Oregon woman loses long-time Christmas tree, but not the stump

The Seattle Times

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Mary Moran figures she'll turn that 3-foot stump in her front yard into a Christmas statement of sorts.

The Corvallis woman awoke Wednesday to find that a long-needled pine the family had decorated for years was cut down and stolen during the night.

The family planted the pine 10 years ago, and it had grown to 15 to 20 feet high.

"The neighbors and grandkids really looked forward to the tree being lit up," Moran said.

She said the thief probably had chosen the house at the end of a dark cul-de-sac and brought a truck to cart away the tree, which an arborist valued at as much as $1,500.

And the thief had fastidiously taken the lights from the tree, draping them on rocks around the tree's raised bed.

"I'm probably going to string the lights around the base of it and just light the base of it," she said.

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Is this a new chapter in the war against Christmas?

I was assuming this was a really big front yard for someone to be able to cut a tree down without awaking the house...but it's a cul-de-sac?

Well, that's a pile of you know what. Stealing a tree from a front yard? Must have been one nice tree. I wonder if their homeowner's policy covers the loss.

They had a silencer on their chainsaw.

It happens out here in rural Wiscosnin all the time. We tried to plant a row of pines, hoping they would grow into a nice barrier to quiet road noise, but as they grew, a few got picked off by people too cheap to buy their own tree.

Deep in the woods, I can understand someone cutting down a tree, but in someone's yard? That's just plain wrong.

LOL!

Actually, this wouldn't make that much noise. And it would not take long on a 10-yr old pine.