Thoughtless vandalism and theft in my locality.

So...

A few weeks, to a month or so ago, I stepped out of the store in which I am to be found during business hours, for a cup of tea and a cigarette. This is not at all unusual. It was about twenty past ten, the sun was hidden behind a grey veil of cloud, and all was right with the world. That is, of course, until I peered across the road, to find that one of the planting tubs that the local traders and community association had installed, had been deprived of its central feature, this being one Buxus plant.

Evidence of the vigour with which it was removed, lay scattered around the edges of the planter and on the floor beside it. I put out my cigarette, walked back in side the store, placed my mug down on the counter, and took up my iPad. I proceeded across the street, with my iPad recording video (which came out upside down, and therefore has not been included in this thread).

Upon further investigation, it became apparent that not only had the Buxus from the tub across the street been stolen, but a trail had been left, of discarded soil.This trail lead me to discover that the Buxus from a tub on the corner of the street, on the opposite side of the road, had also been purloined! A further trail of soil debris had been shed from that tub, all the way down the road which intersects with my road, and came to a stop at the next corner, where a ring of soil marked a place where one of the plants had been rested upon the ground.

It seemed clear that someone had put one plant down, opened a car boot, or van door, and then placed both plants inside and driven away. Police were called, an officer showed up, asked for some of the media I had taken, including photographs, to be sent to their email address, and so on. Time passed, the plants were replaced where possible, and the normal run of events resumed.

Snap forward to the thirteenth of this month. I am standing outside my store, lighting up a cigarette, and drinking a cup of tea, when bugger me, the flipping bastards have been at it again! I called the police, again. I was visited later on in the week by the same policewoman, and again I shared the details that I had, and the photographs I had taken. At the same time, I alerted her to some graffiti that had been daubed across one side of one of the planters.

Today, I received a telephone call from the local press, asking if I would not mind being interviewed. They had gotten my name from the policewoman who is dealing with the matter at hand, and had been asked by her, if they would not mind running a public awareness report on the situation. I feel pretty strongly about the efforts that local people have made to improve the environment in which residents and traders in this road, live and work. The planters and their contents were installed by the local community, from donations made to the West Road Community and Traders Association, from members of the public who live in, shop in, or work in this street. As such, although my mother and I are not members of that association, we look after these plants. We water them, we prune them, and trim them to make the most of them that we can, and keep the place looking a little more lively.

Needless to say, I had a fair bit of commentary on the matter to give to the reporter who telephoned me. Also, they sent a staff photographer down to our road, to take photographs of the planters in question. What I did not initially realise, is that the photographer was there to get my picture too! Well, more fool her. Her camera, is now officially broken, due to the affect my mug has on all such devices.

The long and short of it is, that I am going to be in our local paper, looking royally pissed off. Now, I do not necessarily mind being pissed off. There are some things, that I almost ENJOY being angry about. The state of peoples general knowledge, for example. The fact that many Britons from my region can barely speak the language that they grew up with, the fact that people around here rarely pronounce the letter T correctly, if at all. However, when people make an effort to do something nice for their community, when the entire community comes together to brighten peoples day with flowers, and plants, and good wholesome things that remind people that there is more to life than the 1960s prefabricated BS that many residents, including myself, call home, and someone ruins that?

That does not make me angry. That makes me want to force my fist through someones face, and slowly, ever so slowly through the back of their head. I am talking so slow, that I can feel each and every fold of their grey matter, part and tear under the inexorable increase of pressure. The reason for my volcanic response to this sort of thing, is that there are many problems which I can do nothing about, which even an organisation of hundreds cannot change for the better, problems which require the concerted efforts of thousands upon thousands of people, just to hold at bay for a time.

But the issue of having a slightly nicer environment in which to live and work, the idea of helping people enjoy shopping on our road, and making people smile with plants and flowers, these are things we CAN do, things which we can involve ourselves with. When someone decides that all our effort can be disrupted and that we can be deprived of the results of our hard work, that our efforts are worth so little... that makes me very angry. It is bad enough that council property is often treated with such poor manners, but this was not council property. These were plants paid for by local people, and installed by a community group.

Vandals and thieves who involve themselves in local affairs in this way, show a callous lack of regard for the greater good, for their neighbours, for their community as a whole, and that is intolerable to me. I feel a little better now. Goodness... a rant really is good for the soul!

Damn savages!!


We had someone steal stuff out of our yard before. These people just don't understand that it feels better to earn your own money and then BUY IT YOURSELF!

It never ceases to amaze and dis-hearten me what people will steal. So, do they assume that because this is "Public" property, that it is ok to take? Good for you for making this known. Whoever did it needs to be publicly shamed.

Jerks.

Great Rant!

Shame that people these days have no regard for the property of others .. and worse the misguided idea they can appropriate anything thats not tied down ..

Pity they cant put the miscreants in stocks in town square these days ..


Hopefully they dont nick anymore of the communites plants ...

If it's not nailed down, someone will nick it.

A couple of years ago someone stole two rather rusty old cast-iron planters full of flowers from outside my house (in the front garden, right against the front wall of the house). I still don't know whether they wanted the scrap metal, the cheap bedding plants, or just something to do with their evening.

a reply to: TrueBrit

I thought every square meter of the UK was under constant video surveillance.

a reply to: ScientiaFortisDefendit

It is... when the real estate is worth something to the government.

Our little slice of the pie however, is three miles from town centre, and does not generate enough of a fraction of a percent of the GDP, for the powers that be to have monitoring installed there at this time, and to be honest, I like that. I like that our level of security has not been purchased at the expense of our liberty here.

What I hate is that people who are too dense to realise what a boon that is, how lucky we are in that regard, are behaving in a way which makes it more likely that some sort of either private or government lead effort to install CCTV, will be enacted in the area.

I like freedom, I dislike government monitoring schemes, and I dislike the fact that my liberty may some day be infringed because of the behavior of a small number of morons. It makes me furious in fact.

I very much enjoyed your re-telling of your plight.
Well written and easily read by anyone.

I hope they catch the buggers but then again we know that won't happen.
Makes me think of when we lived in a townhouse.....(20 units stuck together) anyways I went out back to fire up our BBQ for some hamburgers and something seemed off but I could not put it all together what that was.

I got the BBQ going and went in the house to get a beer and when I came back out with my beer It hit me!
The bastards stole all our patio chairs and I had nowhere to sit! .......true story.

Didn't even bother with the cops, our chairs were gone and that was the end of it.

Regards, Iwinder

My ex has had thousands of dollars of equipment stolen from the cellar. Usually the doors are locked and we have had awesome neighbors for years until a couple of years ago. I don't care how poor I have ever been, I wouldn't even think of taking something that didn't belong to me. Some people these days have no friggin heart and are so self serving and think of only themselves. Makes me sick!

Good for you on staying on top of things True! Kudos!

a reply to: TrueBrit

How about some suggestions, then? Install your own CCTV camera, perhaps? Or maybe bury some of those exploding dye packs that banks use, just under the surface of the dirt so that when the miscreants pull the tree up, they will turn a nice identifiable color.

originally posted by: ScientiaFortisDefendit
a reply to: TrueBrit

How about some suggestions, then? Install your own CCTV camera, perhaps? Or maybe bury some of those exploding dye packs that banks use, just under the surface of the dirt so that when the miscreants pull the tree up, they will turn a nice identifiable color.

Hahahahaha! Good idea! I second that

a reply to: ScientiaFortisDefendit

That is a great idea, and is something I have been looking into. I would like the facility to also receive a phone call or text in the event of the soil being disturbed, and something that we could disarm while working the soil over to prevent the dye packs from blasting legitimate persons!

Here is a link to the local news story...

www.echo-news.co.uk...

... Which features a picture of me, looking fat and angry

Hi TrueBrit,

Saw this article and it reminded me of your plight. Hopefully they'll catch this man.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

STM

a reply to: seentoomuch

Wow.

That bastard just walked over, and yanked those plants right out! What a steaming, quivering pile of dung!

I hope that both the gormless waste of flesh who did that, and the moron who has been destroying our plants get what they have coming to them!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Who knows, could be the same man? Travel is easy nowadays. Does he look familiar? And have you installed any camera's?

STM

a reply to: seentoomuch

We have considered it, but a half decent one would be prohibitive in cost, and my company, and indeed the now defunct association of businesses on the street, would be unable to afford such a system at present. Perhaps that will change in time.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Keep us posted, please. Hope your community catches the creep.

Best Wishes,

STM

Oh that's bull#. I am rather pissed as I had something like this happen. I have had for many years a gardenia plant that was a seedling from a bush that belonged to my mother who has passed away. I raised the little thing for years now and granted, it wasnt fabulous looking, but it was alive and well. I had it in its pot by the entrance to my apt building as always for over a year it's sat no issue. Yesterday afternoon I go outside to sit on the steps and have a smoke, and it's gone. Like wow, who just takes a plant for no reason? My neighbors have never had issue with it. Everyone is considerate and wouldn't touch others stuff. I'm rather upset because it was a memory of my mother. I'll get over it but I feel really irked and uncomfortable that someone was so uncaring of personal property right at our front door. It's intimidating. Or maybe I'm weird and over protective.

a reply to: rbkruspe

I think your assertion that ones frontage ought to be left alone by passers by is absolutely reasonable. People should know better than to meddle with people's property in such a way!