Police say man intentionally cut tree down to fall on new house

EAST SPENCER, N.C. (WBTV) - Police in East Spencer say a man cut down a large tree causing it to fall onto two new houses. Damage to one of the homes is significant.

The damaged homes are on Third Street in East Spencer.

According to police, the damage was discovered last week when a realtor took a potential client to see the house. Damage was estimated at $250,000, and the home will likely have to be razed.

East Spencer Police Chief John Fewell said that the tree that caused the heavy damage was the second tree that had been cut near the new homes.

“Yes,” Chief Fewell said, “there were two calls. Initial call came out and then a couple days later another call came out that another tree had been cut down and it actually went through the house.”

Fewell’s investigation led to charges against Charles Ramsey, 37, an East Spencer resident who lives in the area. Ramsey was charged with two felony counts of damage to property.

“Initially he tried to deny it, of course, but with all of the witnesses that we had that came forth to help us out with identifying him, we made a good determination that it was him that did it,” Fewell added. “I’ve seen a lot of unusual crimes. This is the first time seeing something like this.”

No injuries were reported.

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