How to deal with garden thieves

[fluffy_gumbo]

Hello all,
I posted a reply in a previous topic about theft from our community garden. Since then, the stealing have only gotten worse. Every week, numerous plants are being uprooted and taken, some plots are trampled and plants destroyed into pieces through haphazard harvesting. We have been stuck in a rut because we are not sure who or how to deal with this. I even tied a sign to my plants and they just took the plant along with the sign.
However, yesterday, one of our neighbors noticed that there was someone in the garden pulling up plants, in broad daylight! She thought it was strange that a gardener would do that to their own plants so she decided to approach him and promptly got told to "F*** off". This man brought along a hand truck and bags and took so many plants that some were falling onto the streets as he walked away. She was able to get a photo of him.
We are not sure how to deal with this. This person was aggressive to our neighbor when approached. My sign offered help if they would reach out to us, but that seemed to be disregarded. Obviously the matter is not one that the authorities would care about (not that it really warrant their involvement anyway). But at the same time, this cannot go on because it is completely unsustainable. Does anyone has any suggestions?

[JosephineRose]

Honestly, I would recommend getting a trail camera from amazon and putting it up. It will record your thief, and perhaps more importantly, where the thief is coming from.

Who owns the land? If it is local parks and rec, report to them. If private, then you have a criminal trespass and property damage issue and could perhaps broach it with the authorities that way.

I would also post a sign that indicates the garden is under surveillance and trespassers will be prosecuted to CYA. Then the video from the trail camera would be admissible.

[Amateurinawe]

Just horrendous!

[Rockoe10]

You don't wanna know what I would do, but the camera idea is a good start. You can get them at decent prices online.

Hungry people don't take entire plants. If they did, there goes their supply.

[karstopography]

They’ll just likely steal the game camera unless you are real good at hiding it. Chip in and build some sort of secure enclosure with the landlord’s blessing or get together and explain to the owner of the lot from whom all the gardeners are leasing that the situation is untenable and perhaps the landlord will be motivated to take some measures to mitigate the problem such as a fence or some other security measures.

The landlord may or may not be motivated to save the community garden and it could come down to the numbers, what are the expenses versus what is the revenue. But, as a group if you can explain in calm and rational tones what has happened,what continues to happen, the likelihood of all of you simply walking away from any future commitments to having a garden there because of the continuing destruction it puts it in the landlord’s court to act or not. What have you to lose? Just don’t give the owner the impression it’s his or hers fault because it isn’t. Maybe he or she has contacts in the police force that can step up surveillance, do a little investigating, etc.

[fluffy_gumbo]

[mention]karstopography[/mention]
I agree about the camera, I worry that this person will just a) take the camera or b) destroy it. And again, I don't think having proof would do any good since we live in an area where people are caught on video stealing packages or casing houses without consequences. We actually live in a nice, family-friendly neighborhood but the crimes rate here is just too much for anyone to care about stolen veggies.

The land belongs to a church beside it and they don't charge us anything for using the space as they see the good it brings to the community and how well we maintain the garden, they even pay the water bill for the garden. So if we do put up a fence, it would be something that we have to pitch in together which I don't think is the problem. People might have objections since the garden is supposed to be a welcoming place for the neighborhood and people to hangout in, so putting up a fence and keeping a lock on it goes against that ideal. But I see that then there's not really an option to keep unwanted people out.

[patihum]

Since he's taking whole plants I doubt that he's just hungry! I'd be sure to check out local "plants for sale" ads either online or in the newspapers. Did he load his ill gotten booty in a vehicle or just hand cart it away? If no vehicle I would guess that he's no farther than a block or maybe two away from the garden. Somebody in the neighborhood knows him - pass around the picture and ask your fellow gardeners for help.

[OhioGardener]

It may be too expensive to be worth the while, but they do make anti-theft GPS tags that could be attached to a "bait" plant to track them to wherever they're going. I'd probably run it by the police before doing it though to make sure it's something they would follow up on and what actions could be taken.

[fluffy_gumbo]

One of our neighbors said she have seen him before when he used to go around digging for cans. He is probably homeless and maybe mentally disabled as well. He's probably taking the plants to share with other homeless people, which is kind of nice, but not nice for for us gardeners.

[wildcat62]

Most of you won't agree but I'd confront him & it would be best if there was more than one of you when you did.

[Rockoe10]

[mention]wildcat62[/mention] me too.
It could be straightened out and maybe he does need help, but that's a problem that won't go away unless it's confronted.

[Growing Coastal]

Suggestions? At this point I'd be inclined toward poison ivy or poison oak plants for that garden!

[worth1]

I set a whole pineapple outside and a critter ate everything but the top.

[MissS]

It's so very frustrating when this happens. You work so hard and then have very little return for your work. I planted at a community garden this past season and we too had garden thieves. We have a picnic table where we put out our excess for people to take but someone still came and harvested every veggie out of my garden, except for the peppers and weird shaped eggplant. The funny thing was that the property is at one of our jails. I don't have an answer for you. I don't know that I will garden there again. It was a LOT of work to fence it in and I had virgin soil that was clay. Weeds abounded everywhere all to have my produce taken away. My plot was the very 1st one as you went to the gardens. If I do it again I want a plot much further in to lessen the chances of being 'hit'.

I guess that if you don't mind about losing the rest of your crop, you could use something like Tanglefoot on your plants which will make the person rather mad when they get all sticky and messy.

[fluffy_gumbo]

@MissS That's interesting, I haven't heard of Tanglefoot before, but if this person is homeless, I doubt a little stickiness would bother them in return for free food. Our soil here when I first started was also very packed and full of old bricks that I spent a good chunk of time digging up, so I can empathize with the work you must have put into your garden too.

I definitely am close to giving up but I'm going to try to sprinkle flour on the plants Wednesday night (since he comes during Thursday)to see if it could fool them into thinking that the plants are sprayed with pesticide or is diseased and leave them be.

We are close to the end of the fall season here in Louisiana anyway so I'm just concerned about the peppers, tomato, and eggplants that I'll be planting. If this person cannot tell the difference and tries to eat those whole, maybe they'd have an upset stomach? But if that happens, I think I'll take a break and just plant flowers for a while, or at least around the plants to help hide them when they're young.

[rhines81]

When I have a good garden year I am typically looking for people to accept the remaining crop by the final weeks. If I thought someone was homeless and looking for free handouts I'd leave a full box of harvested veggies a couple times a week for them to take freely. But destroying and/or stealing my plants would never be tolerated and would certainly mean trouble for them. I guess I'm lucky to never have to had used a community garden and grow on my private land.

[rhines81]

To further my post above, If I were to receive a knock at the front door and someone were to say that they noticed I had a nice garden in my backyard, would I considering donating some food to a local shelter, I wouldn't only say yes... I'd plan to grow double the year after that. Ask, don't steal.

[Nan6b]

"To further my post above, If I were to receive a knock at the front door and someone were to say that they noticed I had a nice garden in my backyard, would I considering donating some food to a local shelter, I wouldn't only say yes... I'd plan to grow double the year after that..."

***Note: this is meant seriously, gently, and respectfully:****

Okay, Rhimes1, I'll ask: On behalf of hungry folks everywhere, will you consider donating some of your produce to a local shelter, and grow more next year?

Nan

[rhines81]

Hi Nan,

I do appreciate your post and I have been there and done that many years ago... it is VERY difficult for a home gardener to give food away to a shelter. Here is a quote from one site that kind of sums it up.

"Donations of apparently wholesome food by qualified direct donors must be made in compliance with applicable state and local health, food safety, and food handling laws (including regulations)." Please note the word "qualified", you have to pre-qualify and get pre-approved and be subject to inspections... etc...

I'll stand by my statement above as, if someone actually comes knocking at my door looking for fresh produce and anticipates a need for the following years, I will certainly grow more and do what I can to accomodate that within limits. They will need to collect on a regular basis from me and take what extra I have. I won't grow extra for someone who is only taking exactly what they need and tossing the rest out. I will not jump through hoops or regulatory requirements to supply the hungry people. They're hungry, I have food, what's the problem here? It needs to be more simplified. To the spirit of the thread, theft of my food is totally unacceptable. I will glady donate my extra harvest, but do not ask me to plan my harvest schedule around a shelter's schedule... I have extra when I have extra. Hard to control Mother Nature.

Donated foods need to be processed and properly stored or eaten within a few days, if not. If I have it available it's theirs if they want it and ask for it, and they typically don't want it unless it meets their need that particular day.

I was actually really turned-off by one shelter that I wanted to help many years ago that told me they only wanted food items that were commercially packaged and/or processed for traceability. Even road-kill and donated venison from hunters need to go through a State-certified butcher for processing. The Government makes it very difficult to simply be kind and give.

[Nan6b]

Shelters might be different from food banks. They're preparing food for folks; food banks hand out the ingredients. The food banks will take produce if you take it in on the day they're giving it out. (Yes, some food banks say they've got enough already, so the trick is to find one that isn't overflowing.)

They're having food giveaways now in a drive-up manner around Pittsburgh, since so many folks are so in need right now. The lines of cars are long and they give out food till they run out. Whoever supplies those boxes of food must be able to handle more produce from the likes of us. There's something (I think it's called Food Rescue) that will take food that's going to be unused and get it to the hungry. I bet they'd take good produce, even with little imperfections of a home garden. I gotta contact them for my own plans to give produce away this summer.