Thieves in Kentucky have been dismantling barns at night and selling the barn wood to companies to be used to make hardwood floors, according to Bowling Green Daily News.
Businesses buy the barn wood from the thieves for anywhere from $0.70 to $1.15 per foot, Barren County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Mike Houchens told the Daily News.
“They are targeting barns that are out of sight of the road, or they are hitting the back side of the barn so that you can’t see them while they are working,” Houchens said. “We believe a lot of it is happening at night.”
The thieves take a chain saw and cut the barn wood from the structure in large sections, load it and make their getaway. Landowners may not check on barns on their properties that often, so it may be days or weeks after the theft occurred that the police are notified, the paper said.
The illegal activity has been reported in at least two Kentucky counties along the Interstate 65 corridor, but police believe barn wood thieves have struck in other counties as well. The illegal activity has been occurring for the last three or four years, Barren County Sherrif’s Detective Rusty Anderson told the newspaper.
Flooring companies in the area are working with law enforcement to avoid buying stolen barn wood, and at least three arrests have been made in Hart County this fall.
