A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the criminal penalty for cutting, injuring, or removing another's timber resulting in damages that exceed two thousand five hundred dollars.
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 criminal offense as follows:
(1)	If the damage caused by a violation of this section is two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) or less, then the offense is a Class 1 misdemeanor.
(2)	If the damage caused by a violation of this section is more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), then the offense is a Class I felony."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2007, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.