Ever have fire wood stolen?

[Rob711]

Im not living in my house during renovations, but myself or wife are there daily. We live adjacent to a natural park lands, ie woods. There are trails in the woods, I noticed one of my stacks knocked over and thought nothing of it. Closer inspection looked like it fell from being taking apart!!
Just then I saw a nephew who said he took some for a camp fire, phew. Anyone could load up a wheel barrow and walk it off, doubtful. This ever happen but on a large scale to anyone. I often see piles of wood and think that’s good wood, I value wood, hence I’m not stealing it.

 

[Kevin Weis]

The only time I've heard of firewood being stolen in these parts was back in the early 80's when fuel oil shot up double/triple in one year and everybody went out and bought Fisher's, Shrader's and early VC's and there was all of the sudden a shortage of firewood around. Folks were flowing around the utility tree trimming crews to scarf up what was cut when they cut it. Haven/t really seen that since though.

 

[Woody5506]

At my family's cottage I kept a face cord stacked by our shed near the water. Seems to me the neighbors benefited more from that wood than I ever did, not that they ever asked me if they could use any. Pretty easy to ignore the work that goes into scrounging, cutting, splitting and stacking even a face cord when you're not the one who does it. Slippery slope too, because we do like these neighbors, so really I just let it go. I also wouldn't consider it stealing, per say.

At the end of the season I did take all the wood back home though to burn for the shoulder season. Problem solved.

 

[Bad LP]

My brother had a wood thief neighbor years ago. He solved the problem with a little black powder.

 

[paulnlee]

At my family's cottage I kept a face cord stacked by our shed near the water. Seems to me the neighbors benefited more from that wood than I ever did, not that they ever asked me if they could use any. Pretty easy to ignore the work that goes into scrounging, cutting, splitting and stacking even a face cord when you're not the one who does it. Slippery slope too, because we do like these neighbors, so really I just let it go. I also wouldn't consider it stealing, per say.

At the end of the season I did take all the wood back home though to burn for the shoulder season. Problem solved.

What else could you possibly consider it????????????????

 

[baseroom]

I live in a suburban tract. More than once I have observed "gaps" or "holes" in my woodpiles. Seems some folks want to do back yard fires in their metal pits.....but won't pay the 8 bucks at the store for a pack. So they wait until we aren't home and help themselves. Sad part is when folks have asked for some and offered me a few bucks, I will always find a few uglies etc and give them more than they need and never take a cent!

 

[peakbagger]

There have been more than few threads over the years about wood being stolen. Lot to be said for a video camera.

I have met a few folks over the years that were indirectly thieves. They paid someone on Craigslist for wood that was stolen or in one case they paid someone for wood and picked it up at "the woodlot" , it was a woodlot but the person who collected the money was not the woodlot owner. Its usually a cash business and anyone with a pickup and a low sense or morals/drug habit can make a few bucks off the books. The druggies usually dont do it as its too much work.

I have about 2 cords of hardwood on the ground on a woods road partially bucked and split at my woodlot. Its snowed in right now but in the spring I will get paranoid about someone backing up the woods road and loading it up until I get it home. I usually drop a tree across the woods road down near the main road just to discourage a casual thief as most don't carry chainsaws.

I live surrounded by a National Forest and on occasion out of state folks will drive the side roads looking for free campfire wood. If its cut and split near the road it occasionally disappears. I do not burn softwood as I prefer hardwood and over the years I have left piles of softwood by the road and occasionally it disappears before it rots. This happened more often before the neighborhood was built out as I was the first house my street. These days I have state trooper who lives next door that parks his cruiser in the yard and expect that discourages theft.

 

[Woody5506]

What else could you possibly consider it????????????????

Mooching? Again, slippery slope with neighbors we like who likely just are oblivious to how much of a firewood nerd I am, and a good "pick your battles" moment for me.

 

[Mojappa]

no but I did recently give a bit more than a face cord to a neighbor that was late to start gathering wood and burned up what little they did have (mostly green oak(red) they dropped in August) in no time. Before that last real cold snap hit I offered it to them. was a win win because I got it last year for the fisher and then stopped burning, now that I have the furnace in place that wood was too long anyway. his son just came by today actually and grabbed the rest of that pile while I was at work. They get to keep burning and I don't have to cut it all down to fit my stove

 

[Supersurvey]

I'm in the process of hand splitting a few cords that I keep about 30 minutes away. I'm purposely splitting about 3 times my normal size. When I bring them home in a year or two I'll split them down to size with my electric splitter.

 

[Ben Stark]

Before I began stacking wood in the garage, I caught some local high school students taking wood from my outside stacks for a campfire/bonfire. After I terrorized them for a few minutes, about having them on my trail camera and calling the police, I laughed and I told them all they had to do was ask me. I directed them to the large pile of “uglies” I use for my outdoor fire pit!

 

[kennyp2339]

During Hurricane Sandy one of my friends across town reported a wood pile theft, some one took approx. a pick up truck load from his stack, no power for a week with cold nights does strange things to people. He bought camera's after that.

 

[PaulOinMA]

The only neighbor that would take it is next door and it would be for her firepit by the pool. The wood I have now came from her yard anyway, so it is sort of hers after all.

I split and stacked a bunch in her yard for her as I was taking the downed and cut trees.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

Years ago the power company had cut some trees down on my land by the road, not wanting it to go to waste I up cut a nice pile up and left it neatly stacked on my land to move to the wood shed later. A week later it was gone, someone stopped on the side of the highway, thought free wood all cut to length and stacked up and proceeded to take it all. I should of known better so its my fault.

 

[newbie1kenobi]

A few years ago....it was a pretty cold night and my lab started barking but I didn't think much of it since he barks at the deer as they walk passed the front of our house every night..Next day (in the snow)..found foot prints going right up to my wood pile...lol..the foot prints went back to my neighbors house(renters and no longer live there thankfully)...honestly...my wife and I would have given them more then they took(if they just asked) but what got me most upset was...they didn't even bother putting my tarp back in place...now I have motion detection spot lights.

 

[peakbagger]

A friend of mine years ago had a summer cabin on a remote pond. There was only one or two year round folks on it including an "old coot" that regarded the summer folk's camps as his in the off season. They planned that in the spring that every piece of firewood not under lock and key would be gone and had pretty good evidence that it was going up the old coots stack. They didn't do much about it as he did keep an eye on the camps in his domain in the off season. Unfortunately in areas with ice fishing and winter sports its not unknown for folks to break into camps and strip them of any valuables under the guise of ice fishing out on the pond. If there is someone around keeping an eye out over the winter that doesn't happen as often. The folks on the pond regarded the theft of firewood as cheap insurance. There was saying about seasonal owners that if they pissed off the locals too much that the glow in their rearview mirror when they driving home after a weekend at camp may be their camp burning down.

 

[blades]

many times , even had some on video, one guy got caught- Only because I had him , his buddy, his truck and plate and plate number- leo,s could not ignore that one with any of their usual dodges.

 

[billb3]

Had a neighbor complaining about wood disappearing. Not a lot all at once, just one or two splits every couple of days. He eventually set up a camera and it ended up being the crazy lady down the street. She didn't even have a wood stove. She just wanted to have a stack of wood too. Klepto.

 

[Simonkenton]

I had a novel experience along these lines. I live outside of the little town of Marshall NC. I burn a lot of wood and have cut and split most of the wood I have burned.
But six years ago a wood lot opened up right on the main street in town, right next to the dumpsters. They had a nice supply of oak and hickory over there, a gas powered splitter, and a Chevy dump truck to deliver, held about a cord.
So I went over there one day, a guy was splitting wood and filling up the truck.

And he told me this was a charity deal, that if I was indigent [he didn't use that word] I needed to go down to the courthouse and be declared a poverty case and they would bring me a load for free. So I took a hike.

So, just last week I saw a guy in that same yard cutting and splitting wood. I went up to talk to him, he is the owner of the yard. I asked if he was still a charity lot.
He looked at me like I was crazy. Told me it never had been a charity lot it was always a pay-for lot, and he had owned it since the day it opened.

The only answer is, the guy I talked to six years ago was stealing wood. He had a well-rehearsed tale to tell any civilian who happened to come up while he was stealing firewood.
Wish I had gotten a pic of this guy, and his car.

 

[blades]

Enterprising individual or the one you just talked to. might want check at court house for clarification.

 

[xman23]

My wifes two girl friends had no wood for the fireplace, one cold night. We aren't at the cabin during the week. So they backed the car up to the splits under the deck and loaded up. The mistake they made was fresh foot prints and tire tracks in the new snow. I could tell there were 2 sets of shoes. I don't think they told me, until I brought it up that there was a robbery. There story is my wife told them "Tom has so much wood he won't miss it take all you need". They now joke about who's idea it was.

 

[John B]

Not exactly theft but I felt like I had been robbed. For years my neighbor and I had teamed up and scrounged/split/stacked all of our wood as a team but as time went on it seemed like I was doing most of the work. This was fine because the neighbor wasnt burning much anymore so I didnt mind.

We would keep the wood in an area between our houses. When I went to doing it mostly myself I still kept the wood in the same spot out of habit. One day during the burning season I get a call while I am out, its the neighbor. He tells me he has a friend who hit some hard times and needed some wood to get through a few days. Asks if they can take some. I knew the person taking the wood and well...they were not people who worked hard so as much as it bothered me to have my neighbor giving away wood I worked hard to split to people who didnt really deserve it, I figured it was good to help someone out so I said ok. Figured my neighbor would have decent judgment about this.

I come home to find a large amount of wood missing, turns out the person came by in a Subaru wagon and they filled the damn thing up! Worst part is, the neighbor told them to take the dryest stuff we had. I never got a thank you or anything. If it had been reversed, I would have offered to help split and stack next year as a thank you. That summer I moved all the wood racks to the other side of my property. Never did split wood with that neighbor after that.

 

[Gunfixr]

My brother had a wood thief neighbor years ago. He solved the problem with a little black powder.

This has my interest piqued........

 

[Bad LP]

This has my interest piqued........

Wasn't a lot of powder. Drilled, filled and plugged. That was the last time it happened. No idea how hard the neighbor shat his shorts.

 

[KJamesJR]

I had some good seasoned oak in the driveway, dropped off by a guy in exchange for some maple syrup. Every few days my neighbor would grab a piece or two. She’s old and not all there mentally.