Vandals!!!

[stavroslinni]

well just went to the allotment to do a few little bits and found the shed doors ripped open by some little F@@Krs!!! plants trampled on where theyv come through the fence which are now snapped in half.
Not impressed and feel somewhat down that someone can do this...just breaking stuff and ruining things. Nothing was even taken!!! Has anybody else have problems with this kind of thing? (2nd time its happened to me now) Are there any detterents ?? Have tried blocking where they came through up with what ever i can find laying around. Grrrrr!!!! rant over

[chris]

It is annoying, I can't imagine how you feel - my plot has had its shed door ripped half off, so I've just left it as is.. only leave v.cheap tools in there, and they've not been stolen. Do you have a window in your shed? If they could see nothing of value was in there, they may think twice (probably trying to steal stuff to sell at car boots..)

Does your site have CCTV at all? One of mine does, which seems to have calmed the vandalism down - but it was only put up after kids broke in and killed/burnt a load of chickens/plots. It's disgusting.

[Florence Fennel]

The dirty rotten scoundrels. It must be so annoying and disheartening when you are a victim of this and it's not always easy to find a solution. What about filling the gap with some very ripe manure? That might deter them and it'll rot down for use on your plot.

[VirginVegGrower]

Shove rosa rugosa in your hedging and thorn the little s@ds! It will have the added benefit of bringing pollinators in. Try tying fish gut twine across their chosen path and stick a glow in the dark skeleton/Halloween mask in your shed or one of those movement sensors that croaks or makes a noise. Chances are it's bored kids. They need scaring - get a big dog!

[buzzingtalk]

Idiots! fence the plot off and put non drying glue on it and catch the buggers red handed!

[VirginVegGrower]

Idiots! fence the plot off and put non drying glue on it and catch the buggers red handed!

Don't we sound fierce?! :-)
Make it superglue or tar and feathers and I'm right with you!

[Snadger]

I leave all my doors of sheds and greenhouses open and don't keep anything of value in them.
Vandalism is deplorable though and I'm sorry I have no constructive ideas apart from keeping the police informed. The police are adopting a 'zero tolerence' in our area and every act of vandalism or theft is reported to them.

[Hans Mum]

as snadger says report every thing to the police, we did this last year when a persistant bloke kept coming onto site and stealing things they put a covert camera on site and he got an ASBO. Also defensive planting around the perimeter of your site is good, sloe (you get berries for gin as a bonus) & pyracathus which has fierce thorns & the birds like it

[Suky]

Shove rosa rugosa in your hedging and thorn the little s@ds! It will have the added benefit of bringing pollinators in. Chances are it's bored kids. They need scaring - get a big dog!

We had a problem with hedge surfing at the house, kids would climb on the parked cars and throw themselves in the hedge, damaging cars and hedges. We put holly in, they soon stopped, the yells were wonderful the first night they found it.

[VirginVegGrower]

We had a problem with hedge surfing at the house, kids would climb on the parked cars and throw themselves in the hedge, damaging cars and hedges. We put holly in, they soon stopped, the yells were wonderful the first night they found it.

Hee hee hee!

[Snadger]

We had a problem with hedge surfing at the house, kids would climb on the parked cars and throw themselves in the hedge, damaging cars and hedges. We put holly in, they soon stopped, the yells were wonderful the first night they found it.

Cripes....you've just brought back memories of a mis spent youth!

In my defense, it didn't feel like vandalism at the time and its only with age I realise how much of an obnoxious litttle sh*t I was!

[Alison]

We had a big problem with vandalism last year (just after the schools broke up) with teenagers (and younger) hanging round the plots and slicing things up, immature fruit, tomatoes, sunflowers, the side of my tunnel etc etc . They also pulled up some canes and played javelin with them towards chooks and again my tunnel, scaring the former and piercing the plastic. One of the other plotholders found out who it was and they made no attempt to deny it, just said they were bored! Somebody spoke to one of the mum's who just shrugged her shoulders and the council weren't much help. Some of us phoned the police and they came up with the very helpful bit of advice - apparently it's best to call them during the vandalism - yeah, right....... After a couple of weeks of hassle, one of the plot holders and his mate apparently went and had "a chat". I don't know the details and to be honest I'm not sure I do but it stopped after that although I know that people are regularly using my tunnel as I find butt ends in there. This is only annoying when they close the vents so I'm going to take them off during the summer. Would point you to the thread on the subject but have no idea where to find it at the moment

[stavroslinni]

Thanks for all the comments people, liking the pile of manure one Hehe hedge surfing dosnt sound that fun. I went down yesterday and pulled some of the hawthorne across where they seem to get through, try and train it across to hopefully deter them. Whilst I try and find some other things to also put in place. Would love to catch them in the act though grrrrr

[VirginVegGrower]

We had a big problem with vandalism last year (just after the schools broke up) with teenagers (and younger) hanging round the plots and slicing things up, immature fruit, tomatoes, sunflowers, the side of my tunnel etc etc . They also pulled up some canes and played javelin with them towards chooks and again my tunnel, scaring the former and piercing the plastic. One of the other plotholders found out who it was and they made no attempt to deny it, just said they were bored! Somebody spoke to one of the mum's who just shrugged her shoulders and the council weren't much help. Some of us phoned the police and they came up with the very helpful bit of advice - apparently it's best to call them during the vandalism - yeah, right....... After a couple of weeks of hassle, one of the plot holders and his mate apparently went and had "a chat". I don't know the details and to be honest I'm not sure I do but it stopped after that although I know that people are regularly using my tunnel as I find butt ends in there. This is only annoying when they close the vents so I'm going to take them off during the summer. Would point you to the thread on the subject but have no idea where to find it at the moment

It is boredom coupled with a lack of respect. I remember years ago my mum would find her front garden Borders trampled on, flowers picked, etc. Now usually my mum would go in with spit and fight but in this case she knew who it was and the young girl concerned was given a corner of my mum,s garden at the back where she was taught to sow and plant bits of stuff - marigolds and such like. She was the same age as me! She hated her life - parents were useless , dirty and workshy - and wished for a mum like mine. So spite made her kick out. Needless to say June and I became good friends. She shared my toys and we would have picnics in the garden. My mum even took her to get a haircut and then told her mother why!
Wherever you are June I hope you're happy now.

[endymion]

... liking the pile of manure one

A mixture of grass clippings and beginning-to-rot veg peelings 'persuaded' teenagers next door that it wasn't a good idea to shove their way through the hedge to get their football, even though they knew from experience that they could come and ask or, if we weren't in we'd throw it back as soon as we spotted it. The same sort of thing might work for you.

Trouble is that with allotments they're likely to be able to find another way onto the site, and might cause even more trouble.

It's such a pity they've nothing better to do