“They root for whether it be grubs, earthworms or the roots of the grass, which is the worst part,” Grenier said.

It’s been, as he said, “frustrating.”

He said several of his neighbors on Newport Road and Pine Hill have had their lawns torn up, too. Grenier said at first, the owner of Radical Roots Farm offered to help.

“The third time and beyond — no response,” Grenier said.

News 8 went to the farm and was told by someone who did not want to be identified that the farmer couldn’t speak on the issue due of pending litigation.

“In the course of time here, he has accused the neighbors of cutting his fences,” Sterling First Selectman Link Cooper said. “Why anyone would do that to allow animals onto your property that shouldn’t be there — I don’t have the vaguest idea.”

The first selectman said the Department of Agriculture is now investigating, and the farmer has been fined.

Some of the holes in Grenier’s yard are three or four inches deep. He said about three-quarters of his lawn is damaged, and he’s gotten estimates of about $23,000 to fix it.

That’s because he said his lawn can’t be repaired it has to be replaced.

“I called my insurance company and they say, ‘That’s not insured,’” Grenier said.