Firewood theft :(

[Hyndis]

So, the trees finally got trimmed. Its been many years, and the haul of wood was very great. Twigs and leave stripped off, decent sized branched chopped into firewood sized segments. The trimmings left out on the street for pickup on Monday, and the firewood was set on the driveway.

I had no vehicle to pick it up or move it, and a relative wanted the firewood. Great, works for me!

During the time it took us to get a vehicle capable of moving the firewood (had to rent a small pickup truck, just something with a flatbed in back to put the firewood), someone else had already come by and made off with all of the wood. From my own driveway. After all that work. They just walked onto the property when no one was home for an hour, and made off with everything.

[HYHYBT]

I'm sorry*.

Two or three times now, someone's stolen the rocking chairs off Dad's office porch the same way. 25 years in the old office and nobody touched them; since the new one it's become almost a regular occurrence. The chairs are out there so the porch doesn't look so bare, but also for smokers (and others, when the weather is good.) They're also chained down, and before the last time he got a camera as well. The thieves came up during the night, looked into and saw the camera, went back to their truck to cover their faces, and came right back up, cut the chairs loose, and left with them. If they'd had any sense, of course, they'd have left when they saw the camera and perhaps come back another day; then, chances are, nobody would have looked back to see them showing their faces.

*That's a sympathetic "I'm sorry," not an "I did it" one. Which ought to go without saying, but I know entirely too many people who cannot tell the difference.

[LillFilly]

I hope they were just stupid enough to think it was an offer for free firewood, and didn't steal it on purpose. I hope you called the police, as they did steal belongings off private property.

Maybe a letter to the newspaper too.

[Hyndis]

There's nothing police can do. Coincidentally a police cruiser drove by only minutes after I realized someone had stolen the wood.

But there's just no way to track it, no evidence, no witnesses. Its gone.

[bhskittykatt]

I'm sorry. Being a victim of theft sucks.

Hubby's had his bicycle stolen. We had three bikes tied up together on our porch. They cut through the cable, tossed the crappy one that was in front to the side, and stole Hubby's bike.

We've also had half a bag of potting soil stolen from our porch as well.

[Sapphire Silk]

I hope they were just stupid enough to think it was an offer for free firewood, and didn't steal it on purpose. I hope you called the police, as they did steal belongings off private property.

Maybe a letter to the newspaper too.

They weren't that stupid. If it's in the drive, it's private property. When it's on the curb, it's first come first served.

Sorry about the loss. That bites.

[Magpie]

They weren't that stupid. If it's in the drive, it's private property. When it's on the curb, it's first come first served.

And jackasses like this one are why it's illegal to take things from the trash. "Oh, I'm sorry that I took all that wood. It was out for yardwaste pickup though, so I don't know why they're complaining."

[LillFilly]

They weren't that stupid. If it's in the drive, it's private property. When it's on the curb, it's first come first served.

Sorry about the loss. That bites.

Wellll...Considering the types of people we all seem to run into, I had to hope against hope that for once we had an actual idiot and not just another entitled shmuck.

Like the one that stole my $2 solar lights and halloween tombstone out of my garden...

[drunkenwildmage]

1) A few years ago, my brother had a couple trees cut down, and cut into firewood to split between his Neighborhood any myself. The wood was piled next to his driveway about 20ft or so off the road. 3 or 4 times before I could pick it up,( A matter just a couple of days) he had to chase people off from getting the wood.

2) Last year, I noticed that a pile of wood that we had stacked *Behind* our house, inside of a fenced yard, next to a shed had completely disappeared before I could burn it.

[Sapphire Silk]

And jackasses like this one are why it's illegal to take things from the trash. "Oh, I'm sorry that I took all that wood. It was out for yardwaste pickup though, so I don't know why they're complaining."

It depends on where you live. Where I live, people routinely put things on the curb well before trash day, knowing people will take them.

I got a great night stand in wonderful condition; a little paint and it looks brand new. I've gotten other stuff this way too. If I see the homeowner, I will ask permission first. But if you put it on the curb, it's trash, and it's no longer private property.

However, if it is still on your driveway, it is still on your private property and it is not trash, so the people who took the OP's firewood had no justification to do so.

[Erin]

At our old house, my dad called a rock company and had a couple of tons of rock put in our driveway so we could landscape the yard with it.

More than once we had some "neighbors" (from a block away) come up the street with a trashcan or two hoping that we'd give them some rock, since in their mind we obviously had too much and werent going to need that extra ton.

Our next door neighbor really wanted some too...she kept asking my dad if he'd share. He gave her the phone number for the place he got it from. She never called and got her own ton of rock.

When we moved, my aunt was helping us out and was straightening up our landscaping and moving some of the rock around. We'd moved out the day before. It was getting dark and my aunt told my cousin that they'd stop for the day and come back and finish up. They'd left a pile of the rocks stacked in our backyard.

So, they went back the next day, and the pile of rock was gone. Looking around the yard, a bunch of the rock that they'd straightened up in the landscaping was missing. These were large river rocks, bit larger than bricks and pretty heavy. My aunt happened to look next door, and noticed something weird. There were river rocks all around the neighbor's trees and in the landscaping in the front of her house, and the rocks looked strangely familiar.

The b!tch had stolen our rocks! (and she's a former nun...her husband was, I think, a retired cop or something. I guess there was a good reason she was a former nun)

We had been planning on taking a bunch of the rock over to our new house for some landscaping. We hadnt even put the old house up on the market yet.

The neighbor came running over to my aunt when she showed up there, and claimed that we'd told her she could have some of the rock. (nope, we didnt, and she didnt just take some, she must have worked thru the night stealing it)

I went over there that day to look thru her yard for some of the pieces of rock I'd been planning to take to the new house. (geodes, some mica and really nice big pieces of obsidian) She must have been hiding the geodes, because they were nowhere to be found. I got most of our obsidian and my big piece of mica and some of the big pieces of river rocks.

Last year, we were having the house we're in now re-roofed after a bad hailstorm. My aunt and I (she lives across the street from us) were sitting in her yard, watching the roofers work on my roof, and we saw a couple of them stealing our river rocks from our front yard!! They took off with most of it. I got the pieces I saw them take back, but they got most of our good river rock. At least they left my pieces of marble and obsidian alone. They seemed to take all the rocks that were all in one color group (kind of a yellowish color river rock) They left all the dark color stones behind.

What is the deal with stealing rock right out of people's landscaping, and right in front of the owners?


and last spring, on Mother's day, we bought my mom a really nice flower pot from Costco that was huge and had a ton of flowers and plants in it that she really loved. Put it on our back patio. It was gone within a couple of hours. (we dont have fences in our neighborhood, pretty much anyone can walk thru our backyards) We stupidly went back to the store the next day and bought my mom another one (not as nice as the first one) and we put this one in the front yard, kind of close to the front door. It was gone the next morning.

If someone was stealing her Mother's day flowers to give to their mother, I hope the flowers either had a bad case of aphids or I hope that the pot they were in fell apart on them while they were carrying all 20 pounds of it home to their moms.

[RootedPhoenix]

*headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*

Just..I..argh. What is WRONG with people?!? It's not yours, it's not in your space, leave it alone!

[Sapphire Silk]

The roofers were stealing your river rocks to use on another project. They were going to charge that customer for the rocks and make pure profit on it. That's why they took ones of a specific color type. You should have reported them to the police, and the BBB.

Ditto for the former nun. Geodes and obsidian is expensive! She had no right to take your landscaping rocks without permission.

[Shalom]

My aunt happened to look next door, and noticed something weird. There were river rocks all around the neighbor's trees and in the landscaping in the front of her house, and the rocks looked strangely familiar.

Someone did that to my father not too long ago. There was a tree in front of his house with flat stone tiles around it; starting one day there were a few less tiles there every day, and a neighbor down the block had a few more tiles in his front yard, until my father took the few he had left and put them in his back yard. I told him he should go over to the other house one night and take his tiles back when they weren't looking. If the guy would say anything about it, he should say "Yeah, there's been someone going around the neighborhood stealing people's tiles, they got all of mine last week."

and last spring, on Mother's day, we bought my mom a really nice flower pot from Costco that was huge and had a ton of flowers and plants in it that she really loved. Put it on our back patio. It was gone within a couple of hours. (we dont have fences in our neighborhood, pretty much anyone can walk thru our backyards) We stupidly went back to the store the next day and bought my mom another one (not as nice as the first one) and we put this one in the front yard, kind of close to the front door. It was gone the next morning.

So what you do next is get a third flower pot, and either,

1. Nail it to the floor, so they rupture themselves trying to pick it up, or

2. Booby trap the pot. Maybe if you can get your hands on those dye packs that the banks use to inconvenience bank robbers, and have it set up so lifting the pot sets them off. I've also seen alarms where they go off if you pull a string out of them.

(The inspiration for this idea was a children's story I read ages ago, about some kid who the school bully kept stealing her lunch out of her cubby, so one day she made a "special" sandwich and left it in her cubby. At lunchtime the bully went running by foaming at the mouth, and she sweetly asked him "Did you like my peanut butter and soap flakes sandwich?")

Sigh. Some people seem to live by the modernized rules of property:
1. If it's not nailed down, it's mine;
2. If it can be pried up, it's not nailed down.

[underemployeed]

They weren't that stupid. If it's in the drive, it's private property. When it's on the curb, it's first come first served.

Sorry about the loss. That bites.

Ok, if it is generally accepted trash day and it is next to garbage bags. Ill bite.
However, if it is a pile of wood, and it doesn't have a "FREE" sign next to it. Kindly go up to the home and ask if you can have it.

My dads friend had a load of stone dumped in his driveway to expand a parking section. He walked out to one of his "neighbors" loading up the bed of the truck, neighbor was significantly pissed when the home owner instructed him to offload all of the stone or deal with criminal charges. the neighbor said "Your not very neighborly" but its not like he asked or was trying to get two 5 gallon buckets worth, according to the homeowner, the shocks were about as low as they could go.

Same goes for hunting equipment left in woods. ESPECIALLY on private property. We had a friends blind that a neighbor suggested most have blown away in the heavy winds. So much so that the wind left the neatly cut chain behind.

People have no respect for anything these days. back to topic of wood. Anytime i have been cutting wood close to the road people always stop and ask if they can have it, but want to take no part in actually cutting it up or even loading it if they can avoid it. If a neighbor offers us firewood, we ALWAYS go over and help them out with cutting it up.