Where'd my wood go?

[BigPITA]

This would burn me as well. People just are clueless on the amount of work and time that's put into what we do. I was looking at our piles the other night and even made a comment to my wife that it looks like someone has taken some pieces, but she reminded me that we just don't have as much wood as I'd like to believe we have! :jester: (I still think some is missing ).

 

[avalancher]

I feel your pain, i really do.
Last year I had a few ricks take off while I was out delivering wood.There is no doubt that it was my neighbor, never had any trouble until last year when he started burning wood, and he is a lazy son of a gun.
This spring I discovered that not only did somebody take off with my wood, but he helped himself to my metal fence post pounder,my sledge hammer, and splitting maul.
Why he wanted them I have no idea, its not like he works any!
If he comes back this winter, he is going to be on video!

 

[Pilot]

It's amazing how brazen some thieves can be. I had some stolen right out of my trailer while I was at my doctor's office (maybe 20 minutes).

 

[woodguy105]

Worked a couple seasons for the state parks back in college.

Few times each summer you'd find garbage bags dumped along a dirt road -- and we weren't exactly a remote park.

Put on the rubber gloves, go through the trash, find old bills...

"Here's your garbage back. And your court date."

Excellent!

 

[MJR]

Tell someone at work you were going away? The wife?

 

[Crazymammato4]

That sucks. Iv had wood stolen. Iv had trash dumped iv had trees taken down while i was away.

What really got me was someone cutting 80+ year old oaks on my property! I wish i caught them, they would have walked home in pain and id keep their truck and saws.
Someone dumped a bunch of oil cans near my brook once. Whats wrong with these people.
They steal wood from my pile and leave it uncovered? Common now i have 12" of snow to clear off.

What part of CT are you in?

 

[Crazymammato4]

I feel your pain, i really do.
Last year I had a few ricks take off while I was out delivering wood.There is no doubt that it was my neighbor, never had any trouble until last year when he started burning wood, and he is a lazy son of a gun.
This spring I discovered that not only did somebody take off with my wood, but he helped himself to my metal fence post pounder,my sledge hammer, and splitting maul.
Why he wanted them I have no idea, its not like he works any!
If he comes back this winter, he is going to be on video!

LOL....I LOVEEEEEEEE your wood pile nightwatchman.....funnnnnyyyy

 

[Curlycherry1]

I feel your pain. Decades ago I was in college and cutting firewood in the winter on the snow and simply dropping, blocking and tossing the blocks into piles that would be fetched in the spring when I was out of school and it was dry. I put in 3 solid weeks of 10 hour days and I had thinned a good ~4 acres on the contract I was cutting.

Imagine my horror when I came home from college at spring break to find nearly all the wood GONE! Probably close to 75 face cords stolen. Knowing the wood was over 1/4 mile from the nearest road and it was behind a solid steel gate I figured the camp counselor/forester in charge of the land must know something. When I went to talk to him he seemed really cagey and would not look me in the eye all the while denying any knowledge of where my wood went. Subsequent checking of the area showed that the wood had to have been taken out through the gate area when it was open because no other tracks were found leaving the area.

I decided I had had enough of working on their land even though the previous forester was a great guy to work with and so I got another contract to cut on closer to home. He would not give my money back and even insisted I continued the remainder of the 12 acre thinning. He even had his brother the lawyer threaten me. He had marked about a 100 acre logging contract on the land he was in charge of and somebody, I have no idea who, went in and marked a lot of trees that he didn't with the same color mark that he had used. I heard it took him about 3 weeks to go and retally the trees and remark the ones he wanted to take down, and cover up the marks on the trees he wanted left behind. His veneer log mark was also too easy to change into a normal lumber log mark. :hmm3grin2orange:

In the photo I posted of my brother's operation his wood can be seen stacked right about 15-20' off the road. It is real tempting for thieves to see 4-500 cords of wood like that so close to the road. Fortunately crooks that steel his wood are idiots and they always back up to the piles. We found out long ago that ~2' diameter holes ~12" deep in the bottom of the ditch and covered with leaves and grass make great truck traps. Back a wheel into those and they do not get out. He has caught a few clowns trying to steal wood that way.

His biggest problem is kids trying to pilfer a few sticks for a campfire. If the kids would just ask he would give them plenty of log butts and small slivers from the processor. Nearly every log leaves a small chunk because every stick of firewood is exactly 16" long. Any log that is not a perfect multiple of 16" in length will leave a butt. If they would ask he would give them some. He also has geese for the last 10+ years and nothing, I mean nothing happens anywhere on his property without those geese letting him know. Dogs could take lessons from the geese.

 

[matt9923]

I feel your pain, i really do.
Last year I had a few ricks take off while I was out delivering wood.There is no doubt that it was my neighbor, never had any trouble until last year when he started burning wood, and he is a lazy son of a gun.
This spring I discovered that not only did somebody take off with my wood, but he helped himself to my metal fence post pounder,my sledge hammer, and splitting maul.
Why he wanted them I have no idea, its not like he works any!
If he comes back this winter, he is going to be on video!

When hes not home go snoop around and se if you see your stuff.
Then go and punch him in the mouth.

 

[blades]

Last summer about this time had a real problem with theft, not only wood but anything else that was not nailed down also. Put a cam system in, one that can record images without infrared at night, got them on the system a couple weeks later and turned them into the police. So far this year I have not had any shrinkage. I have this seasons stacks in a locked chain-link compound, fresh split stuff is outside of that. Just finishing a load of elm and twisted/bent the splitter beam(10yr old HF 30 ton) all out of wack on a crotch piece. Now it is rebuild time.

 

[Kiliam]

I guess I never realized how many scumbags are out there till I read how many of you have been stolen from. It amazes me how its almost always someone you know or a "neighbor, I use that term loosely.

To answer MJR's question, the wife and I work together, along with my mother. We work in a cutter grind shop here in Plainville. There are only 3 people in the entire shop I wouldn't trust and 1 of them has no idea where I live. Then again these 3 idiots probably couldn't light a fire with a lit torch and a can of gasoline.

My brother is hooking me up with a camera for the driveway. I haven't been able to fit my truck inside the garage since I brought home the piles in the pictures I posted. I've had my vehicles broken into before at our old apartment, now I'm more nervous than ever about it.

To answer the question about that pile. It was 9 overloaded trips in my 98 k1500 stepside. It was my first major craigslist score. I went back 2 weeks later and managed another 5 loads from the guys neighbor. Almost all of it was red oak cut and bucked for 3 years. We ended up with just over 8 cord from that little score.

Thank you again guys, keep the stories coming. Time to go out for birthday whiskey.
Karl

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Yeah, people are amazing in the acts that they commit without even feeling one ounce of remorse for. Stealing wood from a wood lover is just like stealing from my wallet while I'm watching; you guys know what I mean. Hopefully the saying "what goes around, comes around" will catch up with them soon. Just another example of the "me, me & me" society that we are living in. No thought or consideration for anyone else...

 

[mimilkman1]

IMO what ever doesn't catch up with them in this life, will in the next.

Kyle

 

[unclemoustache]

Well gents, look on the bright side. You do all that work to keep you warm, and there's nothing like a good theft to really 'burn you up.'

Yes, I know - it was lame, but it had to be said.

I've never had any wood stolen, but someone did steal my brand-new pressure washer a couple years ago. I've got lots of security lights around my house, especially in back where my shop and tools are.

 

[matt9923]

IMO what ever doesn't catch up with them in this life, will in the next.

Kyle

I want to be a dog, Sleep-Eat-#### Sound like the life to me! :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[mimilkman1]

Hopefully they all come back as dung beetles.

Kyle

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Hopefully they all come back as dung beetles.

Kyle

Or just dung.

Ian

 

[davec]

Excellent!

Worked a couple seasons for the state parks back in college.

Few times each summer you'd find garbage bags dumped along a dirt road -- and we weren't exactly a remote park.

Put on the rubber gloves, go through the trash, find old bills...

"Here's your garbage back. And your court date."

Heh. I drove the delivery truck for a NAPA store one summer after high school. The boss told me one day to go to a street on the edge of town where his GF was crying. Seems some trash hauler had decided to dump their load on the side of the road. The cops found it, did exactly what you said - they found her address on an envelope and called her and said "go pick up your trash or we will arrest you." She didn't dump it, which was why she was distraught. Plus she's a girl, and ...well, you know... So we loaded it into the PU and put it in the dumpster at the store.

My only regret was that this was before the trucks had the "NAPA hat" on the cab. Now that would have been cool...

 

[fredmc]

Relax, this is what you do.

Get a pile of wood ready as an obvious pile to steal from. Take a few split chunks and remember which ones they are. Get a couple .22 LR shells, drill the wood pieces and drop in the ammo, seal it up with wood putty. Imagine their suprise when they burn it! might even help you figure out who the thief is.

 

[matt9923]

Relax, this is what you do.

Get a pile of wood ready as an obvious pile to steal from. Take a few split chunks and remember which ones they are. Get a couple .22 LR shells, drill the wood pieces and drop in the ammo, seal it up with wood putty. Imagine their suprise when they burn it! might even help you figure out who the thief is.

i think a 1/4 of wood lost is better then going to jail for murder. Put some blank's in their! that's funny.