A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the criminal penalty for cutting, injuring, or removing another's timber.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑135 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑135.  Cutting, injuring, or removing another's timber.
If any person not being the bona fide owner thereof, shall knowingly and willfully cut down, injure or remove any standing, growing or fallen tree or log, the property of another, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. If the person commits a second or subsequent offense, and the value of the timber is two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) or more, the person shall be guilty of a Class I felony."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2007, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.