Next to my front door, I have a flowerbed that I've been trying to make look nice and full of flowers for several years. But I have a serious problem with the women in the neighborhood who are always stealing the plants.
I once caught one of them pulling out some pansies and putting them in her handbag, and when I confronted her, she claimed she hadn't done it and wouldn't show me what she was carrying because she didn't trust me.
I've had pansies, violets, begonias, jasmines, and even mistletoe stolen, which I had planted in the hope that the thorns would make the thieves at least think twice before dismantling my flowerbed. But nothing has worked.
This year, I decided to plant geraniums, considering they're the most common plant and that everyone in the neighborhood has them in their front flowerbed. But they still keep stealing my flowers.
I feel dejected.
I don't think there's a real solution just wanted to vent my anger.
by HavingRum
45 Comments
You should plant cactuses.
Pee on them to assert dominance.
Ok don’t actually do that.
You could put up a fake/real camera with a big sign saying that you have a camera and they are being recorded. Hopefully that puts them off. If you do get a real camera and there are any more thefts you could print out flyers with their photo and something like ‘have you seen this plant thief’ and post them all around the neighborhood/on Facebook/nextdoor’.
Set up a large box with one side held up with a stick tied to a rope. Under the box place some hard candies – root beer barrels or those weird strawberry ones. When one of the old biddies goes for it, yank the rope. Voila – you’ve caught a live Ethel or Gertrude.
A net, maybe? That works for birds. Frustrating experience, sorry.
Motion activated sprinkler!
Plant stinging nettle, prickly pears, and poison ivy between your flowers.
Install a wifi camera. Print photos of culprits caught in the act. Make a wall of shame.
Get a cheap camera off of Amazon. Put a big sign that says YOU ARE ON CAMERA. Next time one of them steals flowers, take the footage and print stills. Laminate stills, and put them around your neighborhood. “Unidentified person stealing my plants. Anyone know who this is?” Repeat on local social media groups. Basically, you’ve got to shame them into stopping. You could also put chicken wire around them.
Electric fence 😅
Take out the flowers and put up a sign, “Old bitches keep stealing my flowers, this is why we can’t have nice things.”
A camera with a motion activated light. Make it painfully obvious that you recognize them doing it.
Just hide a rubber snake and they will be too afraid to get close
Razor wire, they’ll think twice then
Rottweiler
I would start using fresh manure for fertilizer
I would put up a sign that says “Stop stealing my flowers, you’re on camera now, and I will find you.” if you can install the cameras, that wouldbe a bonus! I’m sorry this keeps happening to you, that’s terrible!
A sign that says “I make my own manure, so keep your hands off of my shit.”
A rally big dog. Or bees. Or a really big dog with bees in its mouth so when it barks it shoots bees at them.
Cayenne pepper all over the dirt
Something prickly! Look into blooming cactuses in your area. Stinging nettles are attractive plants if those grow in your area. Thistles can be pretty spiny, though those might get stolen if they think it’s a delicious artichoke.
Security camera, and file trespassing and theft report to police.
See if you can get some stinging nettle seeds and plant them among your geraniums.
PLEASEEE do motion activated sprinklers and get a recording to show us. I’m begging you! 🤣
Get one of those motion activated Halloween decorations, like a really terrifying jump scare one.
La chancla
A trap that launches glitter.
Spray them with deer repellent, old ladies hate being sprayed with deer repelent.
I would dig a hole and make a trap door that I could rise out of like the Vietcong and then spray them with skunk juice. Hypothetically of course.
I would get a door camera to print and post photo’s of the thieves in in the flower bed where the missing plants were.
Sign up that says “Swiper, no swiping”.
Encourage a mongoose to nest in the planter
Camera and/or motion activated sprinkler. Once you have her on camera, I’d file a police report. Might seem like too much, but if someone is continuously coming onto your property and stealing your plants, they should face some consequences. It would be totally different if they were ASKING for clippings to propagate instead of just taking the whole plant.
Mirrors!
I just read a psychology book that said the only method across many experiments that reduced the percentage of people who were willing to cheat during the experiment was putting up a mirror.
People generally believe they are in the right, even when they’re cheating, but when put in front of a mirror that forces them to see themselves as they cheat, they tended not to cheat anymore.
I’d try cacti as well. Or Euphorbia crown of thorns. You might not stop the flower stealing, but you would probably stop theft of the whole plant. Most cacti are decorative even when they are not flowering. Cholla would be a good choice, if they grow where you are. Those things are downright vicious, but they are handsome plants.
You could also give up growing plants there and just enjoy the plants in your backyard. You might even put up a sign – Due to Theft, I Am No Longer Planting Flowers.
Also, I’m curious, what do you mean by “mistletoe”? The plants I know as mistletoe don’t grow in soil (they are parasites on trees) and they don’t have thorns.
My camera says “camera recording” when it detects someone, that might scare them off?
heavy on the wall of shame suggestion. if they want to lie that means they’re challenging you on the truth, so prove them all wrong
Put up a sign “CAUTION – PESTICIDE APPLICATION IN PROGRESS”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4B2MKHJ
From experience, only publicity works – write a huge sign that there’s a camera, add a camera (you can convert an old phone into one), print the pictures, add pictures under the sign.
Where do you live that all the old ladies are thieves? That’s crazy. But get pictures of them and post to Nextdoor. They’re all on Nextdoor and everyone will gossip about them. They usually respond to public shaming.
You probably dont even need actual photos of them or even an actual security cam to scare them off. Stage some pictures of your friends or family stealing and just put those up as if they were real
Motion activated sprinkler.
Cameras and a sign saying “You are being filmed.” And then if they steal call the cops and have them go talk to the person.
At this point this is theft and you need to start filing police reports every time it happens. Having a camera to catch them and collecting evidence will help in case things escalate. Then you have a record. Having the camera with a sign that says, “smile you’re on camera.” Might deter her.
Get a camera and then also go get some rolls of super sticky fly paper and carefully (using scissors and tweezers) unroll and then loosely make a tube around the the main stem of the plant.
Thieves are in such a hurry to steal the plants, they don’t notice it under the blooms and leaves. When they grab the stem hard to yank it and scoot the fly paper gets really suck on their hands and anything else they touch.
Came up with this after having the plants in our farthest away planter constantly stolen. It’s super funny if you catch them on camera and if they do take the plant and the flypaper once they generally don’t do it again.
It worked just fine until someone just up and stole the big planter. Now we have a heavy rock in the bottom of the planter with a cable around it that goes through the drain hole in the bottom and is secured around a nearby tree. Every thing has been cool for two years now.
Motion activated sprinkler