Rural properties are being hit hard by a spike in crime related to a recurring trend in home design.
The B.C. Cattlemen’s Association said they have received several reports of stolen wooden fencing that may have ended up being sold to homeowners looking to decorate their home with “weathered wood.”
“I really appreciate art and wood and everything else but stealing my fence, I don’t really like that,” Merritt rancher Lou Cooke said.
A prime target is wooden fencing around the Coquihalla Highway. Local cattle ranchers are upset, saying it’ll cost them $50,000 to replace the fences.
“In a year like this when our profits are minimal, $50,000 is a big added expense,” Kevin Boon of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association said. “At the end of the day, it’s out-and-out theft.”
The Barn House Company — an Abbotsford-based company that sells weathered wood — said buyers need to be aware of where their repurposed wood is coming from.
“The biggest thing, like anything else, is know your source, know the person you’re buying from is reputable,” Caleb Clement of the Barn House Company said. “If somebody is selling something on Craigslist and they live in an apartment and they said they got it out of the backyard and you’re picking up thousands of square feet of wood, I’d be suspicious.”
In August, three Surrey men were arrested after loading cut fencing onto a truck near Merritt. The B.C. Cattlemen’s Association said it has had at least six reports of stolen wood this fall.
The Transportation Ministry said in a statement Tuesday it will help the rancher replace the fencing.
— With files from Ted Chernecki
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