Author Topic: Thief! Why? (Read 5177 times)

adamhill100 · « **on:** September 15, 2004, 14:15:28 »

Looks like I have had my first experience of thief up the allotment! A great Hoe my dad made me at work has gone walkies... Not the run of the mill hoe you buy up the garden centre either.. I should be thankful thats all they took.! Why do it? I know its not a real big deal but would be nice to be able to feel you can leave stuff lying around without someone pinching it.

gilgamesh · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2004, 15:12:07 »

Leave stuff lying around - no chance.

Even nailing it to the floor doesn't work -they just nick the floor with it.

A friend was putting up some safety signs at work, at the top of a scaffold tower. Drilled & screwed the first side, went to do the other - no joy. Drill not working. Climbed down to investigate & the extension lead was gone .... and that in a factory where they use plugs with the pins at 90 degrees to the ones you buy in the shops.

derbex · « **Reply #2 on:** September 15, 2004, 15:42:56 »

One place I worked you pretty much had to nick 4 bars just to get your project going. You got a task & a timescale but no budget because the project wasn't signed off, can't have anything without a budget, right down extension leads and screws.

They got taken over.

teresa · « **Reply #3 on:** September 15, 2004, 20:17:56 »

Sad when others cannot keep their hands to themselves. But have a good look round just incase someone has hidden it under something.
A new chap down our lottie left a bran new wheelbarrow in full view so I laid it on the ground he had not dug weeds waist high and covered it in a old blanket I found with a couple of branches on top. I just hope he found it afterwards.

Spurdie · « **Reply #4 on:** September 15, 2004, 20:43:20 »

Hi all
I remember when my mum and dad moved to their house 4 years ago, a neighbour told them never to leave garden tools in their garden, and some local drug addicts had been round everyone's gardens and had taken everything they could carry! Including a coal scuttle! Thankfully they've never had any trouble with thefts, but if I'm up digging their garden, I'm always given a lecture about tidying stuff away!

mellie · « **Reply #5 on:** September 16, 2004, 14:27:20 »

I understand how frustrating this is and I sympathise with you totally. When my o h went to our lottie on Sunday morning he found our pumpkins had been pulled up and thrown into the cabbage patch. We have been told it was probably someone on our site who was jealous but of what, they were only the size of a kids ball! I wish I could get my hands on them what done it cos I am very very cross. >:(

busy_lizzie · « **Reply #6 on:** September 16, 2004, 14:43:20 »

It makes you so angry as usually it is so mindless. Unfortunately you are lucky to be an allotment holder and not be either vandalised or have something stolen some time. It can be very heart breaking at times, but you have to learn from it and rise above it, as we have all experienced.

Our Site has just be given some shed bars from Northumbria Police and they are really excellent, as long as you remember to lock everything away in the first place. You can't protect everything though, and sometimes you just have to hope for the best. Sorry about your Dad's Hoe, it is so maddening! >:( busy_lizzie

adamhill100 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 17, 2004, 09:56:14 »

Carol went to pick some beans and Toms yesterday at our allotment yesterday only to be told that Kids had decided to vandalise 2 of the plots down there... The ole boys work bloody hard down there and I really feel sorry for them.

teresa · « **Reply #8 on:** September 17, 2004, 10:56:34 »

We have problems with kids 8-12 year olds one gang of them. A five min walk they could be in our local park with swings slides all free enough room to play football golf. But no they want to do damage.
I have had my shed broken into cabbages damaged and they even eat my sweetcorn not even fully ripe and left the husks on the lottie.
Police know who they are but wont do anything so the blame has to be on the parents.
I have been down the lottie at dusk no one around I know with strangers walking out of the park. The kids out playing down the lane.
One day there going to be attacked then whose fault is it.

Doris_Pinks · « **Reply #9 on:** September 17, 2004, 12:04:09 »

I am going up to my plot today to pick my Pumkin.(earlier than I would like to) Last year someone had all their pumpkins pinched as it got closer to Halloween, no way are they getting my "baby"! (How I am getting it home is quite another matter! :o)

sunflower · « **Reply #10 on:** September 25, 2004, 15:53:01 »

when i got my plot last year my husband made me a compost bin out of pallett wood, i had one pallett spare so i used it too keep all the compostin material in place. within a week that had gone ???. I was also after a bit of old mankey carpet to put on top which my sisters boyfriend very kindly got for me. Next day it had gone ??? >:( Why?!!!

Mimi · « **Reply #11 on:** September 25, 2004, 16:03:41 »

We have just been burgled too. >:( All the sheds at our site have been broken into(presumably looking for electrical goods to sell on) Mine isnt too bad just the window broken and as far as we can tell nothing taken. Roy (my allotment elf) has his shed next to mine and all he has had taken is a pair of mankey old rubber impregnated gloves(glue sniffing) :-\ It isnt just the damage and loss of stuff that gets us as much as the WHY????

Spurdie · « **Reply #12 on:** September 25, 2004, 19:58:22 »

Sunflower, your pallet and carpet MAY have disappeared to your local woods to make a "tree house". There are several half-hearted, and frankly downright dangerous, tree houses in the wood near us. Any old bits of wood, corrugated iron, bits of bedsteads, etc that are left out overnight are pilfered by the local kids to make their dens. Your carpet will have made an ordinary tree house into a "des res"!

Gail-M · « **Reply #13 on:** September 26, 2004, 19:37:28 »

Sorry to hear about your hoe going missing.

Gosh, didn't realise there were so many problems/thefts on plots. As others have already said most of the damage/theft are mindless.Why damage the crops ??

I've left my tools out on our small site for 4 years - but now my trench spade has gone AWOL. Its so annoying as it was really handy for digging holes for posts.

Gail.

teresa · « **Reply #14 on:** September 30, 2004, 19:01:49 »

Ok fellow lottie holders what would you do if you suspect another lottie holder on your plot of pinching your vedge or pulling it up and throwing it on other lotties.
I was warned by another lottie holder yesterday who I do respect and it backs up what one of the local children said a few weeks ago.
I have seen this chap going round the lotties looking at each one when no one is around bit worrying.

ina · « **Reply #15 on:** September 30, 2004, 20:18:52 »

That's a hard one.
There doesn't seem to be anything you could do unless you catch him in the act.

In the mean time, try to get to know the suspect by making small talk and be very friendly to him so he gets to like you. He may be innocent and if not, maybe he'll leave your lottie alone if he likes you.

We had a problem in our complex with people having their choicest crops stolen. Our across the path neighbor, whom we had very good contact with, had been the victim on several occasions while we never had any crops stolen (probably not good enough hahaha).
Mr. C. told me one time that he suspected this man of the stealing and pretending to be victimized to avert suspicion. I got a bit angry with him for even suggesting that about this nice man.
Well, that neighbor got sick and died soon after. I don't want to speak badly of the dead but the stealing did stop.

teresa · « **Reply #16 on:** September 30, 2004, 22:05:01 »

one of the women gardeners is taking her camara down each time now just in case.
The chap in question is blaming the children for doing it but he did not say any of his produce was vandlesied or stolen makes you wonder.

Merete · « **Reply #17 on:** October 02, 2004, 14:56:10 »

I have a very small plot, so I can only grow a few plants of each sort. I was very, very sad when I found that one of my three cabbages had been stolen. It has to be one of the neighbours, the area is surronded with very high fences with spikes on the top, both gates solidly locked.

The person I suspect is an old woman who must spend all her time in the allotment area - I caught her sampling my French beans once, and she is always walking around, poking into other people's allotments, pretending to weed for them. When I caught her picking someone else's kale, she told me that the owner was away on holiday and had said she could pick what she liked - but I'd seen him there the day before!

The problem is that she's been there for 20 years, is in her late seventies and disabled, so no one wants to say anything to her. Advice, anyone?

Steven · « **Reply #18 on:** October 02, 2004, 17:13:58 »

A thief is a thief-no matter what age or gender they are.

Would suggest having a quiet word and letting her know its she has been witnessed.If she still still persists in helpng herself,you should contact the council and let them know and how annoyed you all are.Take some photos of her in the act so there is no room to manorveure.

The allotments local to me usually get invaded by hordes of kids who destroy produce,kill chickens and rob the sheds of tools and the police say they can do very little to stop it! One chap has pallets positioned all round his plot with HUGE lumps of concrete balanced ontop,so if anyone dares mess with them-it will break their legs when they fall!!!

SpeedyMango · « **Reply #19 on:** October 11, 2004, 11:28:10 »

I went to my plot yesterday to tidy up a bit, and found that one of my huge peppers which had very slowly been ripening had disappeared! I can only think that someone had nicked it, as it was cleanly removed from the plant, there were no others damaged or missing, and I can't think of any wild animal that might steal a whole pepper. I am now very worried about the remaining ones, that are also s-l-o-w-l-y going red (and are amazingly unaffected by our current changeable weather).

I'm assuming that peppers won't ripen off the plant? I could just harvest them all but I much prefer red peppers to green.

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Author Topic: Thief! Why? (Read 5177 times)