Thief on the allotment

rosie383

On our allotments it has been the hose connectors and equipment that have gone missing this year.
Last year, someone helped themselves to almost all of my veg that hadn't been eaten by deer!!

matt987106

Hide in the shed with a baseball bat

that'll fix it

emiff6

lawrie28 wrote: »

2/ Following extensive research and family connections, I will be using Fresh Horse Urine as an experimental pesticide.

As a totally useless but quite interesting aside, Bordeaux mixture was invented by a French wine grower as a bitter tasting mix to stop the local villagers on their way to and from work every day eating the grapes growing near the edge of the road.

He later noticed that the grapes sprayed with it suffered much less from diseases and began to use it as a fungicide all over the vineyard.

emiff6

yorkieorchid wrote: »

Could it be family or a friend of your neighbouring plot holders? I arrived at my plot one day to find an elderly couple helping themselves to my strawberrys, they had mistakenly thought it was their sisters plot who had told them to help themselves to anything from her plot. They had got the wrong plot, bless em! Quite funny actually.

This could well be the case. Check with other lottie holders to see if they are losing stuff too, or if it's just your patch. If it's a thief then it's likely others have lost stuff too.

ERICS_MUM

Reminds me of a neighbour. When he went to bed one night he had a lovely red rose bush in full bloom in his front garden. Next morning - you've guessed it - all the roses had been neatly cut from the bush. Obviously somebody had seen them then popped back after dark with a pair of secateurs !

tim_n

tallyhoh wrote: »

Somone has been helping themselves to our stuff. I think they are hoping its not noticable as they just take a couple of potato plants or a cauli, they even have the cheek to trim them & drop the leaves in our compost bins.:mad:

Any ideas on how to catch them?

I had the same thing, but turned out to be badgers. They weren't disposing of rubbish in my compost bin though.

Did get people dumping their cuttings on my compost heap - including rubbish at some points. Was very annoyed because I was organic, so if they'd been using chemicals my compost was effectively compromised.

I don't have a plot any more. I have a garden

valk_scot

I got this a couple of years back. I taped a note (in a polypocket) to the compost bin saying something like "I have noticed that some of my veg has gone missing lately...if it is YOU, please stop now as it is THEFT."
I also reported it to the allotment committee who turned out to have recieved a few other complaints of the same thing. Our site is fenced and gated so really, it had to be another plot holder. The comittee put up a notice on the gate notice board to the same effect...that pilfering on other people's plots was theft and any plot holder caught taking crops from a neighbouring plot without permission would be liable for instant eviction. The pilfering stopped almost immediately.

Yes, it might turn out to be someone's dozy relative making a genuine mistake but even then it's still taking someone else's crops without their consent. It should be the responsibility of the plot holder that had told them to take crops to ensure they only took from his own plot, not everyone's. Best to raise awareness of this.

marywooyeah

I'm really surprised to hear all these stories - didnt allotments used to be a place where people grew veg but also formed friendships with like minded people? its pretty sad to think that not even your carrots are safe these days!

valk_scot

marywooyeah wrote: »

I'm really surprised to hear all these stories - didnt allotments used to be a place where people grew veg but also formed friendships with like minded people? its pretty sad to think that not even your carrots are safe these days!

It's the usual thing...there's always one person spoiling it for the rest. They may not even think of it as stealing ..."Oh, they've got 20 caulis, they'll never mind or miss one" until it's laid out in black and white to them. I've got reciprical picking arrangements with half a dozen of my allotment neighbours as to produce when on holiday or during a glut so I'd never normally notice a few peas or strawberries going awol and I don't mind people tasting a raspberry going past, but I draw the line at people picking half the plot down.

pinkcandyflossprincess

i have an aunt whos a right mrs bucket type..when i stopped with her on holiday as a child she sent me out with my cousin to "collect" veg from the allotments and even plums from next door when it was dark..she had her own plum tree:eek:
i didnt want to do it but she said we wouldnt have food otherwise:eek::o