Meet Man Who Menaced Those Young Anglers

JULY 8--When not menacing boys fishing in a pond behind his Tennessee residence--as seen in viral TikTok videos--a retired man chairs a Haitian relief program affiliated with his Catholic Church parish.

Matthew Webster, 62, was recorded confronting the teenage anglers behind his waterfront residence in the Admirals Landing neighborhood in East Knoxville on June 24.

Webster--with his fists balled up at times--warned the boys that they were trespassing and that he would throw their phones into nearby Lake Loudon. “Don’t test me,” bellowed Webster, who warned that the teens would be prosecuted and “you’re gonna pay all kinds of money because you’re being a dick.” He added, “So your parents are gonna be real proud of that.”

At one point, Webster (pictured at right) grabbed one boy’s $200 fishing rod and attempted to snap it across his leg.

When one of the teens--who both stayed calm during the confrontation--said that he smelled alcohol on Webster’s breath, the homeowner replied, “You’re right, I had a drink. Is that against the law, dumb shit?”

Webster and his wife Eileen retired to Knoxville in 2018 from Indiana, where he was a regional president for a division of Dover Corporation, a global manufacturer. The Matthew C. Webster Trust purchased the 3000-square-foot home (seen below) for $485,000 in July of that year. In 2021, the deed was transferred to the Webster Family Community Property Trust.

Upon relocating to Tennessee, Webster volunteered to head up the Haiti Outreach Program, a volunteer group of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (where Webster’s daughter was married in 2018). The relief group, which Webster chairs, raises funds to provide “impoverished children [with] daily nourishment, clean water, education and health care, and other much-needed services.”

According to its website, the group--which raises around $200,000 annually--seeks to aid “our brothers and sisters in Christ” by “improving the lives of people in the poorest region of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.”

Webster also appears to play a role in his neighborhood’s homeowners association. On one video, a woman can be heard telling the teens that Webster is the “president” and knows all the Admirals Landing residents.

While the teens told Webster that they had called police, it is unclear if cops responded to the scene.

Kimberly Glenn, a Knox County Sheriff’s spokesperson, told TSG that after the videos were brought to the office’s attention, detectives opened an investigation (which is ongoing). Since the matter involves juveniles, further details about the probe are confidential.