Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995                   TAG: 9501110075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HEY! THAT'S MY TREE YOU'RE SELLING

So when about 40 Christmas trees turned up missing from their Williamson Road lot Dec.6, James and Joseph Snyder climbed in a pickup truck and took a drive around Roanoke.

They knew exactly what to look for - freshly cut Fraser firs with a distinctive style and trim, and with the grower's signature, an ``X,'' marked on their trunks.

Joseph Snyder saw them first, lined up in the front yard of a Plantation Road house with a ``For Sale'' sign posted next to them. He and his brother recognized the trees right away, Joseph Snyder said, by ``the way they were styled; the way they were trimmed.''

``A tree is a tree to some people,'' James Snyder said. ``But I can tell them when I see them.''

After the Snyders testified Tuesday in Roanoke General District Court, a judge found there was probable cause to believe that their trees were stolen. A grand larceny charge against Ronceverte Powell IV, 36, was certified to a grand jury.

It was the only case of Christmas tree thievery that prosecutor Gerald Teaster or Assistant Public Defender Roger Dalton could recall, but James Snyder said such holiday heists are all too common.

Snyder remembered going to his lot one night after hours and catching a man stuffing a tree into his car trunk. The man explained that he was only checking to see if the tree would fit before returning the next day to buy it.

But in terms of the number of trees taken, Snyder said, nothing compares to the Dec.6 haul.

Powell did not testify at Tuesday's hearing, but Detective J.L. Sutor of the Roanoke Police Department summarized a statement he took from the defendant: Powell told police a former co-worker, whom he did not know by name, showed up at his house one day with a truckload of trees, Sutor testified.

The friend offered to sell them for $10 each, promising Powell that he could make three times that amount. The friend agreed to leave the trees there and collect the money later, but he never returned, Powell told police.

In certifying the case, Judge William Broadhurst said he had some problems with that account.

``The explanation that he decided to open up a Christmas tree business, just out of the blue and in the middle of the season ... frankly is suspicious and does not sound reasonable to the court,'' Broadhurst said.