VANCOUVER — A home decor trend appears to be fuelling a series of “highway robberies” in the B.C. Interior.

The B.C. Cattlemen’s Association has had six reports of stolen fencing this fall, general manager Kevin Boon said. It is believed the weathered wood is being sold to Vancouver-area homeowners eager to add a “rustic touch” to their living spaces.

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Although wood rustling sounds like the plot of a particularly bad Western novel, the theft of $50,000 worth of fencing could create a dangerous situation as cattle return home from the range this fall.

The wood has been stolen from the sides of highway underpasses that allow cows to cross beneath the Coquihalla, explained Boon. “Imagine 200 head of cattle trying to funnel through (when) they find a break in the fence. They could end up on the highway.”

The speed limit on the Coquihalla Highway south of Merritt is 120 km/h and cows returning from the range typically weigh more than 500 kilograms.

In late August, Merritt RCMP caught three thieves dismantling a cattle corral belonging to the Coquihalla Cattle Company.

Ranch owner Lou Cooke said he drove past his corral one night and returned the next morning to find it destroyed.

Police arrested three Surrey men when they returned to load a pile of sawn boards into a rented truck the next day.

They had already sold some of the wood to a Lower Mainland lumber company.

“It’s aged by the sun and the wind, and now it’s considered decorative,” said Cooke.

The rancher has had to make do this fall with wire fencing and without the use of certain highway underpasses. It will cost as much as $50,000 to replace the wood.

“We don’t make that much profit in a year,” said Cooke, who is working with the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association to petition the province to mend the highway fences.

Boon said the province installed the fencing when the Coquihalla was built, but maintenance falls to the ranchers who use the range land. The agreement didn’t anticipate wood bandits.

Meanwhile, business is booming at The Barn House Company in Abbotsford, which sells reclaimed wood to builders.

The company sources its wood from old granaries being torn down on the Prairies, said owner Caleb Clement. They receive several calls a week from people looking for weathered wood, including custom home builders.

“The wood really warms up a room,” he said. Clement sells the old siding for $7 a square foot, while a thinner, milled product sells for $12 a square foot.