just a gripe

[Engineer]

I have a friend who is a supervisor for a fairly good-sized tree service company.  He and I had played racquetball this past Thursday and he had mentioned that he had some black locust for me and would I be interested?  Occasionally, I am the beneficiary of an odd chunk or log from him, something unusual, so I said heck yeah! I'll take it.  Two logs, each 30" dia. by 30' long, cut from a local museum grounds.

Saturday he dropped by the house with the big chip truck and dumped a small load of what was definitely NOT locust.  He got out and told me that some unknown persons had STOLEN the locust, with no knowledge by the museum director or the maintenance staff.    He went back to get it and there were just piles of sawdust where someone had bucked it into firewood lengths and carted it off.    Nobody had seen a thing.  I got some elm firewood, some spalt in it for a turning or two, but not the windfall of locust I was hoping for.    It's even more of a bummer because the director of the museum is a friend of mine and I had intended to make a nice donation to their organization in return.

I am seeing this 'phenomenon' more and more as time goes by and the price of fuel goes up.  A tree falls, and if it not obviously on private property, or in someone's line of sight, guys in pickups will come along, chop it up, load it up and disappear.    The power companies clear lines, and the landowners along the power right-of-way technically own the trees right up to the edge of the road.  People steal the wood before the mufflers on the chainsaws are cool.   My father and I were collecting some wood along a power line cut through my property four or five years ago, and a woman came along with a station wagon, stopped about 100 yards up the road, and calmly began loading our wood into her car.  Should have seen the look on my dad's face.    She thought it was anybody's to take because it was next to a road. 

Some people are scum.   :(

[Mr Mom]

     A friend of my parents had the same thing happeh to them. The power co. asked to cut down 5 or 6 trees that were dying and he said yes they could.
     Then about three days later he was over at the neighbors talking to them when a truck pulled up and three men jumped out and started to load the truck.
     He walked over to them and asked if they had asked to take the wood and they said yes they did : : :. He then started to write down the plate number and the guy asked why he was doing that?? He said that is because im the owner and if you leave with the wood in the truck i can call the cops and have you put in jail for stealing the wood. I changed some of the words to made it printable.
     He then made them unload the wood.
     Some people just take and dont ask that is the way they think today.


     Thanks Mr Mom

[Frank_Pender]

Amen. >:(

[sawguy21]

When I was in my teens, my buddy and I got permission from the contractor his dad hauled for to clean out the brush pile on the landing. We were cutting firewood and fence posts. We spent several evenings cutting and stacking then went back Saturday to load. The wood was gone. >:(  Monday morning, one of the crew was crowing about all the nice free wood he got. Sure glad it was not me dealing with my friend's dad that day.
Theft of building materials from job sites has become an epidemic fueled by greed and drugs. Firewood is being stolen out of people's yards and resold. They probably then steal the load they just delivered.

[Mr Mom]

     MY neighbor and i both agreed on one thing shoot first and ask question later. That is if they dont leave when told so.
     We were talking about me getting a mill and he said that if the mill was being loaded by someone other than me can he shoot them??. I said to let the lead fly but dont hit the mill :D :D :D.


     Thanks alot Mr Mom

[isassi]

Awhile back, a farmer had 40 acres of timber cleard, and it was all piled nicely. He gave me permission to help myself to the walnut logs. Someone came along, and cut 4 big 30 inch logs into firewood, after I pulled them out with the backhoe and had them set to load. I got them out of the pile for them....and instead of cutting blackjack, which would have been better, they stole the big walnuts...words cannot describe how I felt... >:(

[Don P]

We've caught 2 different people dropping and firewooding trees off an absentee neighbors place this year. Last year they tried to steal 2 new phone poles the power co had just dropped off, they cut them in half and were loading when the Q beam sent them scurrying back into their hole. The bozo's have also been cruising up and down the road and dropping any locust close enough across the road and buck them into firewood. From the looks of his stumps I'll see him under one of his prizes one day.
That guy when confronted claimed that the public right of way was 20' from the center of the road and he had a right to clear any trees in the right of way. He was informed that we would exercise our rights in his front yard if he ever showed up around here again. If he was heating his cold home I might have a little sympathy, this was a firewood seller  >:(.

[sawguy21]

He had a right to clear trees on the right of way ??? When did that start?

[Don P]

When they pry my... :D

[Cedarman]

About 25 years ago some young folks were slowly shining for deer.  As they passed I stopped them and asked them to quit shining my place.  They went down the road and about 10 minutes later came back shining the opposite side of the road from where I stood.  It was pitch black.  As they slowly passed by I stepped next to the truck pointed the 308 into the air and let go with a round.  The explosion scared the you know what out of them. The second round did the same, because they had turned around and could see the muzzle flash.  Word spread around and I am bothered very little because most people think I am half crazy.  I continue the legend.

[crtreedude]

When we bought our first farm, someone wanted to know if I hunted. Hector replied "Yes" - he will go hunting you if you trying to hunt on a protected preserve (it is illegal to hunt in the plantation areas because of the zone they are in.)

When they found that they could pull my compound bow, they figured perhaps they shouldn't mess with me. Visions of Rambo perhaps?  :D

[isassi]

The Oklahoma Legislature is working on passage of a new bill that puts the burden of proof of permission squarely on the tresspassor (spelling?). Anyway, since I was a kid, land had to be posted no tresspassing/no hunting/no fishing to get the point across. I was taught to respect the landowner's property and ask permission to hunt, fish, ect. Lots of inconsiderate idiots and morons assumed if no one drives up and says keep out, they can pretend they can't read and they have a God given right to go wherever they want. Now, it will be up to the hunter or fisherman, ect. to prove they have a legal right to be there and the fine will be $500 instead of $50, and the landowner no longer has to post the property. Moral is: If it ain't your land, stay off....

[Murf]

I've seen two similar instances here recently....

The first was in the big public forest near me, the dogs & I go down there and wander about lots, it's a a great place, with lots of well maintained walking trails. Weekdays it's quiet and I can let the dogs roam around off-lead, they're happy campers that way. Anyways, they've been thinning the red pine.

Some morons have been in there with 4 wheelers dragging out the tops for firewood, in doing so they've chewed the heck out of the place, walking trails and forest floor.  >:(

The second instance was a little closer to home. I was flying Saturday morning, it was a glorious day, when I heard the guy that runs the parachute school at my airport on the radio warning the jumpers to stay away from the north end of the field because someone was out there cutting down trees! 

I hustled back and sure enough, as I approached I saw two pickups and some people in the field to the north of the north end of the runway.

I got in my truck and drove around to ask what in tarnashun they thought they were doing? I got attitude!!

They said they thought since it was an airport is was public land and they needed firewood and wanted to clear an area to put in a feed plot so they could have a place to deer hunt.

I don't know where some get the kahoneys to pull something like that.  :

To top it all off, the trees these idiots were cutting were Aspens, lots of good firewood there.  :

[sawguy21]

Sounds like they were too stupid to get a real job.