A post I did on the theft of three barrel cacti out of our front yard prompted quite a few readers to share their stories of plant thievery. There’s obviously a lot of plant theft perps out there.
The footage above, out of Skelmersdale, England has to be one of the grandest of all plant thefts. In the video you’ll see two women stealing an entire lawn. It took forty minutes and the thieves even took a smoking break.
The BBC quotes the neighbor whose security camera caught the crime, “I can’t believe the cheek of them. I’m quite speechless about it.”
In local plant theft news, a security camera at the Village Bakery in Los Angeles caught a woman stealing plants for the second time in two years.
CBS news reports,
She digs through, she grabs what she wants, and she puts them in her shopping cart,” Village Bakery and Cafe owner Barbara Monderine said. “It makes me really sad that somebody would do that. She is ruining what we’re trying to make look nice.”
Have you had any plant thefts lately?
There’s an area on my next door neighbor’s property where several of our mailboxes reside. It was an awful mess with weeds so I decided to clean it up and plant small sun loving drought resistant flowers. I took care of it with weeding and carried the water necessary to maintain the flowers. Right at the height of their bloom they disappeared. Not just the blooms but the whole plants. I questioned my neighbor about it, asked if he saw anyone and he admitted taking them. I asked him “why”? and he answered “because he could”. I have made no other attempts to replant and it again looks like crap.
Every time I hear of plant thievery I always think of that viral video that went around last year about the horrible woman that was stealing someone’s rhubarb. Makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Google it if you somehow don’t know what I am talking about.
Thankfully I haven’t had any run ins with plant thieves though I have pumpkins growing in the front yard so I expect some come October.
Also, if someone wants to steal my lawn, they are welcome to it!
LOL! I checked out the Crazy Rhubarb Lady video. Oh my goodness, that’s insane. Then I watched this one Conan Clashes With The Warner Bros. Rhubarb Lady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3WsyV5bnlY
No plant thievery, but I swear that every time I plant sage outside of my fence, all the dogs in the neighborhood make it a point to pee it to death.
LOL! My I suggest a fire hydrant?
We had a large sitting angel on our porch for a few years. We woke up one morning and it was gone! The angel was almost too heavy for one person to even pick it up. We called the police and they said all we could do is add a video camera to the front of our house. They also stole our neighbors Koi right out of their pond and a chihuahua statue off their porch. It ticks me off to no end!!! I HATE thieves…Buy your own stuff!
I break cuttings away all the time and get fruit on the sidewalk side. I’ve stolen some empty lot edible greens (obviously cultivated at some point) a couple of times, only because they seemed overgrown and in need of some harvesting. I never get more than negligible tho!
It’s called “Gleaning” and it’s even brought to light in the Bible.
Leviticus 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.