• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

Pepper thieves at the community garden

AlphaHydroponics

AlphaHydroponics


Tomato plant problems, pests, chipmunks and squirrels, now this...

Between Monday morning July 9 and Wednesday evening July 11, We were the unfortunate victims of pilferage at Our community garden.
Someone decided to help themselves to a selection from each one of my pepper plants.
They took mostly the ripe ones and in some cases simply snapped a branch off, loaded with pods.

Golden Cayenne, thai hots, aji yellow, black pearl, red congo, 5 color chinese, were all robbed... some damage to the plants too,...

113.jpg


107.jpg


108.jpg



They stole all the "red ones" off of the chinese 5 color

099.jpg



People can be pathetic... I hope they enjoy... but next time, please just ask.... We kindly share seeds and pods...
You know the saying, "Give a man a fresh pod and they are happy... teach a man to grow pods and they are hooked"
or something like that....
 
I'm so sorry to hear of the thievery in your community garden. Another guy and I had produce stolen this year from our parts of the community garden. I doubt if these are kids, though we've had malicious damage done in the past. A few years back, 'they' pulled up huge sunflowers and used them as golf drivers, hacking down pepper plants, and whatever was in their path.

So far we've only lost green beans and lots of zucchini (who wants a dozen zukes?), and a half row of garlic. Brazen people that must know our schedules - that we've now changed.

If 'they' decide to pilfer my hot peppers, I hope they get a mouthful.
 
That sucks. Just because its a community garden doesn't mean that you can just help yourself. They obviously don't even care since they just ripped off whole branches instead of just picking them like normal. To bad you didn't have any supers there and like catherine said, they'd get a mouthful of :fire:
 
Aw man, that is very sucky. Not much worse on the planet than a lowlife thief.
I hope the people that did this are caught and punished. If it is kids and they don't get caught,
They will grow up and one day have a garden of their own and will always remember the destruction they caused.
One can hope.

I hope you and catherinew can recover some of your plants and pods, and maybe put this quietly behind you.
 
why cant people relize all the time and money put into growing these wonderful plants if they wanted peppers couldnt they buy their own... even better get a spot at a community garden and grow their out.... people these days have no respect for each other or their property....
 
Looks like someone in the neighborhood wanted to start some cuttings for themselves, but had no pruners.

My ex-next door neighbor would do this all the time with my plants. She'd even plant them right near her front door after breaking them off my plants, like it was no big deal.
 
get one of these.
http://www.amazon.com/Primos-Truth-Cam-35-Camera/dp/B003PVGA1O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342146506&sr=8-1&keywords=hunting+camera
no power, just batteries. they fill a memory card with snapshots, or short videos when ever the motion detector is triggered.

if there is choke point, put it there, and just look at who is comeing and going.
ive heard of alot of people using them for finding out what rodents are eating their plants, so they know what to shoot at and what to leave alone. you just have to be creative such that its not being triggered by branches and erroneous crap.
 
Just use "scum-away".


When sprayed on anything- this spray is proven to keep away any unexpected "scum"

It smells good to "non-scum" so it can be used as a personal repellent to keep "scum" away every day!

I even use "scum-away" on my car so no "scum" break in any more.
 
Capsicum said:
Just use "scum-away".


When sprayed on anything- this spray is proven to keep away any unexpected "scum"

It smells good to "non-scum" so it can be used as a personal repellent to keep "scum" away every day!

I even use "scum-away" on my car so no "scum" break in any more.
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone... We appreciate the support... You always have risk in a public venue......
So our members are now voting on the following options... please weigh in...

Signs regarding Kharma
Bear Traps (my vote)
Drones
Various hexes and curses..

Your idea HERE:
 
Spritz everything with a chile extract solution (find the cheapest extract you can find, or even a hot sauce loaded with extract).

1 tsp extract/extract-based sauce + 1/2 tsp dishwashing + 1 quart water = KeepAway


they may rummage through your vegetation once, but they won't be back....



My Vote-
signs regarding Karma and also including Hot Chile Spray warnings for those who aren't cosmically linked. and copius pepper-solution sprays as described. Good Luck. And I also feel that it's a balancing act. because if the person taking the food really needed it for their family, then i'd say "take what you need"....but knowing chiles are a unique crop...and not usually used as a basic food staple....
 
If someone needs to steal food, they are welcome to it if it is outside.
From me, anyway.
If they just vandalize, karma goes around and around.
If they come into my house to steal or vandalize however, they get a bullet.
 
AlphaHydroponics said:
Thanks everyone... We appreciate the support... You always have risk in a public venue......
So our members are now voting on the following options... please weigh in...

Signs regarding Kharma
Bear Traps (my vote)
Drones
Various hexes and curses..

Your idea HERE:
Click to expand...

QQ's idea of the camera is the best. Proof to law enforcement, parents, and/or gunsights.
Signs regarding Karma will just get spray painted with wannabe gang tags.
 
AlphaHydroponics said:
Thanks everyone... We appreciate the support... You always have risk in a public venue......
So our members are now voting on the following options... please weigh in...

Signs regarding Kharma
Bear Traps (my vote)
Drones
Various hexes and curses..

Your idea HERE:
Click to expand...
something like this

Please%20Do%20Not%20Steal%20The%20Vegetables.png


http://www.chicagono...the-vegetables/

Also:

Put a pesticide spray lawn sign next to the peppers when the gardeners leave. Your friendly pest control guy should have a bunch in their truck and will probably give you some if you ask nicely.

You can spray them with something inert that will leave a milky whitish residue. That is where Bordeaux Mixture came from. It was originally invented as a way to keep people from stealing grapes along the roadside, but had the unknown benefit (at the time) of also being a fungicide.

Meanwhile there was another problem for grapes growing in France.​
​
People.​
​
People like to eat grapes beside the side of the road and so, throughout France’s grape growing regions, grapes on the sides of the road were typically bare.​
​
Unlike downy mildew, however, grape growers had a pretty good idea what to do about people.​
​
They sprayed nasty stuff on the grapes.​
​
This nasty stuff took many forms, but the one which was most effective was a mixture of copper sulfate (basically you dissolve copper in sulfuric acid) mixed with lime.​
​
Brushed on a plant’s foliage, it was darn ugly.​
Click to expand...
 
thegreenman said:
Looks like someone in the neighborhood wanted to start some cuttings for themselves, but had no pruners.

My ex-next door neighbor would do this all the time with my plants. She'd even plant them right near her front door after breaking them off my plants, like it was no big deal.
Click to expand...

WOW

THat's LOW man...

That she'd do that

I wonder what ELSE she did.. ugh!

salsalady said:
Spritz everything with a chile extract solution (find the cheapest extract you can find, or even a hot sauce loaded with extract).

1 tsp extract/extract-based sauce + 1/2 tsp dishwashing + 1 quart water = KeepAway


they may rummage through your vegetation once, but they won't be back....



My Vote-
signs regarding Karma and also including Hot Chile Spray warnings for those who aren't cosmically linked. and copius pepper-solution sprays as described. Good Luck. And I also feel that it's a balancing act. because if the person taking the food really needed it for their family, then i'd say "take what you need"....but knowing chiles are a unique crop...and not usually used as a basic food staple....
Click to expand...


HAHAHAHAH Salsa Lady - I had the same DARK suggestion - but I was afraid to post it

I was going to say inject your pods with pure 100% capsaicin -

of course not seriously- but camera is the right idea.

Sad you have to do that.
 
If they only took red pods from thd C5 plants, they knew what they were doing. Breaking the branches instead of cutting them was probably due to laziness or fear of getting caught. If they were going to root them they would have grown them in the first place. If they left green pods, they again knew, and will most likely return. Happy hunting! Sorry for the loss.
 
We try not to make it a worry, yet it is frustrating.Theft is unfortunately a fact of life.
A variety of improved security measures have been implemented, but nothing is bomb proof.

The positive experience from the community garden, far outweighs the pilferage.

Regards, Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top