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T SOUNDED too good to be true. It was. A lumber wholesaler recently received a letter from a company calling itself the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The correspondence promised the reader huge compensation for unidentified invoicing errors by "foreign oil contractors/suppliers." Naturally, some fees had to be paid first.

"It's a complete piece of baloney," said North American Wholesale Lumber Association executive Nick Kent.

"The guy tried the same kind of thing about nine months ago. I assume he wanted you to pony up some money and then, toodle-loo."

Beware of such schemes, NAWLA legal counsel warns, and report them to the U.S. District Attorney. Previously, the lumber business has been relatively safe from scams. "Our industry is not that creative," Kent mused. "They just order a truckload of lumber and don't pay for it."

But in recent months lumber com-

Lumber Truck Thieves Are Backl

After a nearly l0-mgnth absence, the Southern Californii lumber truck robbers have retumed - stealing seven trucks in 15 days.

Following the larest heist Feb. 23 at Nichols Lumber, BalAtin iark, police arrested seven Hispanics caught loading,,plywood from the ground onto their own flatbed tiuck at a Los Angetes truck stop in ttre vicinity where many of the stolen trucks were recovered.

The first officers to arrive on the scene left after the men sho*ed them a forged receipt from Champion Lumber; Riverside. The yard dispatcher was called to the scene to testify that the receipt was a fake, piobably from a yard ticket book Ieft in a truck stolen three days earlier.: panies have fallen victim to more complex lumber scams, such as the "bust out." As a former con artist explained, "A good bust out is an illusion where you paint a picture that I am going to buy your merchandise and sell your merchandise, but I'm not going to pay the bills. There isn't a salesperson around who doesn't like large orders." The cheat worked such scams for years, having phony deals going at up to five different locations at one time.

Detective Ray Atlen said police had to rElease the suspects because they had ,yet to prove that the wood was stolen and the: men were iware of the fact. The problem, he said, is the lumber companies' "faiiure to mark lumber in any identifiable way. They bave to come up with some kind of system to prove it's their wood."

Police identified and took photos of all suipects, mostly Baja, MexiCo, residents. "We have a file on: the main guy, and he's not going anywhere. He runs a fairly large business, selling salvage sir*s and toilets and renting out a yard for trucks," said Allen. "But these are the ones who bought (the wood) not the ones who stole it."

Riek Deen, Nichols Lumber, said the confiscated plywood is the type stolen fiom his company, after bandits blasted his two security dogs with sevqn fi re extinguishers.

Two trucks were taken from Ch4mpion, with one discoveied the next day. "They had it so overloaded with plywood thaf I think the driver got scared and abandoned the truck with the material on it," said Roger lnvesee.

In the early morning of Feb. 9, thieves broke into Ganahl Lumber Co., Anaheim, and stole a loaded truck. The vehicle was recovered in Los Angeles the next day, with gang graffiti scrawled on the dashboard.

Two days later, the bandirs hit Reliable Wholesale Lumber, Huntington Beach, cutting through the gate, disarming various secuiity systems, unloading a truck and reloading it with choice ma0erials.

After a heist a year ago, Reliable seriously heightened security. "We had everything known to man," said an exasperated Randy Richards. "Police still haven't found the truck; Last time it took them a week."

Universal Forest Products, Huntington Beach, was the next victim, where early Feb. 18 robbers used one of Universal's forklifts to unload a bobtail truck and reload it'with select plywood. They then tagged bathroom walls with gang+ype symbols, profanities and the message "Thanks for the wood," The vehicle was recovered a few days later.

Hours after the Universal heist, thieves revisited Ganahl, unloading the truck stolen a week earlier and restocking it with 5/8" plywood. An employee arrived at the yard about 5:30 a.m., just as the criminals werb leaving, but was unable to:follow them. The empry truck was found abandoned near the Santa Ana Freeway with a flat tire.

A retail lumber yard in Orange County, Ca., was approached by a buyer who claimed he was from a San Bernardino County lumber company. He wanted to purchase 10 lifts of plywood and supplied credit information that seemed to check out. The buyer arrived to pick up the plywood with his own equipment.

The Orange County yard sent an invoice, but the San Bernardino company said they not only didn't buy the plywood, "we have never even contacted you people for a price quote."

The San Bernardino firm had received a query from someone who wanted to sell them some plywood, but first needed credit information. The credit history was furnished to the supposed seller, who in turn altered the information and used it to purchase the 10 lifts of plywood from the Orange County yard. He changed the phone numbers on the credit information, so calls were placed to a number that

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Story at a Glance

Cons are on the rise in the lumber industry ... recent schemes to watch out for.