Light-fingered foe

[wykesmallholder]

went up to lottie yesterday to get organised to spend some time building some raised beds and low and behold what do i find or dont scaffold boards not just 1 or 2 missing but at least half a dozen 13ft boards as well they were a bit raggy and tired which i had got from work for nothing but its the principle so now i going to have to do with just 2 beds for now instead of 5 until i get some more just dnt get some folk even to buy they arent that expensive

[FionaH]

Thieving little g**s !! Makes me really cross

[Stacey Steve]

I know how you feel. When I got my allotments, I had an old market stall that I intended to use for a fruit cage. Took all the bars down there and put them by the side of the shed.

About a month later I thought I'd put up the stall ready for when I could get some netting and also to start planning the beds inside.

Started putting it up and thought, "this has shrunk", then realised that all the long bars were missing.

Like an idiot I started looking round my plot in case I had moved them. Went home and looked down the sideway in case I had forgotten to take them down the lotties. Went back to the lotties and searched again and realised about a dozen lengths of 2x2 were missing as well.

I really ticks me off, I go to work and save my money so that I can buy things for my use only for some towrag to nick them.

[Jardiniere]

there was a short item on t'wireless about this, this morning......people are now looking about (on google streetwise maybe!)for stuff to nick like chickens, pigs,cows, lead (well people have always nicked lead) copper etc and now it appears, bits of wood....my log pile is open to the road (tiny back road - not made up) so could get nicked from and my plot is au moment.....totally unfenced - the posts are there but thats all..worrying......i'm putting blackcurrent cuttings in shortly,,,,,,,,,

[Hilary B]

Not so long ago some thieves actually pulled the telephone cables out of the ground for the copper (I'd have loved to see their faces if it turned out to be fibre optic cable instead. That wouldn't be saleable after rough handling I don't think).

Those familiar with the Darwin Awards may have heard of the thieves who tried to steal mains electric cable. Those ones overlooked the need to switch off first, and got their just deserts.....

Simple rule, if it is worth anything, and not nailed down, some .....illegitimate disciple of Onan... will steal it. If it is nailed down, they may well steal the nails as well....

[petal]

I hate it when people pinch things off your allotment. Why do they presume its a free for all? Someone took my raspberry crop last year(not birds) - I hav'nt got over it yet.......

[wykesmallholder]

i shall be posting some pics of my progress clearing lottie and you can see the stack of boards and all i have now is 4

[miffy]

Sorry to hear that, try not to let it dampen your spirits. Hope all goes well with your lottie.

[BilboWaggins]

I'm really saddened to read of all these thefts from lotties, I have a horrible feeling it is going to get worse before it gets better. It has always amazed me (in a happy way) in the past that allotments were not targetted by this sort of scum but now, perhaps because of all the media attention of growing veggies and allotments, these wonderful bits of land have now come to the attention of these thieving so-and-so's.

Like Jardiniere, we've got logs which are still laying on the ground from our last tree felling that are much closer to the road than we'd like. Getting them moved to a part of the garden inaccessible by vehicle is one of our priorities.

[selfraising]

Sorry to hear that. There seem to be a lot of posts at the moment about lottie thefts. Is this common?

[kernowyon]

we have a seven foot fence + barbed wire all around our site, it is quite secure and the gates are now locked at all times even if someone is on the site. despite this I had two bags of compost magically dissapear from my greenhouse last week and the lovely fellow plotholder who stole them from me didn't even bother to shut the door. happy days......not

comradery on our plot? not likely when stealing from each other is rife, we regularly have crops go missing, goes to show that all it takes is one bad egg to spoil the experience.

anyone got a man trap spare?

[xandra3004]

We had a similar bout of trouble on our site with people thinking that it was ok to take things off a plot without asking. We designated an area for recycled items and anything in that area is free to take on a first come first served basis. If anyone needs anything else then they can ask fellow plotholders or post a note asking if anyone has the spare item (wood etc) thats needed - if any item is taken off a plot without permission (no matter how small/free that item is) it is treated as theft and we get the police involved - that only had to happen once (over a stack of wood) and the shock of an official warning and threat of court action soon stopped the thefts.

Drastic measures but now we only have to worry about people breaking in not about whether things are safe from fellow plotholders.

[allotmentlady]

its annoying isnt it? The same happened to myself last year, I had a load delivered put them on my plot, ready to use, then returned the next day and another lottie holder told me who had taken them!!! It was someone else on the site had come onto my allotment, taken 10-13 scaffold planks, so I went to his plot with OH and took them all back! The Cheek eh?

Its disgusting that people take things without permission, I am sorry to hear of your theft.