Just because it's outdoors doesn't make it yours

[ChanellG]

Speaking of scrap metal, people have actually died here in Florida because thieves took the copper wiring out of traffic signs that would have potentially saved the lives of 2 pedestrians that were crossing at an intersection.
I hope those scrap metal thieves burn for indirectly killing people with their greed.

We've been having a big problem here with thieves stealing copper since the storm. They broke into the studio of a well known artist and mutilated a bunch of sculptures and took the copper pipes out of the bathroom.

Not long after that, I went around the corner to feed someone's pets and the water wasn't working. I called and told her about the water thinking maybe she'd forgotten to send in the bill because she had been busy getting ready for her trip.

In the short time between when she left and when I went to the house (three hours or less) thieves removed the copper pipes from her house! We didn't figure that out until she got back from her trip.

 

[zigs]

Had that with the house I had in Wales, twice. They stripped everything, radiators, plumbing, electrics, hot water tank. Didn't even bother to turn the water off, a deluge was pouring thru the house.

Last time they even tried to get the stairs out.

 

[ChanellG]

OMG! That is incredible! How does someone decide they are going to go in and strip an entire house? And how on earth can they do it without someone noticing? And the stairs too? That is insane!

 

[zigs]

If they know its empty, they see it as fair game, they don't like foreigners buying their houses. Came home one day to find a large rock wedged in the new double glazed kitchen window.

Lost £50,000 on that deal.

I see from Facebook Clueless1 had a plant pot nicked from outside his house last night, and smashed in the churchyard next door

 

[ChanellG]

That's incredible. I can't believe there are so many people in the world who feel they are entitled to be have this way, and with absolutely no regard for others. Glad you don't have that nonsense to deal with anymore.

 

[claudine]

ACSAPA, I'm so sorry, it sounds so awful, if somebody did this to my things I'd be so angry! Fortunately this has never happened to me...we have fences here everywhere and if I let somebody inside the garden I'd watch him all the time. And I have a dog, he is my little protector

 

[Arzosah]

Some dreadful things have happened to members on here, awful that people have been going through this. I must say, I don't put anything moveable outside - I live in a small town now, the smallest I've ever lived in by a couple of hundred thousand people, so it does seem to be different here - people do have plantpots and whatnot outside, and they don't disappear. Though I suppose they must every now and then. Since I've lived here, the only thing thats disappeared from the front has been a vacuum cleaner that had broken down and was sitting by the recycling bin - I guess somebody recycled it! But no plants or flowers have gone, thank heavens.

 

[suzjbibby]

You would think the little village where I live would be fairly safe from things being taken from the yard but no we've lost several thing over the past few years, including a pram, garden tools, hoses, and even firewood. Fair enough you might need to keep your family warm but so do we, we paid to have the wood for our own children to keep warm surely you could do the same for yours? we came out one morning and you could clearly see the marks in the frost where someone had come with a wheelbarrow and taken some.

 

[ChanellG]

I just saw something I thought you could appreciate and maybe even have a laugh at:

 

[suzjbibby]

Love it ChanellG, I doubt it would give any real trespassers pause but it's nice for us to have a little chuckle imagining all that extra organic matter that might or might not be in our compost

 

[claudine]

ChanellG, lol, it's so funny, I like it. I'd like to have something like this in my garden because maybe it wouldn't scare off uninvited guests but for sure it would make them laugh so I'd have time to call for help

 

[loopyloo]

You are so right to feel violated. I would feel the same way too. We have had small things come up missing. Mainly toys and things like that. My kids carelessly leave out. I think the neighbor kids see a toy not being played with and they take it for theirs. I get angry but I think I get over it quicker when I assume its a kid who doesn't know better. To have meat taken from my freezer would leave me in tears. We are looking into getting some lights that turn on when people come into the yard. We are trying to find some that wont pick up cars driving by but that all might be in the way you aim them.

 

[suzjbibby]

Most motion activated lights have an adjustment for their sensitivity, we had to adjust ours so that cats moving about the yard would not trigger it. We actually ended up installing 4 infra red security cameras linked wirelessly to our computer that were motion activated, we almost got someone on it too but my husband was actually watching at the time and went out to confront them and they took off and got away before getting close enough on camera to recognise. But the set up was not particularly expensive $140 odd as I recall and my husband set it up himself

 

[Pat]

These are some incredible stories of people just doing as they please regarding other peoples stuff. Some very bold people out there. My car was parked in front of my house as usual, some drove by it too close smashing my side view mirror, they didn't stop just kept going. I don't live on a main street, it is a rather closed community, one way in and one way out.

 

[ACSAPA]

I just saw something I thought you could appreciate and maybe even have a laugh at:

That's unique and and it's gardener humor. I love it.
Plus it's a lot less violent than "Trespassers will be thrown into a wood chipper and turned into mulch."