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Years before police cracked down on a drug lab in the North Okanagan community of Spallumcheen, the 21-hectare property had an illegal logging operation. An investor in the operation claims she was defrauded out of $150,000 in a series of overlapping lawsuits.

Randie Lynn Wolfe said she was the one who reported tree poaching on the property and claims she only learned of the illegal logging after she had invested into the operation and was kicked off the property once the payments were up, which happened before the drug lab even started.

"They didn't just take my money, they took my future," she said.

Now that the province is manoeuvring to seize the property for its use as a drug manufacturing lab, Wolfe fears she may never see that money again.

Wolfe was the first to file in civil court against the owners of the Spallumcheen property, claiming she should be entitled to a 25 per cent stake in the property if it were sold because of her investment, staggered in payments over a few years, according to court documents.

She said the tenant at 1615 Reservoir Road, Terrence Chaplin, approached her to invest in the logging operation, initially posing as the owner. She knew him through work elsewhere and he suggested Wolfe could open some sort of business on the property with the timber proceeds.

Wolfe said she planned to start an event venue on the mountainside acreage once the logging was completed.

According to her December 2023 petition to the court, her payments often varied from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. She said the first payment, around $30,000, was used to buy a Bobcat for moving timber.

"We were going to develop the mountain and make me my little slice of heaven, and then also clean out the property and make money on firewood sales," she said.

She alleges Chaplin started using drugs and buying them with her money, but logging did continue. Two men would head out to cut trees, while she was one of a few people cutting the timber in a more central area on the property, which was later sold as firewood.

"It wasn't my decision where the money went, but I helped him out when he asked for money to go toward what he needed it for," she said. "And I regretted making this deal almost immediately because it was obvious (the logging crews) were not upstanding, wonderful citizens, but I was already invested."

Wolfe said she stayed involved because she expected there may be a return in the end, adding that she wasn't the only person who invested into the logging operation, but she wasn't sure why no one else had come forward due to their losses.

"He was clean and sober when I made the decision to invest with (Chaplin), so I didn't know what this was going to turn into," she said. "I was holding my end of the bargain and when everything started showing itself, like his drug problem, I tried to bring him to rehab, I took him to the clinic, I made appointments for him. He was a child-baby who was bossing me around the whole time while he was indulging."

She also claimed she suspected the owners, particularly Gus Adams of Kelowna, were aware of the logging operation as they would have applied to the province for permission to transport the wood once it was cut.

The owners, however, denied giving permission for or having awareness of the logging operation, along with any deal Chaplin might have made with Wolfe. Their lawyer, Kimberley Allardyce, said Wolfe hadn't proven any of her claims in court, but Allardyce could not speak to Wolfe's relationship with Chaplin.

The Ministry of Forests refused to comment on the matter due to the ongoing civil forfeiture lawsuit regarding the drug lab.

Wolfe said Chaplin assaulted her and kicked her off the property in 2022, once she had put more than $100,000 into the logging work, and she never saw any profit from the firewood sales.

When Chaplin originally approached her, she said she felt lucky to have the business opportunity. It was "like a gift from the universe." Since it fell apart, Wolfe said she was forced to sell her home and now lives in a motorhome, which was also recently impounded.

"I feel like an idiot. I can't even believe I was so stupid," she said. "I used to have some stability, financial security. Now I'm just... broke and it's just getting worse."

The property is now the subject of multiple overlapping lawsuits, starting in 2023 with her petition to the court and the Township of Spallumcheen just days later. The town sought an injunction after multiple bylaw infractions, largely due to construction, land alteration and tree removal without permits. According to court documents submitted by the property owners, the town also tried to buy the property months earlier, but the deal fell through because Chaplin hadn't been evicted yet.

Earlier this year, the owners filed a civil claim against Chaplin and Wolfe, seeking costs for the enforcement action and work without permission. More recently, the province filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against the owners and Chaplin, aiming to seize the property for its use hosting a drug lab, which the owners said started in 2024 when Chaplin sub-leased a garage to "a third party."

Wolfe she tipped off the ministry and the Township of Spallumcheen to the illegal logging, and garbage that was being buried on the property.

According to her, drone footage revealed the crew at the property was cutting trees from neighbouring properties in addition to those on the mountainside acreage.

iNFOnews.ca attempted to reach Chaplin by phone and through his firewood business' social media page, but got no response.

None of the claims have been proven in court.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Levi Landry or call 250-819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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