Has anyone else heard of, or experienced, people stealing ripe vegetables from their gardens?

[fasttense]

I live in a poor rural area. I have a neighbor who belongs to my local small farmer's co-op. I'm the designated person to call retail outlets to sell our produce. He was suppose to provide me with several bushel baskets of crook neck squash. But when pick up time came around, there was no squash. He showed me his field, you can see it from the roadside. Seems some people (maybe 2 or 3) in what looks like sneakers had helped themselves to his squash. Their footprints were all along the side of the field and leading up to the road.

So, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem of people stealing their vegetables out of their garden? Is it time to start guarding our fields and gardens from hungry people? Are things that desperate yet?

[JohnnyLib2]

1. I'm in a semi-rural area with a lot of family gardens.

It's a fairly common complaint. Sometimes leads to neighbors feuding!

[fasttense]

4. Really? I can see kids taking fruit and not knowing better.

But adults? And then it leading to feuds.

I can understand being upset by the missing vegetables. It's hard work to keep it alive in this 90 degree heat.

I had no idea it was a common complaint.

[havocmom]

2. cattle rustling big where I live

All good god fearing neighbors, but SOMEBODY in the group is stealing cattle.

[fasttense]

6. Cattle rustling?

I thought that was only in wild west TV shows. I wonder if I need to start locking up my sheep at night?

[havocmom]

10. weeeel now, sheep started going missing here too, when prices went up.

That slowed down some when it got so wet that the ground showed tracks, and they weren't coyote (well, not the four legged coyotes, any way)

[mzteris]

3. it was only a matter of time

people have no money. Desperate people do desperate things

[Warpy]

5. Yes, but crookneck squash wasn't the target

Tomatoes and sweet corn were more of a temptation. People who grow melons and don't live right next to their gardens are asking for trouble unless they patrol frequently when the melons are ripening, shotgun loaded with rock salt.

To steal crookneck squash meant that they were hungry and hoping to sell it for something better.

And yes, things are likely to get just that desperate.

[HereSince1628]

7. It happens, my farm is spitting distance from a hamlet

I've given up trying to protect wild asparagus, blackberries, hickory nuts and walnuts. It's just a whole lot easier to invite the local kids in to grab whatever they can carry home. That also turned out to be a way to get to know families in the village, the unbidden hunting has virtually stopped since I've gained the friendship of neighbors, I actually have squirrels back in my woodlot.

[zipplewrath]

8. As old as farming

Literature is filled with tales around this topic, from children eating themselves sick on stolen food, hobos stealing food for the common pot, and gangs of people stealing virtually whole crops in the night.

[kestrel91316]

9. People used to go into my fenced plot at the community garden in L.A.

and swipe my fully ripe tomatoes and peppers and olallieberries. As if that wasn't bad enough, people used to come into my fully fenced back yard at the house I rented to steal my veggies from my BACK YARD (I was on a corner so people could see the goodies.

People are assholes. It made me mad enough to consider staying home on guard with a frickin' baseball bat.

[MineralMan]

11. Anything of value has the potential for being stolen.

A sad business.

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. That kind of stuff has happened forever n/t

[Dover]

13. Guilty

When I was a kid we would on occasion sneak down to a local farmer's field crawl on our bellies and yank carrots out of the ground. We really weren't after raw carrots so much as enticed by the terrifying myths surrounding this, no doubt, innocent farmer. It was said he would drown little children in the lake behind his place if they were caught on his property. So, of course, we had to prove our fearlessness and stealth.

But on a more serious note, this sounds like it might be an organized group. If so I imagine you'll hear similar stories from other farmers.
My recommendation is also as old as farming itself . Get a big dog who will, at the very least, bark a warning. And I hear Guinea fowl also make good watchdogs.

It seems that petty crimes are, in general, going up around here. There is a very casual style to bank robberies at some branch or other every week. The robbers often don't even bother to disguise themselves.

[timo]

14. sure does

You would be surprised how INDIGNANT people get when you bust them, we have ALOT of winter tourists down here and they will pull over and walk out into our fields and just start helping themselves and when I point out what they are doing is against the law you should see how ANGRY they get and the names they call us..this has gone on since forever....and they are not broke either because they all drive really expensive diesel rigs to pull their trailers with!!!!! they will think nothing of stealing a field sack of onions nothing at all, I have even witnessed one telling another in the grocery not to buy vegetables just go steal them from the farms...it creates a little animosity between the locals and the yankees.