Tree Thieves
 

This has been a problem down here in the South. This is the first I have heard about Northern states having an issue with it as well. Devastating. Sad.

Timber Thieves Strike at the Heart of Lands Held Dear

ROYALTON, Vt. — The trees around George and Agnes Spaulding’s 170-year-old farmhouse here are as good as money in the bank, many being old-growth maples that are valuable not only for the quality of their wood but also for the sweet sap that the couple boils into syrup each spring.

Having been born on the farm, Mr. Spaulding, 78, loves the trees the way only someone who grew up with them could. But beyond that, he counts on the syrup sales to supplement the family income, which comes mainly from the twice-a-day milking of three dozen cows.

So when a neighboring farmer crossed onto the Spauldings’ land and chopped down 30 or so of their best trees, the couple was devastated.

“There were a lot of nights spent worrying, and when I’d get up, I’d just see bare stumps,” said Mr. Spaulding, who was awarded about $30,000 for the tree loss in a civil lawsuit against his neighbor last month. “The wood was sold for lumber. And he didn’t leave much very good.”

Across the country, trees are disappearing in cases that are often small in scale but largely unsettling, probably prompted by the rise in timber value and the increase in worldwide demand for American hardwood — particularly from builders in Europe and China. The total value of the American log export market has more than doubled since 2000, industry experts said, and it continues to grow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/us/20timber.html

How in the hell does anyone think they can steal a tree from right under someone's nose and get away with it?

I would be interested to know if the awarded $30k exceeded the profit made on the stolen timber.

We had an elderly couple down here who were saving their trees for their grand kids college. They were long leaf pine, which is a very good slow growth pine in much demand. Most of the pine down here is slash pine or other varieties. The trees lined a number of acers in on their property. When they went away from their rual property to visit family the trees were stolen. When they came home they were gone. They were devastated. There was a big article in the paper about it. No one has ever been caught for the act of stealing the trees.

It's common for people that own valuable trees not to be able to see their whole property. A large hardwood near the road could be gone while you're out getting groceries. If nobody happens to see them, they are away clean. I've had it happen to me.

People are disgusting. That's about all there is to say about that really.

For one thing, everyone should be conserving as many trees as they can. For another, to simply steal from someone else's land is rude beyond all comprehension.

I propose a tree security system: an embedded something which will destroy your chainsaw blade, possibly causing it to snap in two and whip your eyeballs out, or decapitate you. It could be embedded in a camoflaged channel, similar to the ones used to run electrical cords across the floor.

ah, but if you did that, you'd be sued for personal injury by the thief unless you put a warning label on it. true 'nuf

I agree it's disgusting and some people simply have no respect.

However I am intrigued by this statement from Mr Spaulding, "And he didn’t leave much very good.” Random order of words there I think (please note correct use of word random there).

If you saw a sticker on a tree that said "Warning: This tree is protected by an anti-theft device" would you believe it?

tree rustlers should be shot on sight

tree rustlers should go and shag somewhere else!

(confused). Where would you stick it?

I mean . . . sex with trees?

knothole is my fav, after I check for bees, of course!

Don't let this guy hear about this.

i am a new member
 

i am just trying to see if i have this site right, i just registered i am a victim of tree theft also, altho i now have a chain i am getting ready to use, thank you i will be talking to you all tomorrow, just testing my post on the site, thank you cindy

How will you be using the chain?

Welcome to the Cellar!

grassy is that you, grassy knoll? or grassy oss?

Hi Cindy.... yes, tell us about the chain, please.

Hi everyone I'm back!!! (grassy)
 

Hi everyone, its' cindy(grassy) i am brand new here.I live in the north east, I found you guys because i googled tree theives, and it lead me here. i was tickled pink to find someone talking about tree theives. anyway Hi!!!!!! you guys are gonna love this story! so i dont really know where i am on this board, but let me tell you about my trees! cindy

You're right where you need to be. Tell us the tree story!

Yes Cindi, do tell.

The TREE THEIF named HILLBILLY BILL!!!! and my story
 

ok here it is...... i am 46, i have a dying father who is 80, on 12 meds, oxygen 24/7 and Drunk to boot. drinking a half a liter of rot-gut wine... ok i live at the house with him to take care of things such as snow, cooking etc etc... he is really feeble. well well, in comes a old friend... after 30 years this old friend starts showing up?His name is Bill, i knicknamed him HILLBILLY! or he is also known now as Bill the Con. ever so slowly HillBilly starts to take things... chainsaws disappear, expensive Metal lathes, out of the celler, wood lathes, tools, new cooking grill, new snowblower.... They also borrow the CAR!!!!! the list of stuff goes on.... this goes on little by little behind my back. almost until everything is gone, then the big HEIST, the STANDING TREES?????? In return for plowing the driveway(snow) HillBilly gets this deal going with my father, he needs alittle winter wood, for his stove. This is sept4th, last year. All of a sudden, the trees are coming down, Hillbilly HIRES another guy to cut the trees down. ON DADS LAND! and My home too! i think hillbilly plans on paying the other guy with OUR WOOD! for his labor. guess how much TREES COME DOWN??????? 3o CORDS... that is alot of trees!!!!!. if a person stacked the wood, neatly, to give you an idea how much wood that is? picture this... its a pile 4 feet high, by 4 feet wide and the length of a football field almost!!!!! it is selling for about 250.00 a cord, so we are talkign 5000-6000 dollars of wood. then the BEST part is... After he cut down 30 cords of trees, he(hillBilly comes into the house an ANNOUNCES he is taking the nice dry wood out of our celler ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which is ANOTHER 4 cords!!!!! that is the gist of it. and that is what put me over the edge. The problem is this? the old man? he is nastey, drunk, and wants hillbilly to have this wood. ( he must have dementia too) anyway i have to STOP HILLBILLY! how??????????? without getting the old man to excited? Hillbilly will not listen to me. the guy has alot of( you know what) as long as there is something to get. hill billy wont leave. but the story gets better... a GUN gets involved. do you want to hear about the gun part? cindy

Sure! And don't forget the chain. Tell us about the chain too.

Sounds a bit fishy. Like you just stood by while this guy comes in to the house and takes all of this stuff? And you never called the cops about the trees, missing equipment, gun or what ever??? please...

Let her finish her story before you jump on her.

I wasn't jumping on her, just commenting on what was posted to this point. I mean think about it, would you let some Hillbilly come into your dad's house and start to remove extremely expensive peices of equipment and then cut all his trees down, knowing he is basically to feeble and drunk to make correct decisions about his property? Just sounds fishy.

I'm waiting to see how it ends. I agree that this does sound odd and I wonder if we're being taken for a ride here. Nevertheless, in a situation as described here, things can "slide" from borrowing the chainsaw to outright pillage, and it can be very hard to see when to take strong action and what the hell to do.
C'mon grassy, give us the rest. If nothing else, you're spinning a pretty good story. And it may even be true.
:corn:

If I were his kinfolk, I'd say "move away from there."

Ok guys theres more
 

Ha ha it is True! it has no ending yet... ok.. heres more. well if you knew the old man, you'd understand? he hoards stuff, he's really nastey, he explodes with anger stuff like that. ok they Hillbilly and his wife alwaysd Wait till i LEAVE. thats how they get it. they back up their truck and just lug stuff off. so To STOP it, i go down the celler like a woman gone Mad with a magic marker, and i start putting up signs.. Nastey signs.... HANDS OFF THIS WOOD you LOOTER! You Theif!!! You Scavenger!!! The signs are everywhere!!! and guess what? just to be a smart -ss the Hilly billy takes some of that wood! now i'm really mad.... ok so i start to Try to tell the old man, that this guy is a con... He screams, gets really mad, and he has a loaded Hand gun right by his chair!!! he starts to grab for it... dont you talk about my friends like that" totally gullable.. he just dont Get IT. this goes on and on and finally one night and he's drunk and threatens to kill me, and we call the cops.... four cop cars come, and one game warden, its not over yet tho! cause the trees are still laying there... covered in snow 25 cords of them. ok you wanna hear more? if i drive you nuts just say so....???LOL

Its costing us nothin - go on with your "story"......

You still haven't told us about the chain.

Gandalf used this trick on Beorn. Tell the story in dribs and drabs, it keeps the audience much more interested.

I reckon TW could learn from this technique.

:corn: again - does that make it an encorne?

Oh, I agree with you, I just want her to finish the story.

The Chain?
 

Ok so the cops tell me he can give away his stuff? BUT I have spent the last 6 months building a case on Hillbilly. sort of elderly exploitation thingy, i have witnesses, papers all kinds of goooooood stuff, PICTURES, so right now, there is 25 cords of full length trees just laying there covered in snow. Spring will be here soon, HillBilly only made off with 5 cords before snow came.... as soon as spring comes, he will be baCK FOR THE REST! My chiropracter gave me a Huge bright red CHAIN, to chain off the opening... the opening where you can get in to get at the trees....i was thinking of chaining it off????? to stop him????????? cause just telling him to stop doesnt seem to work. this guy is a sort of professional typpe of con, going from one sick old person to another just for STUFF? what do you think? You couldnt make this stuff up!!!!!LOL cindy

If he's that big a con artist, I doubt a chain draped over the entrance will stop him.

I Know?
 

I know? this is a true story, and i really dont know what to do... i am really really mad at this Hillbilly and i am going to get him.???? i've been all over the net trying to find out about timber theft, things like that. But Now the gun is gone???? i have no idea where it went, it is missing... i think hillbilly has that too. it is an odd gun, the cops were marveling at it, and now it has disappeared. so my boyfriend dave says......" its been alittle interesting...and alittle fun.... but alittle dangerous cause he had the gun" now the gun is gone so i think i can put up the chain without getting SHOT! and the chain will stop bill, because it will have no trespassing signs on it KEEP OUT, etc, and if he breaks it we will call the cops again, with no gun around, i might win!!????????????????????

I think Hillbilly sounds pretty sleazy, but unless you are able to get your dad declared by a court to be incompetent and you get a power of attorney (or whatever it's call) over him, you have to sit by and let your dad give away whatever he wants to his "friend". The cops already told you how it is.

SLEEZY
 

Oh yea, and this hilbilly is the type of guy who'll sit right at the kitchen table and make comments about getting stuff OUT of other people. quiet A CHARMING FELLOW HE IS????? SO I NEED A GOOD PLAN.

I think Glatt just gave you one

A man, a plan, a canal...Panama.

Sorry, thought this was the Palindrome Association thread.

hillbillie has no outstanding warrants? no priors? contact the financial crimes department of your state police. tell them that your relative is being swindled by a con artist, and provide them that 'gooood proof' you've collected. but try to be collected and calm about it. you type like a nutter.

what are you talking about!!????????????????????

bang! your! head!

HELLO LUMBERJIM
 

Hello lumberjim, sorry if i talk fast, but i am Not a nutter just a charged up woman on a war path, the local sherrifs did talk to him the nite they came, but i dont know what he said or what happened, we figured they must have ran his name. i think i made him pretty nervous, cause he has been gone mostly, except to take my father to the doctor once a month, trying to show how helpful he is. Hum that is a good idea! ! financial crimes division! i was wondering the same thing? if he did it to my ill father, he must sort of have a habit of doing this to other people. what is the lumbernet?????? i am also very curious. the last policeman i talked to, wanted me to call in social services. YUK! cindy

i was just sayin, that if you speak with no punctuation, the way you type.....you might come off as alarmist, and they won't take you seriously.

I'm no grammar nazi, believe me.....but a comma and a period in the right spot can make all the difference.

the lumbernet? well......my computer is made entirely out of wood. i am allergic to glass and metal.

Hey
 

Hey any you guys in the -------? if you want to come to the northeast, help me defend my wood-pile, we'll take you trout fishing, and give you all the beer you can drink! or maybe i'll call earth first, and sit right on it, like a mushroom, and wait until the local news arrives. dont know which way to go? grassy- aka the nutter

Ha ha ha
 

Your right lumberjim, i do type like that!ha ha ha. It's because i'm always in a hurry to go nowhere!LOL cindy

I'll drive up but I need like a half-cord of wood or whatever I can fit in the reduced-size truck bed.

hello undertoad
 

thanks for answering you could sit with me, i'll be the mushroom you be the toad, we have to see what happens, my father is very sick, and may pass away before the con man makes a move on the wood, he could only get in there now with heavy equipment he only took home 5 cords, out of 30, so there is still 25 cords of nice tree length firewood, just drying, on MY PROPERTY, i am on the deed with my father, i need that wood, not that sleazeball, he has no Right to It!@! maybe i will sit on it this spring, but i think the chain with all the keepOUT signs will scare him off, because he has taken (Been Given) by a drunk old man, so much stuff, he is a candidate for elderly exploitation, and i think he knows it!!!!! if we knew when he was coming it sure would be fun to meet him there, thanks, grassy aka the nutter

If you are on the deed, problem solved, file a complaint with the police and have them take out a warrant.

wood?
 

Wood is becoming a valuable commodity up here in the Northeast now. Due to the high heating oil prices. Is anyone old enough to remember the oil crisis of the 1970's? I was just a kid, but people here were stealing wood, and stoves out of camps. Its a shame. Today the oil company released RECORD profits. I think it was said record profits of any company ever! I am a woman and wood does not interest me in the least, but i had to learn about it . Wood runs in my boyfriends family. His father managed millions of acres of woodland for the huge paper company. My dog is named Woody. But for someone to cut down thirty cords of trees, and DO all that work. Cut the trees up. Load the trees in the pick up. Unload the logs. Then cut and split the wood one last time. One more step. Put it in the house. That is ALOT of WORK! That is a SCAVENGER. cindy

I had some ice cream for dinner.

You did?
 

You did? what flavor? cindy

Rocky Road! ;)

Hey Grassy Cindy,
This story is actually about Britney Spears, but is exactly what you need.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7223625.stm


Get a lawyer, now, before your father is picked bare and dumped. A chain across the driveway is not going to even slow down a parasite like the one you are dealing with.