Potted olive trees stolen from front garden

[digitalronin]

Hi All

We had three potted olive trees and a potted bay tree stolen from our front garden last night - Landcroft Road, up near the Plough end.

Must have been at least two guys and a vehicle - each of the trees is too heavy for a single person to carry.

There isn't a lot we could have done to prevent it - it's just really unpleasant. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention this in case other people in the area experienced similar thefts last night or recently. It could just be a single incident, but I'm curious whether there's more to it than that.

David

[The Nappy Lady]

Hi David

You poor things, we had a pot stolen years ago too - so horrible.

We now chain our pots down - thread through the hole in the bottom of the pot or around the trunk of the trees and then chain to railings or bolt to the ground....it seems to be enough of a deterrent.

There are a few nasty people around who clearly have no morals at all. Very sad.

[digitalronin]

Thanks, Molly, that's a good idea. If we end up replacing the plants, we'll definitely do something along those lines. It's just really unpleasant to put time and money into making the place look nice, only to have some mean-spirited people spoil it again.

David

[maritap]

The same thing happened to me a few years ago.i did the same thing as The Nappy Lady. We shouldn't have to live like this

[Norfolkvillas]

We had two large terracotta planters taken a few weeks back - just unbelievable! Ours also would have probably needed two people to move them. Happened either overnight on Sunday or during the day on Monday - I noticed on Monday evening when I got home from work.

I still can't believe that it happened! The bare-faced cheek!

[digitalronin]

@Norfolkvillas, it's definitely worth reporting it, if you didn't at the time;

https://online.met.police.uk/

If the police see a pattern, they might be more inclined to put some resources into prevention/investigation.

David

[jennyh]

Oh we live a few doors up from you and always thought how nice your trees looked, what a shame. Some people are so immoral. Just rubbish.

[Sue]

I don't know whether it's the same with them all, but when I had three window boxes stolen a few years back, my insurance company would only pay for the cost of the boxes, and not the (expensive) plants in them - so it wasn't worth claiming.

I also now chain them to the sill, but really - as maritap says, we shouldn't have to.

I agree that it is definitely worth reporting to the police - in my case, there had been a spate of similar thefts in the area because it was immediately prior to Mother's Day (I think).

The more information the police have, the more likely they are to be able to catch the perpetrators.

[pipsky2008]

My feeling is that things like potted olive trees get stolen to order for sale to landscapers in another part of town. A potted olive could go for ?500 in a nursery maybe ?200 to a landscaper then a charge of ?400 to the client. When I was a landscaper years ago, I was offered things like this.

[vicki08]

My fiend had two bay trees stolen from her front 2 weeks ago in upland road they were quite big and in black containers

[Sue]

pipsky2008 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My feeling is that things like potted olive trees

> get stolen to order for sale to landscapers in

> another part of town. A potted olive could go for

> ?500 in a nursery maybe ?200 to a landscaper then

> a charge of ?400 to the client. When I was a

> landscaper years ago, I was offered things like

> this.

xxxxxxx

How disillusioning. I always thought that gardeners/landscapers were nice honest people :(

[Earl Aelfheah]

Maybe a liberal application of 'no more nails' on the bottom of your pots. Really shouldn't be needed though. I feel for you... it's really awful that everything must be tied down in order to be safe.

[Sue]

rahrahrah Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Maybe a liberal application of 'no more nails' on

> the bottom of your pots.

xxxxxx

Good idea, but would mean you could never move the pots about if necessary .... or repot to a larger pot.

Unless there's something which removes "no more nails"?

[Ridgley]

My banana plant was nicked a year ago so I just have shrubs at the front of my house now, but there seem to be an interest in my white hydrangeas at the monment.

[Norfolkvillas]

@digitalronin OK, thanks, I have now reported it via the link you gave. Hope it helps them catch whoever it is. What a dumb thing to go around stealing. Our pots were a little past their best, and they'll soon find out that the bay trees in them are actually fake, and just on the verge of turning a giveaway blueish-green colour so I hope whoever it is doesn't even get tuppence for them!

[Rook]

Yep- another one. We had a bay tree stolen from our front garden, which was in a large pot. We were pretty amazed that someone had the audacity to stroll in through the gate, and just help themselves! Clearly someone is making a tidy profit by selling all these on! No doubt they drive around looking for easy targets...

[digitalronin]

@Rook, please report the theft - it's looking like this is a bigger issue, so the police might take an interest if they get enough incident reports.

David

[PandG]

We had two Box (Buxus ball shape)) plants dug out of our front garden planter & another box in a pot on the wall with our neighbours stolen last night from Jennings Rd - there are so many men and vans touring around watching plus taking from skips etc that I don't think we have any chance of garden success on our frontage.

Reported to the police first thing,just so they know!

Sad!

[pipsky2008]

I wonder if a tracking bug in the soil of a potted shrub would reap results. Hoping plant thieves aren't reading this thread

[ianr]

What you really want is a cross, between a triffid and something attractive and expensive, that will start to get nasty if moved.

[pipsky2008]

ianr Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What you really want is a cross, between a triffid

> and something attractive and expensive, that will

> start to get nasty if moved.

[bsand]

This seems to be the price of living in a now desirable area - scumbags use it as a drive by shopping trip with a free checkout. With cheap webcams it wouldn't be that diffcult to set up a baited trap to catch and record the buggers.

[langlounge]

Agree Bsand - I had to fork out ?138 for a camera but it ended a problem at the front of my house. Before I had to look into it I'd just presumed that it would be too expensive and complicated, but actually it's very easy now and cheap compared with ongoing loss/damage.

You can buy a single camera that will capture extremely good quality images including night vision (and sound), the camera has its own IP address, so you just need to plug it in. You can also get battery operated ones. They're really easy to use, you can view the record of what it has captured from anywhere and choose to download what you need to your pc or mac. You can also pay extra to have independent storage of everything your camera captures (good idea if you want evidence for a legal procedure) but it isn't much, a few pounds a month. I just bought an indoor one and placed it in my window, so they could see it was there, as I was primarily interested in deterrence. The outdoor ones that also don't have a light showing and that you can eg hide in a windowbox were more expensive.

You're only allowed by law to point it to capture what happens within your own boundaries.

[digitalronin]

Interesting. Could you provide a pointer to the camera you bought?

Unfortunately, I think the legal issue might be a problem. If I mount a camera such that it can't see out of my front garden then a) it wouldn't get the number plate of the van, which I think would be the most useful thing for the police, and b) the angle I would have to put it at means all it would see would be the tops of the thieves heads!

Still, it would be interesting to look into the idea.

David

[langlounge]

Hi David I bought a YCam, I went for that one because it was the only cheap one that worked with Macs, at the time anyway, and I wanted to get the camera the same day. I have to say they were extremely helpful, they are a small company based Richmondish. Camera works very well. I hesitated to name the company because there are so many fake remommendations on here. I placed my camera on top of a step ladder inside the bay window, this covered all the area I needed to cover. I continued to use it for a while fixed by the window above my front door, I just improvised a holder with three cheap photo frames. (Just because we had a relief postman for a short while who thought it was ok to leave packages on the doorstep (usual service from Peckham Delivery office is wonderful, they are top notch public servants and I love them very much)).