It all started out because he was playing around on Google Earth.
Aaron Jackson was at a crossroads. He was living in New York City and working at a nonprofit when the city was devastated by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Stuck in his small Queens apartment, the self-described “news junkie” spent long stretches online, falling into internet wormholes.
At some point, he says, he came across the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC).
The Church, which is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is best known for organizing pickets at soldiers’ funerals and emblazoning anti-LGBT slogans on protest signs and billboards.
“The first thing I saw was that (the church) was in a neighborhood. I was walking around and I decided to do a 360 view and I saw a ‘for sale’ sign in front of the house on Google Earth. I thought it would be really funny to buy that house.”
Although that specific house in Topeka, Kansas, was no longer for sale when Jackson inquired, another one on the street was. Jackson bought it sight unseen. Despite never having been there, he was ready for a change, so he moved to his new digs in Topeka, the state capital.
But becoming the WBC’s neighbor was only the first step
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