Gail Stebbins awoke to the clamor of chain saws Thursday and was shocked to see a city crew dismantling an 80-foot pine in front of her Peachtree Street home.

The crew told her the homeowner wanted it removed -- and even produced a work order with a transcript of a complaint that the tree was "leaning" and could fall and "kill someone."

"I told the man I didn't ask anyone to cut it down," Mrs. Stebbins said. "Then they tried to tell me they had talked to my husband, which wasn't true, either."

Although she asked them to stop cutting, the crew removed the tree anyway.

She complained to Augusta Commissioner Joe Bowles, who discovered that the person who requested the removal of the tree wasn't anyone from Mrs. Stebbins' home -- or even her street.

The caller lived around the corner on Walton Way, but the crew apparently thought that caller was the homeowner.

Mrs. Stebbins asked Mr. Bowles if someone could send a city crew to cut trees at someone else's home simply by making a phone call.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Mr. Bowles said. "The concern starts from there and goes on to wondering why they would continue to cut it down when she clearly said she didn't want it cut down."

Dennis Stroud, assistant director of the city's Maintenance Division -- who oversees the tree crews -- said it doesn't matter who asks that a tree be removed -- or who asks that it not be removed.

"She doesn't own the tree," he said of Mrs. Stebbins. "It's not her property -- it's on county property. So it doesn't matter if she wants it removed or not."

Mr. Stroud said he approved the removal of the tree because it was found to be dangerously diseased, and that it is not unusual for a concerned resident to call in a request for tree removal.