Allotment thief caught red handed!

[Lazgaot]

I went up to my plot this afternoon and discovered two fellow allotmenteers on my plot. One was greedily devouring my strawberries and the other was on the path alongside my plot. They were way of track and had no excuse to be there, their plots are right on the other side of the site.

I'd suspected the chap with the strawberries to be the litter bug who dumps all his beer cans on my plot, but now I've caught him with hand fulls (and his mouth) of my strawberries. He apologised and handed back the strawberries before they both beat a hasty retreat back to their plots.

It's a council site so I'll be reporting it to the Allotment Officer tomorrow. In concerned though of "reprisal attacks", more veg etc.

Anyone suffered the same and have any advice on how to deal with it?

Thanks.

[rustylady]

Apologised? I should hope he did. If I'd found someone doing that on my plot I would have gone ballistic.

Good luck with the Council. As for reprisals for reporting the theft - if anything else goes missing at least you will have a good idea who the culprit is.

[VirginVegGrower]

I'm with RustyLady. He'd have been wearing the rest of the strawberries!

[Norfolk drew]

If I had of caught them id of composted them

[The Masons]

That's really just not on!!

[darcyvuqua]

I would walk on to his plot and help myself he would soon see why your disgruntled

[VirginVegGrower]

I've seen somebody helping himself to someone's rhubarb because he's not been picking it. I told him I'm not stealing, when he offered me some. I don't think it even entered his head that it was theft.

[Jonthefish]

That behaviour has so p***** me off, im really sorry for my Language and i wish you were closer, as i would have a chat with these two 'rats'. I put so much effort into my little garden, i can only imagine what effort, time you must put into your allotment.

Actually just googled Norfolk, your not far from Cambridge and Peterborough. I lived in P.borough for awhile. I really need to calm down lol. They so much as fart in ur direction, just laugh and say, im telling Jon.

[Mr Bones]

He deserves to be evicted, hope it all goes well for you. Might not be a bad idea to start turning up at different times of day if you can, just so no one knows quite when to expect that you'll be there.

[Two_Sheds]

He/they have broken their tenancy agreement, so should be kicked off site.

At the very least they should get a stern "last warning" letter from the committee/council, and you should press for this (it won't be their first offence, it's just the first time they've been caught, and yours won't be the only plot they steal from).

Ask around, see who else has had mysterious thefts. Write it all down: dates, times, what went missing. Make a paper record, and keep it.

[Indigo23]

That is totally shocking! I agree with what Two Sheds says.

[lottie dolly]

on our plots,we have the option of calling the police,if only we could think at the time,a pic on the mobile as well,

[Glutton4...]

I'd have calmly followed him back to his plot, and helped myself to anything I wanted, right there in front of him. Thieving B!@£)(*&^%!!!

Good luck with your fight. I am totally livid on your behalf.

[Feral007]

Yep, I'd be fuming too. Make sure you make a report tomorrow asap.

And I'd be saying around the allotment how if anything at all EVER goes missing or wrong, I'll KNOW WHO TO BLAME! The poor buggers will be so busy making sure no one else does anything to your plot that they won't have time to look after their own.

[alldigging]

Would be interested to know the outcome of this.
it is pretty appalling behaviour!