A lawsuit over a Sussex County garage has gone global as a community of mechanics, property-rights advocates and others rally behind a Harbeson man.

On Oct. 7, the Cape Gazette broke the story of Charles Williams, whose garage is at the center of a lawsuit filed by his neighbors. In the suit, Robert Walker Jr., Peggy Foulke and Carol Kane contend that Williams' garage exceeds the size allowed by the county and contains numerous code violations. They also say Williams is illegally operating a car repair business that disrupts the quiet of their rural community.

Williams says he only works on cars with his friends; county officials have said he is doing nothing wrong and his garage is legal. A Chancery Court judge mostly agrees, but a decison on the matter is pending.

The story was posted on the Cape Gazette website Oct. 10 and since then has received more than 155,000 views. A video posted with the story has had about 875,000 views on YouTube. The story has gone viral with postings on Popular Mechanics, reddit, Jalopnik and other car-enthusiast sites.

The vast majority of comments support Williams and his right to fix cars on his property. But some have taken a sinister tone, threatening the women who took him to court. Some commentors took political jabs at the women, accusing the women of being liberals supporting Hillary Clinton while others accuse them of supporting Donald Trump.

Walker, Foulke and Kane declined to comment.

Shortly after the story went viral, Kayla Williams set up a gofundme account to support her father. Five days later the amount was nearly $55,000. As of Oct. 17, about 3,000 people had made contributions to the fund, mostly $5, $10 or $20 amounts.

Kayla said her family has been overwhelmed by the incredible show of support. She has received kind words from people living in Hong Kong, Australia, Netherlands, Norway and most of the United States.

“It's a community of car guys,” she said.

While she appreciates all the support they've received, Kayla said, her family condemns all harsh and threatening comments that have been posted against Foulke and Kane.

“We don't condone that behavior. That's not our intention in the whole thing,” she said.

Kayla said her family is not responding to those who are making threats, and she asks that comments remain positive.

Although the majority of posts is encouraging, she said, one commentor has questioned the gofundme account and accused them of using the money illegally. Kayla said she created the account to help support her father and his passion for fixing cars. She said they've consulted with an accountant to make sure everything they do is legal before they withdraw money.

“We're trying to figure out what's going on before we move forward,” she said.