Firewood thieves...gonna be a bad year

[avalancher]

Last year I had some wood going AWOL, I thought for a bit that I had just not topped off a few ricks, but after a week or two I realized that once or twice a week a few armfuls were going missing. I looked at the tracks back behind the shop and realized that they were not from my trailer or truck.
As far I knew, only two of my neighbors burn wood and neither had a small truck or car like the tracks indicated.
Today on the way into our road, there was a neighbor picking up some Mamossa tree limbs and small trunks left behind from the road clearing crew. He was loading it into his small little car. I stopped and talked for a bit. I asked him if he burned wood last year, and he said he did when he could get the wood, but he refused to buy wood from us "highway robbers". He preferred to just "find" his wood where he could.
I looked closely at his tires while talking and realized that they could have indeed been the tires from behind my shop last year. Not going to accuse him, but I have taken precautions this year. A chain across my driveway, and a motion sensor that triggers an alarm in our house along with motion sensing lights.
What do you all do to protect your crop?

 

[mga]

set up one of those cameras they use for hunting. then you have pictures of any activity.

i don't (so far) have to worry about any one stealing wood.....

 

[saginaw22]

GD Scum bags......stealing someones hard work....
cut, split, stacked.......is like stealing money IMHO
Call the cops and have em dealt with if you can
getting caught in the act.....would be priceless IMHO

 

[Wood Doctor]

"What do you all do to protect your crop?"
------------------
Watch dog. My flat coated retriever will not attack anyone but she is very territorial and knows when anyone new is around:

She has a fabulous baritone bark but is quiet all day. Best of all possible worlds.

 

[cruzer]

my wood is in the back corner of my lot and not very visible from the road. It will be covered with a larger heavy tarp come monday when it gets here UPS. Do you have a dog? Maybe a good time to get one.

Stew

 

[avalancher]

Yep, we got a good lab and she is very protective of the place. The trouble is she sleeps on the front porch of the house in the summer and really has no way of keeping an eye on the wood back behind the shop, too far from the house. In the winter she sleeps in the house.
She is pretty used to the neighbors coming and going on the road at all hours, and i doubt that she would be alarmed unless it was an unfamiliar truck or car.
I am hoping that the chain across the driveway going around to the back of shop will deter most of the thieves, I doubt anyone would want to pack wood up the steep driveway up to the road, and the motion sensing lights and alarm should let me know if someone is behind there at night.
We will see, but I think it is going to be a bad year for thieves. They just raised our electric rates 20 percent starting in October, not to mention what other forms of fuel is going for right now. I know most of my regular customers are having a fit over my new wood price, 60 bucks per rick for all oak.

 

[stihl sawing]

GSD [German shepherd dog]

 

[Echo-man]

You can't see mine from the road and only a few other on my street burn. So, I've never had a problem.

Someone I work with just lost almost 2 face. He cut all day Sunday and dumped the load in his driveway. He went to work Monday and when he came home it was gone. His neighbor said that someone backed a truck into his driveway and loaded it up. The neighbor said the guy was so non-chalant about it, he figured my co worker had given it to him.

Some people are real pieces of :censored: .

 

[Blowncrewcab]

I have a sign in my front window "Trespassers Will Be Shot, Survivors will Be Shot Again" Oh, and I have 2 Golden Retrievers and then a 1/2 Chow Mix. Nobody Goes un-noticed.

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

Stealing someone's wood is a hangin' offense.

I really like mga's idea of the game camera. NICE!!!

.

 

[avalancher]

You can't see mine from the road and only a few other on my street burn. So, I've never had a problem.

Someone I would with just lost almost 2 face. He cut all day Sunday and dumped the load in his driveway. He went to work Monday and when he came home it was gone. His neighbor said that someone backed a truck into his driveway and loaded it up. The neighbor said the guy was so non-chalant about it, he figured my co worker had given it to him.

Some people are real pieces of :censored: .

Stuff like that really chaps my hide. I dont consider anything okay to steal, but the :censored: :censored: :censored: that steal stuff like firewood are the lowest of low. There is nothing worse in my mind than to steal wood that a guy has worked so hard to get, just because you are too lazy to go and get your own. I think that for the most part anyone can locate SOME wood to cut, even if they have to do a little extra to get it. Sure there are going to be some exceptions like the old and crippled, but I am sure that you wont find that they are the ones that are stealing wood. Its always the low life that dont want to get off of their :censored: butts to go and get their own. They just wait until someone does all the work and leaves it unguarded for a minute.

 

[avalancher]

Stealing someone's wood is a hangin' offense.

I really like mga's idea of the game camera. NICE!!!

.

You know, it really oughta be a hanging offense! Remember the old days if you stole someones horse they strung you up! Stealing a mans horse often meant taking away his livelyhood, not to mention often taking his life away!
Wood isnt any different. We heat our homes, without we would freeze, or families would suffer, and for some of us we would lose a considerable amount of income because of a theft.
String em up! I will gladly donate the rope.
I just might consider a camera, although the local Sheriffs office is a joke. They would probably just say that it was a coincidense that I have someones picture and that wood went missing. they were probably lost and ended up behind my shop at 2AM.
I need to get one of those spike strips behind the shop.......

 

[Booshcat]

Two Siberian Huskies..
They do a great job of patrolling and they look fierce enough without even considering the bark.

 

[avalancher]

Two Siberian Huskies..
They do a great job of patrolling and they look fierce enough without even considering the bark.

I love those dogs! Alongside a lab, they are my favorite. One of the most friendly until you dont belong there. Then they can be pretty intimidating!
I might have to get me one of em....

 

[woodbooga]

He was loading it into his small little car. I stopped and talked for a bit. I asked him if he burned wood last year, and he said he did when he could get the wood, but he refused to buy wood from us "highway robbers". He preferred to just "find" his wood where he could.
I looked closely at his tires while talking and realized that they could have indeed been the tires from behind my shop last year. Not going to accuse him, but I have taken precautions this year.

Probably for the best you didn't accuse, but he sounds like a likely suspect. In the end, w/o proof, it's hard telling not knowing.

This guy sounds like a piece of work. And speaking of work, I do a hulluva lot of it to get my 6 cords/year. I heat with wood as an economic strategy and try for free or virtually free. I'm able to get my supply because I've developed relationships with landowners, tree service folks, even a firewood guy I gought a 1/2 cord from when I was short one year. Since we heat with a cookstove that will take a real small stick - too small to sell - he lets me take all the small stuff, plus the little butt ends. I have an invite to come to his cutting location and rifle through the waste pile. And this involves a matter of trust, since his supply for sale is close by.

My personal supply is stacked and piled in our dooryard, which our kitchen and livingroom overlook. You's need to have a serious pair of stones and about as many brain cells to attempt to nab from us.

 

[Lugo420]

"What do you all do to protect your crop?"

120 lb. American Bulldog! I can't even get the mailman to deliver packages out here. I have to go into town and pick them up at the post ofice. But NOBODY will even think about stealing my wood.

 

[avalancher]

Last year was my first time in having wood go missing, but I dare say that this year will be far more likely to happen. Electric went up 20 percent, oil and gas more than that, and our local shop is selling more saws than they have ever seen since the 70's.
I know that some of the areas that I check with are plumb full of folks scrounging up any stick that is laying around, and even in my private areas to cut are no longer safe. If I leave anything that is cut it will be gone when I come back, even in the areas that are gated. For the life of me I cant figure out how the wood takes off when I have the only key to the place.
The local sawmill usually has piles ten feet tall of slab wood, I like to go there cauze wood piles up quick in the trailer. I can usually load my 16 foot trailer in less than an hour over there, but now there are folks actually waiting for the loader to dump slabs so that they can scarf them up.
I have never seen it like this before, makes me wonder what its going to be like this winter when the cold sets in.

 

[Booshcat]

I'm wondering if I should load up some rocksalt rounds for the 12 Ga.
I've never seen anything like this either. It's like that fable with the one animal saving food and the other one partying all summer and when winter comes.....:monkey:

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

"What do you all do to protect your crop?"
------------------
Watch dog. My flat coated retriever will not attack anyone but she is very territorial and knows when anyone new is around

She has a fabulous baritone bark but is quiet all day. Best of all possible worlds.

+1. I used to describe my flat coat's bark as being from the bowels of the earth. She would scare anyone who didn't see the tail wagging.

My current alarm system is a lab, and she's very alert.

But I'm out far enough I don't really have to worry about it. Good neighbors on either side, nobody in back, and forest too thick to get through without making a racket. Neighbor dogs on one side, too. Rich folks across the street from me who wouldn't deign to walk over here, so no problem there!

 

[Booshcat]

Aw come on Mark, rich people aren't that bad, I saw some on TV once and they seemed ok