A trio of thieves were caught red-handed Wednesday (Aug. 24) after string of thefts along the Coquihalla Highway had ranchers at a local cattle company shaking their heads.

Six cattle corrals on Coquihalla Cattle Company land had been taken down and the boards stolen since Aug. 21.

More than 1,000 wooden boards have been taken, said Marilyn Cooke, owner of the ranch.

“We realized one corral was done Sunday. Yesterday, my husband was driving home and the next underpass was taken. This morning, he drives the Coquihalla and the third underpass was all gone, so they worked all night last night taking it,” she said on Aug. 24.

With the police notified about the theft, Sgt. Norm Fleming and the Merritt RCMP began to hatch a plan to catch the thieves on Wednesday afternoon.

“We were in the midst of putting a plan together, because they had left a substantial pile of lumber, and we assumed they’d be coming back to pick it up,” explained Fleming. “We had put together an operational plan, we were going to do a set up starting at three o’clock, and have lookout points… We were quite interested in getting these guys.”

Anticipating that the men might return during the night or early morning hours, police set out to set up security cameras in the afternoon ahead of the planned sting. Only it turned out the sting wasn’t necessary.

“Yesterday around two o’clock, one of constables was driving out there to set up some cameras, and lo and behold, they were there cleaning that lumber up,” said Fleming. “We quickly set up a perimeter and a couple of them attempted to dash up hill and hide in the trees, but that became problematic… So they pretty much gave themselves up without any incident.”

Three men were arrested on scene, all around their late forties to early fifties, said Fleming, adding that all three men were from Surrey and known to the RCMP in the Lower Mainland.

The thefts represent not only a major headache for the ranchers, but also a potential safety hazard for motorists along the highway, as without the corrals, the cattle could find their way onto the road.

“The highway guys have said they will come by and patch it up so the cows won’t get on the highway, but we don’t know what we’re gonna do,” said Cooke. “We’ve got a lot [of cattle] home that we don’t really want home. They’re not due home until the end of September or October.”

The corrals had been built by the provincial government when the Coquihalla Highway was originally constructed, but reside on property owned by the Coquihalla Cattle Company, explained Cooke.

Given rough estimates on the value of the boards, Fleming said that police are recommending charges of theft over $5,000 for the three men.

“It’s unreal — I can’t believe it,” said Cooke. “I don’t understand what the attraction is.”

But Fleming explained that there is market for reclaimed, weathered wood like the boards stolen from the Coquihalla Cattle Company. The three men had been selling the stolen wood to a lumber company based in the Lower Mainland — and even produced receipts detailing their sales to local RCMP after being arrested, Fleming added.

“It’s still in great shape, it’s well aged, it’s weathered. Reclaimed material is certainly very popular — barn board, wood siding, that type of thing. It gets treated, put together and milled up nicely, it makes for a lovely floor or feature wall or that sort of thing,” Fleming noted.

Despite buying stolen lumber, Fleming said he didn’t think the company had knowledge of the wood’s origins. Still, details about the company would be forwarded to RCMP in the Lower Mainland for further investigation.

All in all, Fleming said it was one of the more unusual cases he’s seen in Merritt. Wood theft is popular in other areas of the province, particularly in cedar-rich areas on Vancouver Island, but this was the first case of lumber theft he’s dealt with in the five years he’s been in Merritt.