Topic: Theft - what can we do about it?

[Squash64]

I've had another report of produce being stolen from plots.
This time it is very large onions which were being grown for a competition.
Recently people have told me that marrows, squash, rhubarb and spinach have been taken too.

In most cases the things stolen were visible from the front of the plots.

It would seem that it's an 'inside job' because there have been no sign of
break-ins.

I'm sure this sort of thing happens on other sites, but is there anything we
can do about it?  I hate the thought that things are being stolen by one of
our own, but I suppose there is no reason why we should be different from
society in general.

Any thoughts or advice anyone?

[pumkinlover]

Horrid! Is it the same chap who had them stolen last year?
I hope someone has some useful ideas- unfortunately apart from surveillance I cannot.

[Digeroo]

I find theft very frustrating. This year I have lost strawberries, raspberries and rhubarb and cabbages over the winter.

I sprinkle my crops with my secret anti theft powder.  It certainly seems to have saved my leeks last year.

I have let it be known I use urine as fertilizer and that seems to have done the trick.

We unfortunately have very little security so I it is difficult to know who is the culprit.  Though I suspect one of the plot holders.

[Squash64]

Horrid! Is it the same chap who had them stolen last year?
I hope someone has some useful ideas- unfortunately apart from surveillance I cannot.

Yes PL, it's the same chap.  Unfortunately he is seriously ill in hospital
at the moment and his wife is not going to tell him because he will
get really upset.

[Squash64]

.
I have let it be known I use urine as fertilizer and that seems to have done the trick.

That idea is strangely appealing! 

[Digeroo]

Unfortunately he is seriously ill in hospital

  Are you saying that while someone is seriously ill in hospital that someone has taken their crops. That is very low indeed.

[patchworkperson]

It is sad & frustrating that people have to steal.

[Squash64]

Unfortunately he is seriously ill in hospital

  Are you saying that while someone is seriously ill in hospital that someone has taken their crops. That is very low indeed.

It's awful.
He may never be well enough to come back to the plot, but his wife
will always know about it.

[galina]

Horrid! Is it the same chap who had them stolen last year?
I hope someone has some useful ideas- unfortunately apart from surveillance I cannot.

Yes PL, it's the same chap.  Unfortunately he is seriously ill in hospital
at the moment and his wife is not going to tell him because he will
get really upset.

Is he the chap whose eyesight is very poor?  But who takes extraordinary care with his giant vegetables?  Did he have prize runnerbeans going missing a few years ago?  This is definitely not stealing for the pot (which isn't excusable either, but somewhat more understandable), this is just plain envy and wanting to spoil it for others. 

Hope he comes out of hospital and gets to enjoy his plot again.  This is so sad,  quite upset reading about this. 

Sorry - what you can do about it?  I guess talking to everybody about it and putting it in the newsletter and talking about it at the AGM etc.  Eventually somebody somewhere on the site will have seen something or remember something.  Talking about it might get a bit of a 'neighbourhood watch' spirit going amongst other plot holders.  People casting an eye over other plots.  Can they approach you or others on the committee in confidence if they see something odd?  Do they know that they can?

[Squash64]

Is he the chap whose eyesight is very poor?  But who takes extraordinary care with his giant vegetables?  Did he have prize runnerbeans going missing a few years ago?  This is definitely not stealing for the pot (which isn't excusable either, but somewhat more understandable), this is just plain envy and wanting to spoil it for others. 

Hope he comes out of hospital and gets to enjoy his plot again.  This is so sad,  quite upset reading about this.

Unfortunately he has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer so he has that to cope
with as well as going blind.

You could well be right about the envy.  It almost makes me wonder if it's worth doing
the 'heaviest' competitions.

[shirlton]

Betty. I do know that Gordon took an onion from Dougs plot to enter in the heaviest onion class in the veg show for him because we all knew that he was going to enter one.

[galina]

Betty. I do know that Gordon took an onion from Dougs plot to enter in the heaviest onion class in the veg show for him because we all knew that he was going to enter one.

I so hope that this is the explanation!  Another plotholder's kindness rather than theft.

[Golach]

How awful.  I hope, reading the threads, that it is kindness rather than theft.

We had something a bit strange at our allotments yesterday.  Ours are fairly secure with high, spiky fencing and barbed wire across the tops of the high gates.  I'd just driven through and was parking the car while son locked the gate behind us.  Just as Ian was about to lock the gate, a car came up.  The driver said he was only going to be 10 minutes so Ian let him through.  Not much else he could have done.  I didn't take much notice as I was getting the tools out of the car.  However, my son was a bit suspicious and locked the gates behind the car.  A couple of hours later, the car was still there.  Ian thought that as soon as we made to leave, so would the other car.  He was right.  By this time we'd already just locked the gate and sure enough, the car appeared.  We took off.  Too bad if whoever was locked in!

Being of suspicious minds we went back about 10 minutes later.  The gate was closed and no sign of the other car.  I had to turn our car so went further down the road.  Ian told me to stop and he would check the lock.  The chain was round the gates but the padlock wasn't fastened.  It was obviously an allotment holder as he would have had to have a key to unlock the gates to get his car out.

We wondered if he had deliberately left the gates unlocked so that someone else could go in and help themselves.

I know there has been theft recently as I was warned off that if I put up a shed, never to leave tools or valuables in it.

I'm going to the allotment meeting this week so will tell one of the committee members about it.

[Squash64]

Betty. I do know that Gordon took an onion from Dougs plot to enter in the heaviest onion class in the veg show for him because we all knew that he was going to enter one.

But two onions are missing, I'm sure Gordon would only have picked one.
I will email him and ask.