Jeffrey Collins Look out your window and you'll probably see lots of one of the hottest items for a new wave of thieves in South Carolina. These crooks can see the forest - and they want to steal the trees.
Timber is worth a lot of money.
In the past six months, Heath said his department investigated 56 cases of timber rustling. The problem is beginning to emerge in the area. In October, investigators arrested a Winnsboro man who they said was raiding logging sites in Chester and Fairfield counties, stealing precut logs from trucks. But the Chester County case was unusual. Most timber rustlers simply trespass onto private property and cut down the logs themselves, Heath said.