Garden theft....this is a thing?

[YadaYadaYada]

This morning I was in the car to drive my son to camp and I notice that my concrete angel statue that has sat in my garden for the past ten years was gone. This statue had to weigh better than 50 pounds and sat under my son's window. We have a ranch so that is too close for comfort for me. Here is the thing though, last year I had another angel statue stolen, this one was a lot lighter however but that I had for almost 15 years and just like that she was gone.

I'm not really sure what to think, the first one was maybe a crime of opportunity but this one was really heavy and wouldn't be so easy to just carry away. Granted I should have moved the second one after the first one walked but I didn't. I really didn't think that it would happen again. Now I have a fountain and bird bath as well as other little decorations that someone might decide they like but is the answer really to clear out my entire front garden?

I just never thought people would be so brazen. I told my husband that we are cleaning out the shed tonight, he has expensive chainsaws and tree climbing equipment that could easily be sold or pawned. Sad that we have to think this way.

Anyone else been a victim of garden theft?

 

[packrat]

I'm sorry that happened! (twice!) It does happen, sadly. We've got all our wagon wheels attached to the ground w/trapping stakes and cables, so someone would need cable cutters to take them. Same w/the windmill and pump. It's pretty pathetic that we'd have to do that, but people are pretty brazen at times!

 

[Calliecake]

A few weeks ago there was a mention in our local police update about someone stealing potted plants off a homeowners front porch. Until I read this I never would have thought someone would do such a thing. Like you Stephanie, I would thought they would be too hevy to take. It's not like they could run down the street with it.

 

[iluvshinythings]

We had a huge problem with thefts in our neighborhood last summer. We live in a nice, middle class neighborhood and most everyone had a bench or a couple of chairs by the front door and we'd sit outside and visit when the weather was nice. Then people started complaining on the neighborhood app that their outdoor furniture was being stolen. The items included wreaths, flags, tables, chairs, benches, decor and anything else outside. Packages that were left by Fed Ex and UPS were stolen too. Yard tools and anything left in the garage was stolen too (sometimes with the owner in the garage or outside and watching). One of my neighbor's heard her dog barking so she looked out to see what was happening and a couple of "ladies" were loading her lawn furniture into the back of a truck. She said the truck was full too. This was in broad daylight but while most people were at work.

We installed a couple of internet cameras so that we can see (and record) what's happening outside. One in the front and one in the back. We also put a key pad lock on the gate leading to the backyard because I can't bear the thought of someone stealing my dog.

We didn't bother decorating for Christmas, for the first time ever, because we didn't want to go to the trouble and expense and have anything stolen. I guess everyone had the same idea because there were only a hand-full of houses in our neighborhood that did decorate and a couple of those complained that lights were stolen.

I think it is a thing and it's tragic. I'm sorry about your angels!

 

[telephone89]

I'm assuming this is less sinister, more kids being dumb kids.

We have one lady in our neighborhood who recently posted on the community facebook page about having some sort of lawn ornament with a lid, and every time she comes home the lid is removed. It is a heavy lid, and she gets angry about having to put it back on. (by heavy, like 20lbs I think). TBH I think someone just did it as a joke at first, and then it just kept going. She was concerned someone was 'marking' her house (as some thieves do), but I really think it's just bored teens. Doesn't make yours any better, but I wouldn't think your expensive items are at risk!

 

[Dee*Jay]

My ex-inlaws had a garden gnome kind of thing taken about 20 years ago. They got pics of the gnome sent to them, in plain unmarked white envelopes, from all points around the world with the gnome in them. Then-FIL was a college professor and it was almost certainly some of his students pulling a prank, although this went on for many years. The gnome was gone nonetheless, never to return. He's been to some interesting places through!

 

[ruby59]

Some will steal anything given the opportunity.

Two winters ago we had massive snowstorms on the East Coast. Seemed like it snowed every day.

My husband left a snow shovel outside overnight for easy access the next morning. It was stolen.

 

[packrat]

JD did surveillance and ended up setting up hidden cameras to catch a thief stealing little flags from gravestones in the cemetery. Went on for weeks and people were frothing at the mouth about it--the city council kept calling and demanding action..he got some hysterical footage of a squirrel stealing them and hiding them clear up in a hole in a tree!

 

[kmarla]

We had a tree stolen out of our front yard several years ago. It was a beautiful hydrangea standard that we had just planted two weeks before. This was a very nice neighbourhood and we had just completed a big landscape job...interlock patios, new plant beds, gardens etc. We went away for the weekend and when we came home we noticed something was different, but couldn't figure it out right away. I finally realized that the tree was missing. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to cover up the theft, filling the hole in with mulch etc so we wouldn't notice. I knew it wasn't kids. They wouldn't have bothered trying to hide the theft. We never did find out who took it.

 

[sonnyjane]

I think it's less an act of theft and more an act of vandalism. They likely don't even want it for themselves.

 

[kenny]

We atheists steal publically-displayed angels all the time.



Wanna buy it back?
$10,000.



Butcha gotta hide it from public view ... separation of church and something or other, or something.

 

[partgypsy]

We had a tree stolen out of our front yard several years ago. It was a beautiful hydrangea standard that we had just planted two weeks before. This was a very nice neighbourhood and we had just completed a big landscape job...interlock patios, new plant beds, gardens etc. We went away for the weekend and when we came home we noticed something was different, but couldn't figure it out right away. I finally realized that the tree was missing. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to cover up the theft, filling the hole in with mulch etc so we wouldn't notice. I knew it wasn't kids. They wouldn't have bothered trying to hide the theft. We never did find out who took it.

We had the same thing in our neighborhood, where nice specimen plants were being dug up and stolen! Even a tree! I do think they finally caught them. They knew what they were doing and only stole expensive things, apparently to re-sell them. I mean, you would think a tree would be safe.
And then there was a period of time random stuff was being stolen off people's porches. It turned out to be a neighborhood teen boy with psychological/IQ issues.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Honest to God, I had no idea this was common, especially trees and plants you physically have to dig up!!

Kenny, sorry but I would rather buy 10k worth of jewels than a ransom for my statues

 

[kenny]

Ah, Darn!

I tried.

 

[luv2sparkle]

It has happened in my neighborhood too. My town has a Facebook page and it seems like people are posting videos from home surveillance
almost every day of someone stealing something from their yards.

 

[minousbijoux]

My ex-inlaws had a garden gnome kind of thing taken about 20 years ago. They got pics of the gnome sent to them, in plain unmarked white envelopes, from all points around the world with the gnome in them. Then-FIL was a college professor and it was almost certainly some of his students pulling a prank, although this went on for many years. The gnome was gone nonetheless, never to return. He's been to some interesting places through!

That is awesome, Dee*Jay! I thought you were going to say that the unmarked envelopes contained ransom notes, but a traveling gnome is even better.

ETA: StephanieLynn: I'm sorry about your angels.

 

[PintoBean]

Just today, my neighbors were bidding in a live auction on gigantic urns for planting purposes. I actually asked them to please clarify which naughty neighbors were going to end up in them, and whether they planned on making enough tandoori chicken or naan to feed the city. Anyways, each urn is like 250 lbs or something crazy like that. My neighbors were set on concrete urns because concrete is less valuable, and they've heard of metal urns being stolen for scrap metal. crazy ass suburbanites! I hope these thieves truly needed whatever they stole more than the lawful owners.

 

[rainydaze]

JD did surveillance and ended up setting up hidden cameras to catch a thief stealing little flags from gravestones in the cemetery. Went on for weeks and people were frothing at the mouth about it--the city council kept calling and demanding action..he got some hysterical footage of a squirrel stealing them and hiding them clear up in a hole in a tree!

 

[House Cat]

We had a tree stolen out of our front yard several years ago. It was a beautiful hydrangea standard that we had just planted two weeks before. This was a very nice neighbourhood and we had just completed a big landscape job...interlock patios, new plant beds, gardens etc. We went away for the weekend and when we came home we noticed something was different, but couldn't figure it out right away. I finally realized that the tree was missing. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to cover up the theft, filling the hole in with mulch etc so we wouldn't notice. I knew it wasn't kids. They wouldn't have bothered trying to hide the theft. We never did find out who took it.

People like that are going to hell for sure.

Hydrangeas are sacred.

 

[House Cat]

In my old neighborhood, I had urns and pumpkins stolen from my front porch. Our neighbors had this huge (and tacky yet distinct) concrete turtle bench thing stolen from their lawn. The funny thing was, the people who stole it put it out on THEIR front lawn. They lived just a few blocks over!!! The police recovered it and the ugly concrete turtle bench was returned to its rightful owner! (yay)

People will steal anything.


When I lived on the first floor of an apartment, someone stole all of my pots full of blooming flowers right out of my patio. I was heartbroken. I had nurtured those pots for six months and in a split second, they were gone.

 

[lyra]

Yes, it happens. We consider anything we place in the front of our house to be disposable. We haven't had any issues at this house, except one day a salesman came to our door and was holding our prized bulldog "statue" as a joke. Not funny. That thing has such sentimental value to us. From that day onward the bulldog was moved to the double locked backyard! I've heard of people stealing plants too. Not where we live now. We planted a laurel hedge at one house and a few days later awoke to find all the plants pulled out and thrown in the road. We replanted them all and they grew to over 6 feet tall, but it was a devastating find that day.

 

[AdaBeta27]

My mother and other ladies plant flowers at the local historical society's house each year. They pay for the flowers out of their own pockets, and/or they contribute some really nice specimens they grew themselves, and/or they dig up and over-winter some of the plants each winter. It's not an insignificant amount of work and expense that they put into this. This year, thieves dug up and stole all of the flowers. The ladies went to a local nursery and bought nice plants to replace them with. Thieves stole those, too. 3rd pass, the ladies went to Lowe's and Home Depot and got whatever was on the sale racks. So far, nobody has stolen any of that. It's deplorable how thieves have no apparent boundaries and apparently no shame.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

My ex-inlaws had a garden gnome kind of thing taken about 20 years ago. They got pics of the gnome sent to them, in plain unmarked white envelopes, from all points around the world with the gnome in them. Then-FIL was a college professor and it was almost certainly some of his students pulling a prank, although this went on for many years. The gnome was gone nonetheless, never to return. He's been to some interesting places through!

That is awesome, Dee*Jay! I thought you were going to say that the unmarked envelopes contained ransom notes, but a traveling gnome is even better.

ETA: StephanieLynn: I'm sorry about your angels.

But can you imagine what their luggage must be like? A garden gnome isn't light and compact.

 

[AprilBaby]

I had a slate with our name painted on it at the front door for years and one day I came home it was gone. Unusual name so not like anyone could use it. I'm guessing the pothead across the street (19) took it to be an a**.