Timber theft cases rise in Upstate

Forestry investigator Jarrod Brucke stands by a stump from a tree Tuesday, that was cut on the land of Ruby Love in Sandy Springs. e-mail this story Related Online extra • More information • Timber tips • Timber laws

The 79-year-old, 43-year resident of this small Anderson County community drove up to her simple brick home last summer and saw workers cutting trees in her neighbor's yard. Love needed some money to fix up her home and invited the workers to cut trees from five of her eight acres.

"He cut some and gave me a $50 check," she said. "He said, 'I'll be back next week to pay you the rest.' They never came."

Instead, the workers hauled out their equipment late one Sunday night and made Love the victim of a growing fraud in the Upstate: Timber theft.

The state Forestry Commission investigates 200 cases of timber theft and fraud each year, but estimates there are more than 1,000 cases costing the state $10 million.

Most of the state's timber theft occurs in the Midlands and Lowcountry, but the numbers are increasing here. From 1998 to 2000, there were 16 cases of timber theft in Greenville, Pickens, Oconee, Anderson and Laurens counties. So far this year, law enforcement is investigating 28 cases.

Despite all the development in the Upstate, there is still plenty of timber to cut and steal: Of the 2.1 million acres in the five Upstate counties, officials consider 1.3 million forest land.

Love, like many victims, settled her complaint and received $550, far less than the timber was worth, but about the amount she agreed to receive from the loggers in the first place.

Ken Cabe, a spokesman with the state Forestry Commission and a former fraud investigator, said Love's case is typical: "Many times the negotiated price is bordering on criminal and then the criminal doesn't even make good on those prices."

Like so many other financial crimes, timber theft strikes those who need the money the most — elderly couples counting on the timber sale for retirement income, widows who need money after their husbands pass away and minority landowners living along the Savannah River. In South Carolina, 85 percent of the victims are 65 years old or older and 50 percent are black.

Delandra Navarro is an Orangeburg attorney who has handled cases for victims along the Savannah River — in that area many victims are elderly and black, the Forestry Commission said. She said a lot of the people targeted just don't understand timber and have no idea how much it's worth.

"The public needs to have knowledge that this is a problem, to be more cautious and know their property," she said.

And when it happens, the victims feel victimized and embarrassed.

"I trust people," Love said, "but after that, I don't know."

Jarrod Brucke investigated the Love case last year. He's the Walhalla investigator and is responsible for as many as 19 counties — stretching from Oconee to York to Saluda. Timber theft is a sophisticated white-collar crime committed by people in work clothes, investigators say. Perpetrators are rarely caught in the act and often get away with the crime for years until someone inspects a victim's property or the victim tries to get it logged.

Mike Heath, chief of law enforcement for the forestry commission, said there was a Richland County landowner who lived in Pennsylvania who called someone to cut their property recently.

"When the person got out there, he said, 'What trees?' " Heath said.

He said those committing the crimes try to know their victims. They have aerial photos of counties and spend time in courthouses investigating the owners of the land they want to cut: Are they elderly? Are they absentee? Do they live on a remote corner of the property?

Until a decade ago, local sheriffs investigated timber theft, if it was ever prosecuted. However, a dozen statutes govern timber theft, from malicious injury to property and trespassing, to grand larceny and conspiracy, so a more specialized force was needed. The legislature deputized the forestry commission, which until then spent most of the time investigating fires.

Navarro said in her experience, South Carolina takes the crime seriously and wants to help victims of timber theft.

"They do a good job," she said. "They're knowledgeable and they're really trying to do something about it."

Investigation of timber fraud and theft are complicated because the paper trail often runs from the victim, the wood buyer, the logger, a dealer and the mill, and often there are no contracts or the papers need to be subpoenaed. Heath said the investigations take months but while they're rarely for huge amounts of money, a few thousand dollars are a fortune to the typical victims.

A truckload of trees can bring a logger about $1,000.

"I figure we're just touching the tip of the iceberg," Heath said.

Jason Zacher covers the environment and can be reached at 298-4272.