The board had voted 4-0 to formally notify Karen that her use of my wood pile without permission was a community standards violation and that further incidents would be referred to law enforcement. The wood had continued disappearing for 3 more months. In month nine, I had consulted with Garrett about the deterrent compound.
He used it professionally. He understood its properties: non-toxic, non-harmful, intensely unpleasant for a brief period, producing no lasting physical effects. I had said, "If someone handled treated wood and experienced the deterrent effect, would there be any harm to them?" He said, "None. The compound is food safe in the sense that it won't poison anyone.
It's used in food packaging to deter rodents. The effect is immediate and memorable and completely transient." I said, "And if they were selecting from a stack and chose treated wood?" He said, "They would know immediately that something was wrong with that piece." I said, "And if they tried multiple pieces?"
He said, "They would have a very clear and direct communication about the nature of the wood pile." I had ordered the compound the following week. I had applied it to the bottom 16 rows over two weekends in month 10. I had documented every step, the purchase receipt, the application process, the specific pieces treated, the plug and stain process, the photographic record. I had also applied nothing to the top three rows.
The top rows were clean wood: untreated, visible from the fence line. I had planned this with the same care I planned every operational system I designed. The top rows were real because I wanted Karen to take from the top rows first to confirm to the camera that the behavior was continuing before she reached the treated rows. The treated rows were not a punishment. They were a deterrent, the specific and direct communication that Garrett had described.
And they were documentation. The moment Karen experienced the deterrent and responded, the camera would record her response, and that recording would be the most unambiguous documentation of all, not photographs of wood missing from a stack, but footage of Karen in direct physical contact with my property that she had taken without permission. The knock came at 2:41. I opened the door. Karen was standing on my porch.
She had two pieces of treated wood in her hands. Her expression was the specific expression of a person who has encountered something they did not expect and have not yet decided how to process it. She said, "What is in this wood?" I said, "A commercial wildlife deterrent compound, non-toxic, non-harmful, applied to my property to deter unauthorized removal." She said, "You did this on purpose."
I said, "I applied a deterrent compound to my firewood to prevent theft. Yes." She said, "This is entrapment." I said, "Entrapment is a legal concept that applies to law enforcement inducing someone to commit a crime they would not otherwise commit. You have been taking my firewood for 11 months.