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NH Thieves Raiding Woodpiles For Firewood « CBS Boston

CANDIA, N.H. (CBS) — Janine Richardson couldn’t believe it when she and her husband went to bring in some firewood to heat their home and it was all gone.

“We don’t use oil at all,” said Richardson. “We heat by wood solely so it was cold, it was cold that night, luckily we had little scraps around so we burnt that for the night.”

Police in Candia New Hampshire says it’s happened at least twice this month. Heavy piles of firewood have been stolen from people’s property.

“I haven’t seen that in this area,” said Candia Police Chief Mike McGillen. “I can’t recall having many investigations like this.”

A cord of wood can be worth up to $250, and police are not sure if the wood is being stolen by people who want to sell it, or if they need the wood to keep warm.

“If someone was desperate and needed the wood they could just come to the town,” said Chief McGillen. “There’s a lot of good people here who would give out wood, give out oil, give assistance in a heartbeat, they don’t need to go around taking it.”

A cord of wood is about eight feet long, four feet wide, and four feet tall.

For Janine Richardson, it’s not about the money. It’s the principle that someone stole from her home. And that all of her hard work was wasted.

“So obviously we’re angry because we cut all our wood and I’m the one who splits it with the log splitter my husband built me,” said Richardson.
 
I had some pricks take wood off the side of my house when I lived in SE Portland. Heard some noise late in the evening, looked out and they were tossing it in their PU. Can't really shoot them for that....unfortunately.
 
Why would this be a shock people will steal a 2 gallon can of gas worth maybe $7.00 Sucking it out of a car or truck with a hose.
 
Back in the day when I was an angry young man of about 21-22 a friend and I lived in what was then about the nicest 4-plex in Bend and they had woodstoves. We noticed our wood pile going down what seemed a little faster than just us using it and soon we found out why - one day my friend came home and came screaming in the house saying he saw some people on foot with arm loads of wood running down the street and disappearing around a corner! So being young men with attitudes we went and bought a large piece of white posterboard and drew a crude picture of our wood pile and representative figures of people stealing it but with a twist - we also drew in 'ourselves' cutting their heads off with machetes and in 'dripping' red letters saying 'This will happen to you' and tacked it on the end of the stack. Well after this empty threat didn't work we devised another plan - we spray painted the ends of our wood blaze orange and posted another sign saying if we ever catch anyone going into a house with our wood we will call the cops and tell them of our marked wood. This quasi-intelligent plan must have struck a nerve because the wood theft stopped.
 
Not surprising.

Thieves, especially the young ones, will steal anything not nailed down.

$250 for a cord of wood? That is cheap - around here a good cord of dried mixed wood is easily $350 during the winter.

Loggers and owners of timber have to keep an eye out as for decades people would come in and just cut down live trees on private land for firewood if they think they can get away with it.

When I moved here the PO left the house and the shop unlocked, the shop doors mostly open even. I always lock everything up. Just because we are out in the middle of nowhere that doesn't mean someone won't come along when you are not home and clean you out. Why make it easy for them?

At the very least have a surveillance cam so you can catch them in the act, possibly ID them.
 
I've been lucky so far. paid $25 a cord last year for Ponderosa $150, split hardwood, plus I scavenge my share after winter storms and there is Site #1 which is a jungle of hardwood waiting for harvest. Locally PPL are selling wood super cheap, concidering the price of fuel, $4 and truck tires $800. and up per 4.
My wood is stacked close to the road but No-one is stealing my firewood yet
 
If someone knocked on my door (Now, Today) in daylight and needed charity I would give it and hook em up with the local church/county,
WROL,, I might have a local neighborhood watch back me up as I did same. Extreme WROL,, they have to swim the river and climb 13 miles, pass the road block to get here.
 
I would get a couple log truck loads of swamp oak every couple years and then cut an split and stack. The unstacked was piled up by the barn as I split it and about 2 or 3 times a month someone would try to come up the road at night and steal some. I put a motion sensor up there that set off an alarm at the house.
When it went off, I would walk out the door and pop off a couple rds in the ground from the 45. If no noise It was a deer. If peeling gravel, I knew somebody just soiled themself.:D
I was getting about 12+ cords for about $1200 that way with over size loads. Heated the house and shop for nearly 30 yrs with that method of buying wood.
I dont think I lost a pickup load of wood in that time. Gave some away but very little stolen.
 
The solution

$_35.JPG
 
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