Anybody else here notice people eyeing up your woodpile?

[pennsywoodburnr]

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid. Now I'll admit I've checked out other peoples wood stacks when I've been out driving, but I don't go out of my way to slow down and gawk at it either. Within the last month I've seen 3 people driving by the house while I'm out there loading up my wood rack physically slow down and check out what I've got. Sometimes I'll even stop what I'm doing and have a staredown contest with them before they continue on their way. Maybe they think I'm selling? My paranoid side says maybe they're casing it out, looking for an easy score. It'd be a stupid move on their part as someone is always home. Even if by some chance the wife, kid and I aren't around, I'm fortunate to have a couple neighbors that have guns and an extremely low tolerance for whatever B.S. excuses someone might give them while parked in my driveway.

 

[BillNole]

I used to see folks regularly slowing down and eye-ballin' my wood pile as it stretched along a chain-link fence that ran parallel to the road. Since I changed all the fence that's adjacent to the road to 6 ft. privacy fence though, I haven't noticed a single person doing so!

 

[3000 FPS]

I have 40 acres where I cut and stack my wood right now and I am getting ready to build a house there. But right now I have close to 4 cords split and stacked which made me nervous just sitting out for easy pickings. So I started locking my gate to the property. Good wood is hard to come by in these parts.

 

[cre10]

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid. Now I'll admit I've checked out other peoples wood stacks when I've been out driving, but I don't go out of my way to slow down and gawk at it either. Within the last month I've seen 3 people driving by the house while I'm out there loading up my wood rack physically slow down and check out what I've got. Sometimes I'll even stop what I'm doing and have a staredown contest with them before they continue on their way. Maybe they think I'm selling? My paranoid side says maybe they're casing it out, looking for an easy score. It'd be a stupid move on their part as someone is always home. Even if by some chance the wife, kid and I aren't around, I'm fortunate to have a couple neighbors that have guns and an extremely low tolerance for whatever B.S. excuses someone might give them while parked in my driveway.

I don't blame you. I hate people. People are always asking me if I'm selling hay. If it were for sale I would have a sign on it.

 

[turnkey4099]

I live right on a major highway and had a problem with people pulling in and asking to buy wood. Finally had a couple signs printed up "This wood not for sale" - cured that problem.

Harry K

 

[Gavman]

To me a woodpile is like a real good looking woman, sometimes I will slow down and have a look, if a conversation is struck than all the better... "Men who stare at wood"

You can say things like that round here....

 

[greendohn]

One ofthe reasons I built a shed with a sliding door and lock! I was actually having a problem getting pinched for a couple armloads at a time,the worthless bastards, I couldn't catch 'em in the act and no cameras.
My neighbors' boy even loaded up both racks on his dads' quad and shot me a text while I was gone, like it was okay because he text me! !
His dad and I convinced him that was NOT how it worked,,

 

[Rudedog]

I have an alley that runs behind my back yard where I do my splitting. My split wood is kept inside my fence line. I leave a stack of uglies that folks can help themselves to along the alley and my off street parking. Only one other guy near me burns and he has good wood. My problem is when it warms up and folks think its okay to grab an armful for their fire pit. The split discarded uglies I leave cured that problem.

 

[Bushmans]

When I lived over by Detroit I would drill a hole through each split and run a cable through them and lock it all together.
Then they would get mad and pour gas on the whole thing and light it!

LOL just kidding. They stole it out of my truck before I ever made it home.

No in all seriousness my stacks are visible from the road but you would have to drive through my front yard and up the hill to get to them. I do eyeball other peoples' stacks though. Just to see whose is bigger! Most times I win except that guy down the road......but he has tractors so it's not fair!

 

[flotek]

Sounds like early onset schizophrenia..
If I had passerbys robbing my firewood I think it would be a sign of a more serious problem. . I think I'd move

 

[zogger]

I would have rather the skunks stole a load of wood over a load of saws.

With that said, the only places that have more stacked than me around here are a couple of mills. And seeing as how not a single person has ever stopped by and asked to buy any...not real worried about the wood stacks right now.

 

[Chris-PA]

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid. Now I'll admit I've checked out other peoples wood stacks when I've been out driving, but I don't go out of my way to slow down and gawk at it either. Within the last month I've seen 3 people driving by the house while I'm out there loading up my wood rack physically slow down and check out what I've got. Sometimes I'll even stop what I'm doing and have a staredown contest with them before they continue on their way. Maybe they think I'm selling? My paranoid side says maybe they're casing it out, looking for an easy score. It'd be a stupid move on their part as someone is always home. Even if by some chance the wife, kid and I aren't around, I'm fortunate to have a couple neighbors that have guns and an extremely low tolerance for whatever B.S. excuses someone might give them while parked in my driveway.

Damn, I didn't think you saw me!

Given our modern society that is so obsessed with comfort, convenience, passive entertainment and having the latest labor saving devices, heating with wood is still a novelty and curiosity. Some of those people may just be gawking at the weird guy with all the wood. Others will assume you are selling it because the only conceivable reason to do anything is to make money. Using your own time and labor to provide your own heat would not occur to them.

 

[Bushmans]

What really amazes me is people think I'm psychotic for having so much wood. In reality it is just over two years worth. Not nearly what I would like to have stacked up. Can you imagine their response to 8 years worth?
They think I have a problem but I call it being responsible!

 

[philoshop]

A buddy had the same thing going on recently; passersby showing a little too much interest in his stacks.
He put up an official looking sign saying the property was under video surveillance. Give the would-be thieves a little something to think about. Can't hurt.

 

[stihl sawing]

Mine can't be seen from the road, now if they come inside the fence to go to the pile, the dog may have a go at em. I might watch a little.

 

[slowp]

Sounds like early onset schizophrenia..
If I had passerbys robbing my firewood I think it would be a sign of a more serious problem. . I think I'd move

Or dementia. Or Moommmmm, make them stop looking!

Even the tweakers go out and cut their own firewood in these parts. Other than illegal cutting on the National Forest, or cutting and ruining the log decks during hunting season, I've never heard anybody complain about firewood thieves.

Don't move here. It rains all the time.

 

[Chris-PA]

Don't move here. It rains all the time.

We're in Pennsylvania - why would we want to move there?

 

[Whitespider]

I've had people actually stop and comment on my stacks.
I don't worry too much about the rubbernecked passersby as thieves.
Most thieves are lazy cowards... I'm bettin' that, as well as noticing the stacks, they also notice I'm openly armed.
Always being openly armed on your property is way better than any number of "BEWARE OF DOG" signs posted on it.

As Daniel Boone is quoted... "All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife."
And even he so the wisdom of listing the gun first...
*

 

[branchbuzzer]

A buddy had the same thing going on recently; passersby showing a little too much interest in his stacks.
He put up an official looking sign saying the property was under video surveillance. Give the would-be thieves a little something to think about. Can't hurt.

+1

In this day and age, these are VERY effective because a video camera is no longer a luxury item. With computers it gets easier and easier every year to have a surveillance system. You still get the occasional person who isn't smart enough to have figured this out yet, but most don't want to mess with a camera pointing at them. Put a sign right next to your stacks and even the staring will end.

 

[FLRA_Dave]

I have my stacks starting about 12 ft from the road. I just had someone go past our house 2x (out and back) this morning. Slowed way down both times. I'm not too worried about it. It'll only be an issue if someone takes some wood and I get a hold of them. Until that happens I'm not going to let it bother me.