A Blue Spruce tree was cut and taken from Ryan and Malynn Codr’s yard north of Seward sometime last week, leaving a noticeable hole in their tree line. They believe whomever took the tree was looking for a Christmas tree to take home.
A Blue Spruce tree was cut and taken from Ryan and Malynn Codr’s yard north of Seward sometime last week, leaving a noticeable hole in their tree line. They believe whomever took the tree was looking for a Christmas tree to take home.
Ryan and Malynn Codr had a strange encounter last Monday, Dec. 2.
When Ryan was walking their puppy, he noticed something strange in their treeline—or rather, out of their tree line.
Someone had stolen one of the trees out of their yard north of Seward.
“It was pretty bizarre,” Malynn said.
The L-shaped treeline made up of 15-20 trees was missing one of its 9-foot-tall Blue Spruces.
Nothing but a few inches of stump remained in the ground, leaving a gap in the continuum of otherwise healthy and thriving trees.
The Codrs suspect someone was hunting for a Christmas tree and decided to take their spruce home with them, but other than the straight cut from the hunter’s saw and a few wood shavings scattered about, they don’t have much evidence of who the alleged thief may be.
Malynn said the tree was probably taken sometime between Wednesday, Nov. 27, and Monday, Dec. 2, when they noticed it was gone.
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The little bit of snow that blew through over the weekend had melted by then, so they didn’t see any footprints or tire tracks.
They reported it to the sheriff’s office anyway.
“We don’t really have a day or vehicle or anything to go on, but we thought if it happens to anybody else, it’d be good just to have a police report out there,” Malynn said.
The tree line is only about 50 yards from their house north of Seward, Malynn said, and the tree that was cut was several trees in from the side of the road.
“If somebody cut down a random tree in a field or a ditch, you probably wouldn’t think much of it,” she said.
But the Codrs put a year’s worth of work into the tree that was taken, along with the others around it.
The trees were about 5 feet tall when they transplanted them three years ago.
“We were watering every day for a week, every week for a month, every month for a year, about 25 to 30 minutes per tree just to make sure they lived,” Malynn said.
Aside from their time and water, the Codrs invested money to plant the trees, which can cost a couple hundred dollars each.
Then, there’s the cost to have the old stump removed with a spade to not damage the surrounding tree roots, and then have the new tree planted.
“Some people kind of laughed at our price, but we were quoted $950 before tax,” Malynn said.
They’re hoping the person who cut down the tree will apologize if it was an accident, and maybe even reimburse them for the tree.
“People do go out Christmas tree hunting because they like the live trees,” Malynn said. “Make sure you’re not cutting down something someone put a lot of work into. Ask for permission.”
