JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa — An eastern Iowa man has been accused of illegally chopping down over 100 trees that weren’t his.

According to court records, back in April the Iowa Department of Natural Resources was notified of possible tree theft at a rural Johnson County property. The property owner told DNR officers that he noticed several trees on his property had been chopped down earlier this year.

The property owner also told the DNR that his neighbor, who was a crop lease tenant identified as Tyler Robert Rogers, claimed that a logger friend had gotten “carried away” and chopped down trees that belonged to the property owner, court records state. Later, Rogers allegedly gave the property owner a check for $30,000.

Court records state that the property owner had the felled trees appraised, and was informed that the trees were worth over $109,000.

It was later discovered that the logging company who chopped down the trees allegedly sold the trees to a lumber company for over $98,000 and that the logger made out a check to Rogers for over $59,000, approximately 60% of the total sale, according to court records. The logging company also allegedly told the property owner that Rogers had claimed the trees were his and had given them permission to chop them down.

According to court records, a total of 132 trees that didn’t belong to Rogers were chopped down for lumber.

On Tuesday, Rogers was charged with one count of first-degree theft – deceive labor/service/property $10,000+ and three counts of timber buyer – violation of surety or accounting requirements. He has since bonded out of jail and is scheduled to be arraigned on September 12.