Torgelow (dpa / mv) – The police in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district are investigating suspected wood thieves. As a police spokesman said on Thursday, the suspects were surprised on Tuesday in a forest between Torgelow and Liepgarten illegally dismantling beech trunks. The reporter and a district forester wanted to confront the couple, whereby the suspicious man is said to have fled with his chainsaw. The 38-year-old suspect was found along with her car. She comes from the region and has to answer for theft. The fugitive is still being sought.
The background to the incident is likely to be the current energy price increases. Wood theft has increased in connection with the cost increases for natural gas and heating oil throughout the federal state, as stated at a citizens’ forum of the MV state government in Waren at the end of November. This can also be observed in the Vorpommern-Greifswald region, said the spokesman. However, suspects are rarely caught.
Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) announced at the forum that she would examine how increasing timber theft from MV forests can be prevented. A forestry expert had complained that citizens were illegally taking more and more waste wood out of forests, which was particularly observed in the Feldberg region.
