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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Stolen

We've lived in our current home for about 15 years.  When we first moved in, I brought with me some bell shaped stainless steel thingies that I'd purchased at a salvage place and painted to look like aged copper.  For several years these had perched atop concrete drain pipe pillars at our old place in a "less desirable" part of town and were filled with plants.  As a special welcome to our new, "better" neighborhood, the pots were emptied of their contents and stolen within a few weeks of my putting them out.  Before we had gates with locks, our gardens (side and back yards, not just the parts facing the sidewalks)  were periodically vandalized.  Plants would be pulled up, etc.  A couple of times, every ornamental thing in the garden that wasn't a plant or a pot was stolen.  Someone must have come along with a truck and had a day of it.  Since we've had locking gates for the last few years, we've been fairly lucky.  The only thing stolen was a broken stained glass window that was covering an opening in the fence.  Someone decided they needed the basically worthless panel and wiggled it through the opening from the outside.  Other than that, nothing had been taken in about four years, until now.  I just watered this plant in it's planter a couple of days ago but when I was  out watering on Sunday, both the planter and plant were gone.


I looked all around the area where the pot was thinking that the recent wind and/or our racoon friends might have had something to do with it falling over or perhaps moving to a slightly different location but no, it was just gone.  Someone had come into our garden and taken just this one thing. 

As is usually the case when people steal our property,  we may miss the things, especially those with sentimental value or that cannot be replaced, but the feeling of someone violating our space is far more disturbing than the loss itself.   All the thoughts about who, why, and how start running through my head along with the worry about someone returning. 

One of the nice things about blogging is that it's caused me to take a lot more pictures of my garden.  At least now I have the photograph to remind me of what this unhappy guy looked like. 

21 comments:

  1. Peter, That just sucks. Are you sure you moved to a better part of town? What is wrong with people? I sometimes worry about stuff like this happening in my gravel garden, which is completely open to the street. I don't know if a virtual hug will help you feel less violated, but you can have one anyway.

    ((((Peter))))

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    1. Thanks Alison, your hug made my day! It's odd, there are potted plants, birdbaths, etc. in many parking strips in our area and most seem to go unmolested but there are reports of people going inside yards and taking things all over the place. My friend, Florence had a HUGE concrete pig (like 500 pounds) that people tried to steal. She usually found it abandoned somewhere else in the neighborhood as it probably got too heavy for the theives. Finally, it was stolen and not recovered. Strange. Oh well change is good.

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  2. That is a terrible feeling when you know someone invaded your space and took something. The idea that the situation might escalate is a real concern.

    Not too long ago in San Antonio a guy was shot while removing a potted plant from someone's porch. The comments online were quite interesting with many expressing concern for the plant and its broken pot which were featured in a photo in the paper. No charges were filed, this is Texas and the thief was on the porch.

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    1. It will be what it will be.

      The attitude about the shooting you describe would be similar in Alaska. In Washington, one must actually fear for one's life before shooting. I'm not sure what the law is regarding the protection of one's property. Hmm...

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    1. It's so nice to feel the empathy of other gardeners; we've all experienced something like this at some point.

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  4. Yup it sucks. Wow, Scott was hit earlier with vandalism and now this theft. It's one of the frustrating parts of gardening that we all experience at some time. Oh well...

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  5. Some people are just so awful, they only think about themselves, and not how they are affecting others by their actions. Years ago we were broken into, and had some things stolen, one of them was my SLR camera, so i know the feeling.

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    1. Yes, there are a lot of people who make awful decisions. I know I've made some pretty bad choices at various times in my life. Some people grow out of it; others not so much. Let's hope for the best.

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  6. Wow. We can all do without the supremely entitled in the world. Seems they feel if they like it they can take it because, somehow, they see themselves deserving it. (Maybe they do need a little buckshot in the posterior!) Yes, most of us have had this happen at some time, but it still is a loss and a theft for you, and I'm sorry it happened.

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    1. Thanks for your sympathetic words. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter - The pot was something I got on sale and the libertia, although lovely, can be replaced. Just irritating.

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  7. I'm sorry to hear that. When we had the house re-roofed a couple of years ago, a cordyline and an aechmea went missing from the greenhouse. I think that gardeners are generous, trustworthy, public-spirited people in the main and it's always difficult to see others taking advantage.

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    1. I've been given so many plants and delighted in giving plants away. It's what gardeners do. I'm sorry to hear about your plants vanishing from the greenhouse; what crust!

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  8. I so hate to hear this! Are people that desperate for plants??

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    1. It's disappointing - Plant desperation might be a good book or blog title...hmmm.

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  9. Would Plant Desperation make a good name for a rock band? Well, probably not. How about Plant Desperados?
    Seriously, I'm so sorry this happened to you. We've had our house robbed twice, once while we were in the basement watching tv with the kids. In that instance, I ended up chasing some young guy out the back door. It is an terrible feeling.
    Hoping this doesn't happen again to you, and that you find a replacement for the Little Screamer.

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    1. Yikes! I'm sorry to hear that your house was robbed & how scarey that it happened once while you were home. Thanks for your kind words.

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  10. Outrageous! I can't believe anyone would do that. That feeling of complete violation is a sad one. I'm really sorry to hear that happened to you. booo people!

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    1. I know right? It happens though and I was lucky that it was only this one thing.

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  11. That's awful. It feels bad that someone strange comes to your area and it's sad that your property is taken. I hope that won't happen again. My police friend said once that burglers avoid houses with a dog. A rottweiler is a good buddy to have...

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    1. What a good idea! Aku is such a handsome and sweet burgler deterrent.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.