Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Firewood theft

I would ask him what he thought was fair and if he was close, that would be it.

He lost his WIFE and ended up a single dad on hard times.....I would be glad all he did was swipe a couple loads of wood, could of held up a bank or worse.... Sounds like he is a good man, knew he made a mistake and owned up to it. Sounds like something that happened on the Andy Griffith Show, kind of inspiring considering the way the world is headed.

Everybody fouls up once in a while. Not everybody owns up to it.

With all the dirtbags in the country right now, I'd nurture this guy as much as practical. If it's a bust and he was full of crap, you're out two loads of wood. If it's true and you helped a good man become a better man and get back on his feet, hopefully to raise a couple more just like him, the country's a better place.

Much better than two loads of wood would make it.

Roundoak--If, after you've vetted him and he still needs help, PM me and I'll make a gift card or whatever contribution.

I'd "borrow" wood in the dead of winter to keep my kids warm and I'd do as he did....with my tail between my legs, embarassed and humble----pay it back.

If I were you I do believe I'd be inclined (if wood was as abundant as it is here) to have him cut and split enough to get him and his kids through the winter....that'd be his "working it off".

If what he says is true you should not be in a 'dilema' as to what you should do.

you'd be a guy I could be proud to have as a neighbor Aces.


good thoughts there sir

Damned Oregonians! No wonder we split off from the Oregon Territory.

Well it's cold , I live with out heat myself but I don't. Have any children to look after. My neighbor was out of work, I gave him some venison and told him the blue marked trees are fair game if you need it! Times are tough we are all being tested- you did it right!

If his story pans out please let me know and a gift card will be enroute to your AO for the young man and his children as well as a check to cover 2 more loads of wood to get him through the winter.

Really hoping for a good outcome for both parties here. PM sent.

Wow! What a tough situation. Looks like you can get resolution, willingly, from a guy who knows he did a bad thing, has genuine remorse & is humbly facing whatever you decide is the right way to repay his crime against you. Letting him work it off, as long as his story checks out, sure seems like the right thing to do.

We had a couple thousand bucks worth of wood stolen up at the shack in WI just before New Years last year. Witness, tire tracks in fresh snow, more snow that didn't come as forecast & the pile of wood in the yard of a known dope head got him caught & us reimbursed after about 5-6 months. If it had been a situation like yours, we'd have likely handled things a lot differently.

Just be very, very careful, as desperate people do desperate things. Don't let your guard down.

I had a kinda similar situation a few years back Roundoak, was up late one evening reading when I noticed a light flicker in one of the shop buildings out back.

Grabbed my 45 and 12 gauge and cut a counterclockwise 180 around the yard to check it out, was crouched at the ready when the front storm door of the shop began to move, a young man appeared with some plastix wal-mart bags filled with frozen meat.

I lit him up with my sure-fire and hollered, he dropped the bags and froze, I saw a light reflection, [tears] in his eyes, he said Sir, I have hungry children, please dont kill me.

I said, if yer [bleep] with me, I'll kill you here, he said please, my family is down by the road in my pickup, I said, how'd you know about this freezer, he says, I was up here helping a neighbor cut hay on your place a few years back and saw the freezer through the window as I drove by on the tractor, I knew it was here.

I said, take these bags and wait out by the light, I went and woke Wifey and she loaded him up several more sacks of dry goods and such from the kitchen pantry and cabinets.

I've seen that young man a couple times about town since then, he always removes his hat and smiles and waves.

Sometimes folks will do wrong to feed/keep warm hungry kids and I can understand that.

Gunner

Quite a story.. Desperate for heat, but honest to come back asap and ask to pay up somehow/some way..

Good to hear this..

If he does the work without complaint, I'm in for $50 if you have anything else for him to do.



Please keep us up to date. This sounds like a fella worth helping.

Keep us posetd, I'll contribute if his story checks out

It's said that cutting firewood warms you twice!
Maybe even more times than that!

I will send some funds, pm me.

pm me also if he checks out.

I'd agree.

Compliments to RoundOak for his good handling of a challenging situation.

GTC

This thread shows the essence of some really great folks hang around this "campfire" site....

I have to chuckle where a couple of numbnuts like to call it the "Freak Show"...

there are a lot of good people on here...

a lot of us should be thankful, that maybe we have not had to be in that bad of straights, that we had to compromise our morals to protect our children..

if his story checked out, I admit I wouldn't have been too hard on the guy, and if he was a veteran with a family to support in hard times... well Round Oak, if you need financial compensation for the wood, let us know..

I'll gladly do without if a fellow vet needs it, to take care of his kids, and that multiplies if he just lost his wife...

I guess I have the 'bad habits' of my granddad...

way back in the 50s, he had a guy walk into his store and gas station to buy a soda and some crackers...

he had been dropped off, and was hitchhiking back home to St Louis... he was black and a WW 2 vet...

the US route in front of my grand dad's store was not well traveled and mainly by local traffic...

that poor guy was there for 3 days trying to thumb a ride...

each evening, my grand dad had him come in to the house there and fed him dinner and gave him a bed to sleep in a place to take a shower...

guy had no money and wanted to work off my Grand Dad's generosity...

he fed the guy and gave him a place to sleep for 3 days, as he was trying to get a ride...

a hitch hiking black guy didn't have much luck in Southern WVa in the 1950s..

on the fourth morning after breakfast, my grand dad went into the store's cash register, threw the guy's bag in the back of his truck...

when he got back my grandmother asked him where he had gone....

he took the black Vet to the bus station in Bluefield, and gave him $50 for expenses to get back home...

couple of years later, a check showed up in the mail, covering my grand dad's expenses, plus for the room and board he had extended.. it took him a week or so to even figure out who the money was from...

That left an impact on me, that I have always carried with me...

a little given away to someone in their time of need, may not be a big loss to you, but it can mean all the difference in the world to the one receiving it..

and for a fellow veteran, I'll gladly give up a little extra to help another one who has served, who might be in need... sort of that co dependent reason I ended up in the Medical Corp I think..

you're a good man Round Oak...

and so are the rest of you boys who are offering to dig a little to help a guy in need out...

damn proud to hang out with the rest of you guys in this forum... "Freak Show or NOT"...

Did you give him a saw and say cut some more?

Truthfully, the only issue I have is the tresspassing. If someone stole something from me, I pray that they truly needed more than I did.

It sounds like this is the case here.