Need you guys to help me "make the call" on this one

There is a golf course very close to my house that over the years the guy who ran it would let me cut up fallen trees and take it out for firewood; it didn't hurt my cause that he knows my father-in-law! Last year I had noticed a downed-tree and got in touch with him and he said okay to take it; well when I cut into it it was getting moldy, green and somewhat funky inside so I left it go. This past week I see that someone had been in there, cleaned up a little sometime ago, and cut that tree and some others into rounds and just piled them up behind a Pine tree where they will most likely rot to mulch. They must've cut far enough into that tree to "bypass" the rot and it looks like it might be pretty good, so I tried calling his home number to ask permission like many times before but it is CONSTANTLY busy-it HAS to be off the hook! I called his son's number, left a message, explained the situation but got no return call. I called the golf course, and there is a recording saying" they are closed-we hope to reopen in the future" which I knew they were changing-the property has been up for sale for years, all 78 acres of it, but he said that he still had the authority to tell me I could take wood. I stopped down there and looked around-no one in sight, ghost town. Here's my question-since I have taken wood from there many times before, and had a chance to get that tree last year, and obviously can't get in touch with anyone, would it be okay for me to assume that I could take it? I'm sure that no one else wants it-it will just turn to mulch, but something inside of me questions it, while some part of me knows it would be okay to take it. The only other thing I can think of is try to go to his house and ask him and I'm sure he'll say "take it".

After reviewing the play, what is the call, you refs out there? I ALWAYS get permission as I don't want any bad "karma", but this is a different story....

Thanks guys; so we have two saying "take it" and two saying "find out again" basically lol! That's why I asked, I teeter-tooter back and forth in my mind-I guess I'm going to have to try going to his house and if he's not there leaving a note....the property is still for sale, I don't know who is going to buy it as it is really expensive, but it's like a ghost town, basically abandoned golf course. I'm sure that it would just lay there and rot, and also if someone wanted it they would've taken it when they cut it or soon after, but I want to make sure it's okay even though I've taken from that area already, even took a few pieces of that same tree.

Let's see what the the next "votes" are-should've done a poll maybe!

Well problem solved....I found out where he lives and talked to the guy that ran/runs the golf course-he said the sale is still in "limbo". I told him about it and that it was piled behind a Pine tree and he said go ahead and take it, it's probably Pine" and I told him "no, it's one of the nut trees" and he said "take it-I want to clean that area up anyway". He really didn't seem to care much about it which is what I thought, didn't even seem to know about it; he was more interested in asking if my father-in-law was going to sing with him in a men's choir for Christmas lol! I brought a round home just to split it open and see what kind of shape it is in, but I'll have to wait until it dries out as it's wet from rain, but I believe it is perhaps Nutmeg Hickory and the inside looks pretty good-better than the pieces that I cut a year ago and had that funky mold inside. It has that "sour" smell to it, almost like a mild vinegar or wine smell so if I get it home and keep it safe it'll probably be alright for next year and I'll keep it in my "private" stash!

I figured it would be alright to take but this is better; like the John Mellencamp song "Minutes to memories" says at one point "an honest man's pillow is his piece of mind"....