Topic: theft

[stig]

Went down the big garden yesterday to find lots of fellow lotties stringing out barbed wire all over the site.
yes you guessed some b****d had broken into some sheds!
and yes mine was one of them spade/forks still there but the bag i kept all the little tools that you need was gone ,you know your favourite knife dibber etc!nothing expensive but very frustrating to say the least!!!
police have shown no interest.
do any of you lot have any tips for keeping your site safe apart from a watchtower and a shotgun patrol (one guy was considering that!)

[Lauren S]

Isn't that so frustrating. I would be checking the next local car boot sale. You might just find out who stole your things  :(

[cambourne7]

unfortunalty as many ways as you can think of hiding thing they will find them.

I take most stuff home with me and what i leave aka old shovel, hoe etc i hide in weeds or compost bin where they will only find stuff my stumbeling upon it.

Anything i think i cant aford to loose i take back home and if i know i am not going to be on site for a couple of weeks i will clear most stuff out.

This is more for the shed being distroyed by high winds and the contents being sent all over my plot rather than worrying about theft.

Sorry to hear that you have lost things and not wanting to rub salt into the wound but you might want to tell your barbed wire weilding lotty holder that he could be in trouble if the people breaking in hurt themselves on it. (Yes i know the world has gone mad). Get him to put signs up and then he might be ok.

Camborune7

[cambourne7]

..... yesterday when i was at the plot one of the guys came over to me to tell me his greenhouse had been broken into.

The stole his greenhouse heater and gas tank these have been sitting in his greenhouse for months and the stange thing was that they stole or broke nothing else and the site was locked up. There is a horrible feeling that this has been taken my another allotment holder as this is the time of the year when people are kicked off there plots but this guy keeps himself to himself and is a lovley guy so we dont think it was a personal attack. The heater new was £110!!

[cornykev]

Landmines Stig.  >:(     ;D ;D ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

We had a nasty incident a year or two ago where someone had his polytunnel well and truly slashed, and a second plot was vandalised as well. A previous tenant had been kicked off the polytunnel plot, and the other belonged to the comittee member responsible for lettings. So we put two and two together, but unfortunately that didn't amount to proof.

[stig]

Landmines Stig.  >:(     ;D ;D ;D

hey..nice idea might blow up a few weeds at the same time!!

[ACE]

There is a nifty gadget that farmers use that fires a blank shotgun cartridge when the wire is tripped or pulled when fixed to a door. It sounds like they are being shot at and you can garantee they do not wait around waiting for the second shot.

But a cheap version of this can be made by hooking a couple of party popper strings to a shed door. These can be carefully reloaded with pepper if you are feeling a bit mean.

[cambourne7]

when i visited the site today found a couple of allotment holders have lost tools and more pumpkins have been distroyed :( Mine is hidden :)

[Pumper]

What I did in the garden some years ago when we had troubles was to use kiddies caps for cap guns. They're red plastic now, and I rigged up a little device inside an old can so they went off when it was tilted or moved. When they went pop, they really went POP!!.

Problem was, although the occasional ASBO recipient had to ask mummy for a new pair of pants, it was mostly cats that copped it :o

The message got around though, don't mess with them, you'll wake everyone up  8)

[kt.]

Some past ideas:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,34816.0.html

[star]

I would love to have a lottie....but this stuff makes me glad I haven't.

I do feel for you stig and everyone else who's been vandalised :(

[stig]

star
dont be put off by these posts ,yes its frustrating ive also been flooded and lost everything this year but you just get on with it.

[angle shades]

 :) you are so right Stig,

we also lost almost everything in the floods and my shed door had been kicked in when I got to plot yesterday, fellow allotmenteers supplied wood and the tools and built me a new shed door,

I painted it today.... but life goes on :)/ shades x