Homeowner distraught after waking up to stranger's nearly destructive act: 'I contacted the police'

A Reddit user's 100-year-old oak tree remained safe and sound after an extremely close call, but for completely understandable reasons, they still sought legal advice on the platform.

Anyone who has managed to avert a crisis through sheer luck and divine timing could relate to the original poster, who shared their near-miss and asked for assistance on Reddit's r/treelaw.

"Help! Woke up to someone trying to cut down my 100 yr old oak 'by mistake,'" the poster's title declared.

An attached photograph simply depicted two business cards, but the rest of their post provided context for the image.

According to the original poster, they'd just woken up and taken their dogs out when they heard someone speaking in their front yard.

"I opened the gate to see a guy in my front yard ([he] had to open the gate to get in) with equipment strewn all over my yard, getting ready to start cutting down my GORGEOUS 100+ yr old oak tree," the user continued.

After the poster spoke to them in "all caps and peppered with expletives," the stranger drove off, leaving a rope and carabiners on the oak tree.

"I contacted the police who elected at first to do nothing," the original poster explained, adding that after a "second call," a police officer informed them that they'd contacted the individual from the interaction and confirmed it had been a mistake.

As the original poster repeatedly stated, the tree in question was more than a century old and was thus impossible to replace had it been cut down, which very nearly happened.

Trees aren't just decorative; they play a crucial role in the ecosystem. Oregon Tree Care detailed the myriad consequences of cutting a healthy tree down, including habitat loss, harm to native plants, and increased pollution that would otherwise have been removed by the oak.

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Other users pointed out that the century-old tree was valuable, and poachers could have been to blame.

"Oak is an extremely valuable wood for furniture so this could absolutely be poaching," a user observed.

"You're wondering why fly-by-night tree cutting companies cut down *highly* valuable trees worth thousands of dollars and haul them away without notifying the tree owner? I think the question framed that way answers itself," another wryly stated.

Ultimately, the homeowner was chagrined over the lack of consequences for the near-destruction of their beloved oak tree.

"Had I been not home, out of town, slept in, etc I would have no tree … I HATE that we live in a system where the only time anyone does anything is after there is a dead body," they lamented.

"Make sure they don't use that excuse to try to finish the job. Have them trespassed," another said, referring to the "wrong house" part.

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