Conventional wisdom is that most allotment break-ins are in the search for things to sell, particularly power tools. After all, it's hardly likely that people leave piles of cash lying round their shed. I'm starting to get baffled though.
Last Thursday, a number of sheds were broken into. The only things that went were a petrol lawn mower ( there's always one who ignores the advice about keeping power tools on site ) and a new hose reel. So far, a normal break-in. However, the night before last they broke into our brick built machine store. It has a very high security padlock so they dismantled the wall it's secured to ( if they put half as much effort into a job they wouldn't need to steal ). Inside they will have found
2 petrol lawn mowers
3 petrol strimmers
2 petrol hedge trimmers
1 generator
1 angle grinder
1 rotavator
Imagine with what trepidation I opened the door when I realised they'd been into the shed, only to find
2 petrol lawn mowers
3 petrol strimmers
2 petrol hedge trimmers
1 generator
1 angle grinder
1 rotavator.
So what on earth were they looking for? DVD players? computers? Piles of cash? I can only conclude they were looking for some seeds they couldn't find at Wilko.
So I spent yesterday morning rebuilding the wall, and because the cement would still be soft, I took a walk around the site at 10.30 last night. Oh, joy! At last I heard someone actually breaking into a shed. Do I fetch the machete and make them ex-burglars? No, I phone the police. At last we're going to catch someone.
40 minutes later, in response to a 'First Available Officer' flag ( courtesy of a friend of mine who works at Police Control ) 4 policemen and 2 policewomen arrive. We then wait another 20 minutes for a dog handler to arrive. Of course, by this time, matey has long gone and I'm left wishing I'd gone the machete route ( heck, with 17 acres to play with you could hide hundreds of bodies, and think what good it might do in a bean row ).
Apropos the main story, when the dog handler did check the site, he found two cars in the car park. One belonging to a tenant, and the other containing the said tenant, and a lady, not his wife. I can't wait to see his face when he next visits the site LOL