Police Seek Answers in Tree Top Mystery

[April 12, 2008]  BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Officials are baffled over why someone would cut off the tops of nearly a dozen evergreen trees belonging to a man near Bismarck. Ron Koch estimates his loss at about $4,000. Authorities said it happened sometime within the last week.

"Some of them, they cut off 3, 4, 5, 6 feet," Koch said. "These have been growing 12 to 13 years. So it takes a long time to grow evergreens this big."

Burleigh County Sheriff's Lt. Nick Sevart said authorities get reports like that around Christmas time but he has no idea why someone would do it now.

"They left the tree tops there," Sevart said.

"It's kind of a weird case," he said. "For the life of me, I don't know what anybody got out of it. He (Koch) doesn't seem to think anybody was mad at him."

Koch is offering a $500 reward for information.

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Information from: KFYR-TV, http://kfyrtv.com

[Associated Press]

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