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21 to 36 of 36 messages
12/05/2014 at 18:00

OOOOh Pilippa; STD meant Standard Trunk Dialling when I did those signs

12/05/2014 at 18:05

AJ............I'd completely forgotten that one...........sorry

12/05/2014 at 18:13

12/05/2014 at 18:17

They weren't terracotta KT - just terracotta coloured plastic. 

Still doesn't justify the theft anyway. Some people are opportunists - they'd nick anything. 

Round 'em up and put 'em in the stocks that'll larn 'em 

12/05/2014 at 18:21

I recently had a piece of glass stolen from my greenhouse in my allotment garden. 

It's private land and fairly secure, they took the clips as well. 

It cost me £4 for to have a replacement cut.

I was so annoyed that another gardener would do such a thing.

Whoever you are i hope you cut your fingers!

12/05/2014 at 18:27

Aliesh.............."cut your fingers " ?.............that is so restrained............"throat" would spring more immediately  to my mind

12/05/2014 at 23:05

To stoop so low as to steal from some one else - some people have no self respect. I would encourage you to ask the police to provide you will a Ultra Violet pen to mark all your pots and tools with. Won't act as a deterrent because nobody will know the pots are marked unless the are put under an ultra violet light, but would help the police prove he has stolen your property if your pots are found in his garbage or stall at a car boot sale. I hope things will start to look up for you soon.  

13/05/2014 at 06:05

Maybe an idea to use the permanent marker pen on the outside of the pots, marked 'stolen'.

13/05/2014 at 08:47

Many Thanks to all for there kind words .

As I said i was made redundant and am having trouble finding work with hours that are anywhere near suitable to my family life.So money for locks and CCTV is not available.

I would love to be able to afford to bolt things down am going to get a couple more bolts for the gates but thats costing more than in the budget.

As for the early morning thing this is an odd one I am a terrible insomniac randomly getting up between 3 and 7 am normally closer to 3 . My two eldest leave for work between 6 and 7 and my darling husband dosent often go to bed before 2am. I wouldnt try and burgle my house or garden there are very few hours that we all asleep.

What is strange is the pots i had planted (not many) they did not touch nor did they touch the empty glazed or real terracotta pots. But you can carry maybe one or two real terracotta pots at a time but i can pick up a stack of 40 large decorative terracotta effect pots at a time. A lot of my pots were very similar to the picture below with a single row of this pattern and straighter sides.,0,411,411&scl=7.4939172749391725&id=g1yas3,0,411,411&scl=7.4939172749391725&id=g1yas3

13/05/2014 at 08:58

One other thing years ago i did catch some garden thieves in my garden Husband had just left for work and i was picking up laundry and then taking down stairs before i went to close garden gates. As i walked into the kitchen barefoot arms with two full laundry baskets I could barely see over i noticed two men in my garden.

I dropped the baskets of laundry for got i was barefoot ran down the garden out of the gate along the road and to the mens van parked 50 yards from my house and screamed over the road oy stop that stuff is from my garden and you will put it back now. The men shocked appologised in very poor English and put the items back and asked me not to call the police .

I went in the house, van reg number in my head picked up the phone gave a description of the van and men along with the registration of the van. The police came around and cars went looking for the men who they found a few roads away entering a garden .

The men were charged, but the punch line is the lead man had paperwork in his pocket from the previous day when he was in the magistrates court and convicted for steeling from a garden.

13/05/2014 at 09:51


Could it be the guy you bought them from on ebay-the bargain- perhaps he is going to resell, again and again......

13/05/2014 at 12:17

Nin, in this day and age money is a problem for many, there are ways, tying old tin cans to the gate with a pebble in is a simple method we used in the army, usually a Camel or Goat but on the odd occasion did the job. You cannot put barbed wire in the garden it is against the law but the odd tripping hazard also works, you have to remember you put it there. Boxes or crates can be picked up for nothing if you look and pots packed in and a couple of batons screwed on is simple, these people do not hang about it is in and gone in seconds, easy pickings.

I would say I was surprised by the hang them high posts, you do have to prove guilt and it is very often the last person you would suspect and not the obvious person you thought. Once hung the witch is dead guilty or not.

As my insurance tells me it is up to me to take all positive steps to secure my own property, leaving your keys in the car and the engine running for some reason says neglect so put away or out of sight anything worth money, some areas are much worse than others so more care needed.


13/05/2014 at 12:19

Hi All, might be a bit late in the day to suggest this, what I do with our pots out the front on the gravel, is drive long tent pegs through the drainage holes and into the ground before filling with earth. This is mainly to stop the postie knocking them over, but it will deter anyone stealing them.

13/05/2014 at 12:26

Mark, you and I must have the same postie!

Nin, as Scott said, you can get invisible marker pens from the police for free. They come with nice yellow stickers that warn people that things have been marked. Our police also offer smartwater pens, which are similar but linked to your address by bar code. And, if you have a shed, they sell shed alarms for five pounds which make a terrible racket. They come with two remote control devices, batteries and they also come with bright little notices telling people that should watch out. Our force also has a neighbourhood watch type of thing where people can get in touch with others on the scheme to warn them about potential problems. It would be worth asking your local police force if they do something similar.

13/05/2014 at 13:53

Thanks for all the help and advice.

It really is worth remembering its not always the single expensive items that are stolen sometimes its a large number of low cost items that can be easily sold.

13/05/2014 at 16:44

Terracotta 'look' or genuine terracotta doesn't make any difference to the fact that this is theft pure and simple.  Terracotta 'look' just made them easier to nick

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21 to 36 of 36 messages