Tree theft leaves home owners stumped

MOSCOW – A thief stole some of the Palouse’s Christmas spirit this week.

Someone snuck into the back yard of Lynn Ate and David Ackley’s house in Moscow Monday night and cut down a decorated tree named Albert.

The thief took the top two-thirds of Albert, leaving the bottom of the once 12-foot tree sitting in their yard.

“It’s pretty distressing. It’s just right there in front of us all the time now,” Ate said. “Totally uncaring, cruel people.”

Ackley speculates it was downed with an electric saw given how clean the cut had been.

The tree was tracked using neighborhood door cameras to the University of Idaho campus, according to Ate.

“It surprised me to think that a college student would have brought a nice battery-operated chainsaw, or saw with them,” Ate said. “But who knows, they might have. They obviously planned well in advance; they very nicely unplugged the lights.”

Albert was planted around eight years ago.

“We enjoyed it all year long, and it was functional,” she said. “We put it there to absorb sound from the street because we’re on a corner, and there’s a stop sign there.”

The tree was a Fat Albert Blue Spruce, hence the name Albert. Blue Spruces tend to grow up to 15 feet tall 15 years after planting, according to plant seller Monrovia.

Moscow police Capt. David Hathaway said he has never seen anything like this theft in his time in Moscow.

“Years past, people would go around up on campus and cut down trees to try to use for their Christmas trees instead of buying one or going out and getting one where it was legal to do so,” he said. “As far as cutting down and taking somebody’s tree from their front yard, that one’s a new one for me.”

The tree caper would fall under the state trespassing code, Hathaway said. The levels of code would depend on the value of the tree.

Ate intends to pursue legal action against whoever took the tree

“I have high hopes they’ll find who did it and that I’ll take them to court,” Ate said. “I want full reparations; I don’t care how much it cost.”

Until then, she wants to plant another tree.

“I would like to replant something,” she said. “I would like to try and get something as tall as possible, so that not start from little again, as I say, I want something nice that used to be there, pretty tall, and if I can sue them and get them to pay for it, that’s better.”