How not to prune a tree.

When I moved into my new place there is a very big front yard as my in-laws unit is set far back from the street. It's had a lot of fruit trees planted over the years but most died from neglect. The owners don't even think about taking care of this side of the property. She just plants things and walks away but wonders why things die.  

This year I had a bumper crop of apricots. I'm not sure if pruning them last year or the heavy rainy season we had but there was enough even with the squirrel visits. There were two varieties, which of course I don't know the name of. Anyways, one small apricot tree produced some small delicate fruit which were quite good. I only got a few of those as my landlady stripped that tree. 

I was planning on pruning it back this fall as it's gotten a little too tall. The husband was installing a new security camera and I can only guess the long branches were getting in the way or trigger the motion detectors. I had one angry woman at my door this morning. She asked if  I had anything to do with the tree and all the branches being ripped off.  I told her no, it had to have been done by her husband because it also happened the same day the new security cameras were installed. She asked me why would he do something like that, like I had some inside track into what he was thinking.  He's a pretty calm guy so I can only guess it was causing a problem with cameras, otherwise he wouldn't have taken the time to rip the branches off.