I love my allotment but the biggest problem and the thing that makes me want to pack it in, is the theft - although the vandalism does it for me, as well.
I've given up growing sweet corn - the last crop was removed just as it ripened. The same year, all my broccoli was nicked and last year, almost every single one of my butternut squash. Again, just as they ripened.
I've also had some filthy s*d pee in my greenhouse, they've smashed the windows in on my shed (now boarded over) and the latest - someone defecated on the little path I've put down to reach my shed.
The eejit (allotment holder) who is supposed to keep an eye on things is useless - all he ever says is "it's the squirrels" although he can't explain how the furry freaks wear boots and use knives...or how they manage to cut and then lift very large squash up into the trees!
I'm not the only one whose had stuff nicked but whoever it is definately has me as his main target, probably because my allotment is at the very end of the site and the shed is well away from the path.
Anybody got any advice?
How totally, utterly, absolutely, soul destroying.
Who do you pay your rent to? Can't they be held responsible for the security of the site? They are obviously happy to take your rent from you, but are not interested when the site is vandalised.
I should have to say the police don't instill much confidence. Too busy chasing 'targets' to bother with real crime.
valmarg
Report it to the police and tell those on the allotment that you have done so.Some community police will help I am sure.
I am so sorry your alloment has been vandelised, It happened to me years ago. I felt that I had been violated, it was about the middle of June when everything was in full growth. I was heartbroken and never went back. They destroyed everything. Yes I can suggest some remedies but they are all against the law. Keep going and maybe someone on the site may see or hear something. I don't know about the law but surely it is classed as crimianl damage. My heart goes out to you.
You must report it to the police, they have even taken forensic evidence at our site, which was then used in court. Frequently it is related to other criminal activity off site so everything they have builds a picture to lead to a prosecution.
Also report it to whoever owns your site in writing. Is the site secure?
OC
belairbel.. go to my post about free seeds in swaps I can send you loads of stuff to help replant XX Jeannine
your allotment association is responsible for ensuring (as much as practicable) the security of your site. write to the management committee (phone calls are seldom any good, write ( and carbon copy) everything down, send a copy to your local borough councillor, and to the local police. report every little incident to the police, the more incidents, the more they have to respond.
don't give up!! ;)
We had minor but annoying vandalism on our site for the three years I have been there (squashes kicked to pieces, bamboo canes stolen, quad bikes ridden over everything, bike ramps set up for cycling over, crops stamped on when we spoke to them about the damage).
Eventually I walked round to the Police Station and reported young lads putting up a tent, who would not answer when 2 of us asked who had given them permission. (Can you believe they asked us to help them because they didn't know how to put up the tent? I was quite sorry for them, and liked to think we could co-exist on this site, but enough is enough).
To my surprise, instead of my being laughed at, a big policeman strung around with radios and night sticks and whatever else they carry, came back with me, and in minutes the boys took down their tents and left the site.
Next thing we knew, our county erected fences and gates and padlocks all around, and the atmosphere is calm and peaceful and nothing disappears any more.
I forgot my key the other day, prowled around the perimeter, and could not get in!
It is sad that these barriers are erected against the rest of the community, but it is very important to report every incident to the police, and eventually critical mass is reached, and they do something about it.
Hi all,
This is a very depressing topic, and I think theft from plots will be a bigger problem as food prices rise.
Firstly report everything to the police and encourage other plot holder to do the same. If this stuff isn`t documented it never happened.
(I have written about it before but ... ) I put up a fence around my number one plot where my sheds, greenhouse and fruit are. Against that I moved a few roses, some gooseberries etc, allowed the raspberries to spread, planted a holly next to my older hawthorn etc. My hedge against the fence is looking really nice now and the roses are doing really well. No-one is going to climb that fence. I did this to stop my stalker (thats another story) and casual browsing but at the very least it will slow down and make life difficult for more detirmined criminals. We put a notice on the gates to remind people to lock them when they leave and most of us do that. In a few weeks I intend to leave an old video camera watching the plot when I leave just on the off chance of catching anybody who shouldn`t be there.
I also postcode everything and remove anything new from its packaging so it has less resale value.
Col
I started to set up a hedge of similar plants before we suddenly got gates and locks, and can strongly recommend goji berries as part of the hedge. No need for it now, but it has become a very productive hedge and the gooseberry cuttings are grown and absolutely laden with fruit.
It cannot be said often enough: report everything to the police.
Our site is a private one and so we have a big solid fence all round. People who are not from the site are not "welcome". The gate is locked at all times (even when people are there often. which is really a bit annoying!). It's a sad reality of life. There are some in nantes that are open air, I don't know if they don't get vandalised, all those tomatoes and cucumbers in the middle of summer must be tempting to steal...
Working on the principal that your average thief is an unemployed (else he'd have the money to buy his own) lowlife scum (else he wouldn't steal) what my Dad did when I was a lad was pretty ingenious...
He had a spate of pilfering...
So, he had printed a notice that was laminated and affixed to the posts of the fence around his plot... I cannot remember the 'exact' wording as were talking 30 years ago but this is the basic gist of it...
To Whom It May Concern,
To combat the thievery thats been happening on this allotment site, if you are the thief reading this, may I draw your attention and suggest you research the contents of this notice...
As you may know Rhubarb leaves are poisonous and contain a toxin called Oxalic Acid..? It is very simple to extract and concentrate this acid which is then as lethal as Cyanide...
If I were to spray Cyanide on all the vegetables I grow they would die, however Oxalic Acid is only toxic to mammals...!
To remove the Oxalic Acid and make the vegetable fit for human consumption, without the risk of killing the person eating it requires another equally easy to prepare solution, not one I will of course divulge here and to clarify - water and soap will NOT suffice...!
I hope the underlying message of this notice is easy to comprehend..?
This therefore if understood leaves you four options...
1) Proceed to destroy all the hard work on my allotment - something I don't relish but would prefer to your stealing from me...
2) Call my bluff and steal again... Maybe I am lying and haven't gotten round to spraying the vegetables just yet and you'll maybe be able to get away with it one more time..?
3) Do nothing and leave in the understanding that I COULD have just done as described and not bothered to erect this notice - to your detriment...
4) When you next see me working approach me with a cheery, "Good afternoon.." and ask if I have anything spare and I'm sure I'll find something to help you out... If not then, when things are ready to be picked...
Regards,
Allotment holder.
This worked 30 years ago and I see no reason for it not to work today..? Afterall... Who would be happy to dine on vegetables as described in Dads notice... I'm sure he could have sat down the allotment all night but this way he could snore in his own bed and know that nobody was benefitting from his toil without his consent...
His plot wasn't trashed and nobody he ever suspected ever did approach him for a freebie..? though he, like I will, often gave surplus veggies away to neighbours...
Best of luck,
wraith
I love it ;D
I'm a neighbourhood Policeman.
Report it to us.
As for the notice its brilliant, could lead to a complaint against you, but brilliant non the less.
For your info section Public Order Act would cover the sign complaint (if someone came to me they would get short shrift but Im very much old school.)
The offence is created by section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986:
"(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he:
(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,
within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby."
This offence has the following statutory defences:
(a) The defendant had no reason to believe that there was any person within hearing or sight who was likely to be alarmed or distressed by his action.
(b) The defendant was in a dwelling and had no reason to believe that his behaviour would be seen or heard by any person outside any dwelling.
(c) The conduct was reasonable.
The conduct seems very reasonable to me.
If the thief feels alarmed or distressed they will have to admit to being the thief.
I lost quite a few leeks last year and finally put up a notice which said 'I can count please grow your own'.
I have also seen a number of unknown people who go from plot to plot picking things.
I personally think its reasonable. In fact if people were stealing my veg which I've sweated over and cared for, me being a copper would be the very least of their worries.
I just wouldn't want anyone to have to deal with some passing person complaining to the local Police with reference to them feeling threatened by the notice.
I'd be tempted to inject some of the most easily accessible veg with something that tasted and/or looked disgusting, perhaps green food dye + some of that stuff that you paint on kids fingers to stop them biting their nails.
Or some hardcore laxative.. but I wouldnt want Greenfists coming after me ;)
Thank you all for 1) the sympathy - it really does go a very long way and 2) the suggestions, especially that wonderful notice!
I got so upset when the squash went that I cried and some of the men on the site were very affected. They are there a lot and said they would try and keep an eye on my site when I wasn't there.
I was tempted to put a rumour around that I had sprayed selected veg with something similar to paraquet and then put up a notice daring this tealeaf to pick his own...very similar to the notice given! I might just do it anway.
I've stopped complaining about the brambles on the path - that is one side they can't get to without losing blood.
The site is "secure" in that there is a good fence and lock, but the rear of the site is a crumbling wall - less than knee high in places - that backs onto the Brent Brook and that makes the site open to anyone who knows the area well, i.e possibly some troublemakers from the local housing estate.
But we are not allowed to fence our plots so even if I could afford it, it would only get me in trouble.
Brent Council own the site and they have said that all they want is proof of who it is and they will be evicted immediately and legal action will be taken but how do you do that, other than spend the night up there?
I have come very close to packing it in several times but I'm not, by nature, someone who gives up at the first obstacle so to date, I've battled on.
This year, I've planted some squash which, hopefully, will look so weird he/she/they won't know what they are until I've picked them.
Worse thing is - we are 99.9% sure it is an allotment holder. One of my neighbours left her onion crop on the ground to dry and by next morning, the whole crop had gone. It can only have been someone on site, as her plot can't be seen unless you are inside the allotment area.
It has also affected any relationships I might have with other plot holders - I'm v-e-r-y selective regarding who I talk to, as I don't know if I can trust them. So, I confine myself to just a few people who I know I can trust and ignore the rest. Which is a shame.
Quote from: greenfists on June 24, 2010, 12:36:47
I'm a neighbourhood Policeman.
Report it to us.
As for the notice its brilliant, could lead to a complaint against you, but brilliant non the less.
For your info section Public Order Act would cover the sign complaint (if someone came to me they would get short shrift but Im very much old school.)
The offence is created by section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986:
"(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he:
(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,
within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby."
This offence has the following statutory defences:
(a) The defendant had no reason to believe that there was any person within hearing or sight who was likely to be alarmed or distressed by his action.
(b) The defendant was in a dwelling and had no reason to believe that his behaviour would be seen or heard by any person outside any dwelling.
(c) The conduct was reasonable.
Appreciate your response...
However, you'll notice that the sign was very carefully worded and at no point stated that the spraying of Oxalic Acid has been, was being or is going to be carried out - merely that the option 'could' be carried out, furthermore at no point is there any form of a threat in the sign, merely a statement that Its basically my veggies and If I chose to spray them with whatever I chose to spray them with, as long as the substance is not a restricted substance then its nobodies business but my own..?
aware that your 'old school' and lean to my P.O.V. but would beinterested if you'd print my sign out and have a word at the station to see if 'actually' it would commit a 'SPECIFIC' offence... and if so, secifically what and specifically why...?
Also if you cvould suggest a 're-word' along the same lines wishing to give the same worrying thoughts to a potential scroat that was within the law (assuming after consultation mine isn't) then I'm sure it would be appreciated...?
Many thanks,
wraith
Much as the local police would love to help it is almost impossible for them to find the culprits. We have had a break ins ,pure vandalism and once some one took a photo of the vandals on their mobile phone.
Even so, the police could not identify them.
Theft is another matter, some allotment holders steal from others, they know when the site is empty, have every right to be there and help themselves. I can say that for a fact because I walk to our site and make sure the gates are kept locked.
If the car park is empty and the gates are locked, some think that no one is around. Our site has two gates. When I had finnished. I did not want to have to lock both gates so was keeping a low profile in the hope that if some one came in they would lock up after them so I would have just one gate to tend to.
The thief must have been misled by this and did not just nick a few bits for his tea, he was gathering enough to fill up his freezer. It was an allotment holder who could not cope with his own plot and he had his partner in the car which was parked in such a way that she could keep a look out.
To cut a long story short when I approached the bloke and asked him if he knew whose plot he was helping himself from he admitted he did and added that he had permission.
Nothing I could do at that. But at least I stopped his gathering.
The allotment's secretary asked the victim about consent. He said he had given none but refused to make a complaint to the police. A letter was sent to the thief and he was told not to take of any one else's site in their absence. He then decided to quit.
Stuff regularly went missing at one time but this stopped when we put up a load of notices saying that the entire site was covered with cctv and put up a notice on the site notice board assuring members that if nothing was reported missing that captured images would be destroyed without being viewed....................
A lady who offers her time to work in a charity shop tells me that when they get shop lifters their defence is. 'Well they got given it for nothing so it does not have any value, it is just stuff people have thrown away'.
Probably a lot think that the things grown on allotments cost nothing too and it is no different to gathering bramble fruit from hedge rows.
I think that vandalism is 99% bored teenagers.
If you have a shed pop in a fake home brew kit and what you do is add some cheap beer and something that gives them the trotts when they drink it !!
If you dont have a shed do the same with some faked bottles of beer pop them in a bucket and make it look like your keeping some up there for you to have when you pop up next time :)
(online aka illegal to use on purpose you can get something which on contact causes bowels to liquify not suggesting you use this just mentioning it ;D )
I am really sorry to hear all this and have to admit we did experience some when still on a Hull lottie. I planted 85 winter squash plants on my pumpkin lottie and next day I went back and everyone had been cut off at the stem, I was told it was cutworms, funny they didn't miss one and these cutworms wore boots as they left the tracks all over.
We had bean fences vandalised too.Strings from the ground to the top rail had been cut off after the beans grew to 2 feet, plant, and string cut through..clever things these booted, Hull cutworms.
I had a seed stash stolen then all the packets opened in the car park and contents scattered, I was told that was the squirrels,funny though that every packet was torn exactly in half.
Poop was found among my carrots and snips bed.. foxes I was told, but they were blooming big foxes and they wiped their back sides with tissues.
Sheds were set on fire, not mine,but about 4 in the time we were there.
One cheeky chap actually took 2 partially erected greenhouses, this was after getting in a locked fenced site, he had to chuck the aluminum over the fence to his bike which had a trailer on it and to get it all on he bent the struts.. he was caught doing it though and finally admitted he sold the metal.
What I can't figure out is that now we are on an open site, in a heritage park,no gates, open to the public who are encouraged to come and see what organic growing is all about. We have tools left out etc and none of my neighbours have had a problem. There is a hedge of blueberries and blackcurrants in a common area and even the fruit doesn't get taken apart from the birds and me snacking as I walk past.
I am truly sorry to hear how awful this has been,and I do hope the police will get involved.
XX Jeannine
I keep finding foot prints on my allotment. Drives me mad especially when it is right on top of some plant I have been nurturing for months
I wish there was some cheap way to rig up a CCTV with a movement sensor.
The middle of the afternoon is a quiet time at our allotments and seems to be when most things disappear.
Every year around this time 'silly season' begins...kids that climb the security fences and then burn, distroy crops, break glass and slash polytunnels. They are kids with 'no brains' that their parents have never disaplined as they are no better. I'm sorry but i'm sick to death of having things broken, pinched and burned each year.
Last week my elderly neighbour (86 years old) had his boiler suit and plastic goggles burnt...destroying his raspberries into the bargin.
Two years ago they took my daughter's chalk (which i leave for my girls to play with) and wrote all over my shed
"you have bin robed"
.......no wonder they don't get jobs with spelling like that!
One last moan....my site is very big and over the last year the council has paid for a massive shed, poly tunnel, new paving, raised beds etc on a double plot, to be used by supervised people on probation....this really annoys me as i have commited no crime but i can't afford the luxury of these things...some punishment for them!
The day i made my last post i went to my allotment and found two plots had had their sheds burnt down to the ground. It happened approv 2am in the morning and the firebrigade had been called. The flames were so fierce that it burnt trees ,bushes, compost bins and raised beds around the sheds.
These people will get away with it...they always do
A year or two (?) ago, a guy was reported to have waited in his shed all night with a shotgun.
I had every sympathy with his motives!!