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Well, punk, are you?
By adamg on Tue, 07/07/2015 - 9:24am
Jennifer spotted this sign on the Somerville side of Porter Square this morning.
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Comments
If the point of flowers
was to feel good from growing them and having them around, then obviously this person is doing it wrong
"The point"?
If the point of flowers is to feel good from growing them and having them around, then it's pretty disheartening to have some random asshole steal them, thus preventing the grower and anyone else in the neighborhood from enjoying them any longer. I've been a victim of plant theft, and it sucks. Somebody stole a lilac shrub from in front of my house, planter and all. My next door neighbor lost a strawberry jar full of plants mere days after she had received it as a birthday gift. Why exactly are WE the ones "doing it wrong" if this upsets us?
watch a nature show
The baby antelope gets eaten by the lion. Its the cycle of life.
This sign is the opposite of a flower!
Good God
Good God, what an asshole you are.
If all you have to worry about is occasional plant thieves
than you are way ahead of other people, in other neighborhoods.
Adam didn't interview the
Adam didn't interview the resident and report that plant stealing is the single most pressing issue in this person's particular neighborhood.
It's a quick post about a pic which describes a minor incident. Stop being so self-righteous and try to think before you condemn.
Why I've mostly stopped reading uhub
The stupid, gratuitous snark from the first two commenters says it all. Someone does an asshole thing, and all you can do is take a swipe at the victim? What does that say about you? Think about this for a second, the victim didn't even post here, just put a note on their plants to hopefully make some stupid selfish lazy asshole think twice in the future. Someone else ("Jennifer") evidently decided hey, here's something for the idiots of uhub to snark about, and posted it here. Guess "Jennifer" was right about that. Useless people.
hi pot, met kettle
Don't whine about "snark" when half your comments are pure definition of the term. You've got the track record here to prove it.
Hahahahaha!
Touche! Few can top the mighty petr ibb dual personality ultra petty snark a thon.
He's really just here to argue for 2024 and whatever other shill jobs his agency drew.
In the meanwhile, he pretends to blend in. You should see his astonishing petr chronicles over at BMG.
He went to Harvard, you know.
At least he/she is not an
At least he/she is not an anonymous coward and *has* a track record.
knew that was coming
What difference does it make if someone hides behind an anonymous name they've come up with, versus the one the site does for people who don't register?
Seems to be an epidemic:
Seems to be an epidemic:
http://evgrieve.com/2015/07/messing-with-hydrangeas-prompts-sharply.html
(Via the NY Today column in the New York Times...I'm a displaced Bostonian so I need to read twice the news in the morning).
Lucky!
I'm on my third city, keeping up on the "local" news is getting time-consuming.
Let's hope the next move is a return trip to a city I've already lived in, otherwise I'm going to be really crunched for time.
Ha! Actually it's three for
Ha! Actually it's three for me, too, but I've cut my D.C. news consumption to once or twice a week after treble news was cutting too far into my productivity.
window box
The flowers in question appear to be in a window box attached to a house. It's not grand thief but pretty rude. Drawing attention to it with a sign might get more flowers stolen.
So you are saying that saying
So you are saying that saying you were a victim of a crime will only encourage more crime, and victims should 'stop snitchin?'
Can't believe we're four posts in and no one has
corrected the punctuation here. Needs a question mark, or an exclamation point (or three, underlined three times). Better yet, an interrobang.
I can definitely relate
to that sign poster. We are continually plagued by petty thefts in Mid-Cambridge, but the sense of outrage I feel as an avid gardener when a perky little plant I've nurtured over time suddenly grows legs overnight is beyond all reason. And it happens one at a time, often leaving the victim feeling too ridiculous to contact police. Friends, please stop buying "unwanted" or "discarded" plants from your local drug addicts! And I'd like to napalm the garden of anyone (after rescuing my own plants, of course) who can sit in their garden ON MY STOLEN BENCH and enjoy these thoughts: "I stole that one last year in Somerville, and this one this year in Cambridge. Hmm, maybe I should replace that wilting plant with the one I admired the other day in that lady's yard...."
Maybe flea market resales?
I've lost a lot of plants from gardens in Boston. One of my neighbors suggested that the thieves might be people who sell plants in flea markets. The plants that were stolen were generally small enough to put into a pot for re-sale.....
And yes, it's weird, plants often disappear one at a time. I might plant 6 of something.... then one day there are only 5 plants.... then 4 another day. As if I wouldn't notice.
Some Trefoil Repellant?
I wonder if it would be possible to selectively add some nice, shiny leaves of three to plantings that have been repeatedly raided by thieves?
And I wouldn't be so sure that it is junkies stealing them, either. There have been some posts on UHub in past years that would indicate that agrikleptomania affects a broad cross section of society (I remember one where a mom with kids got caught and whined that she "didn't think they belonged to anyone").
Some ideas on the culprit...
It was either a bike-riding, Obama-loving, socialist-supporting, Cantabrigian, just-dug-out-parking-spot-thief...
or
A Limbaugh-listening, rainbow-flag-hating, Sarah Palin-loving, Ted Cruz-supporting thief.
I think I covered all of the usual click points here. Waiting for the partisan backlash craziness from y'all. Have at it!
I had three flower pots that
I had three flower pots that I put on my front steps and planted flowers in.
--Two years ago someone stole one single flower out of the pots. Dug it up, left the dirt and pot.
--Last year someone stole all of the flowers out of two of the pots, again, digging them out and leaving the dirt and pots.
--This year they walked away with two pots full of flowers.
I always thought it was weird that they spent the time to dig out the flowers, instead of just taking the whole pot -- maybe they're evolving. Seems like it would be really strange to see someone "gardening" at like 3am (I know it happens really early because I've come home late and our flowers were there and noticed at 6am when I left the house that they were gone).
It's so maddening to me. It costs like $10 for a pot and the flowers, not so cost prohibitive for most people to buy their own. I'm seriously considering one of those motion activated cameras that takes snapshots so I can find out who the asshole is. They must have a wonderful garden, I can't imagine I'm the only one they steal from.
I've seen people snapping
I've seen people snapping decent sized cherry blossom and magnolia tree branches from the buildings of those mini front yard on Comm. Ave. as well as in the Public Garden. I yelled at someone once when I caught them as I was walking by. They looked at me like I had six heads then continued breaking off more branches to steal. It was two ladies with expensive clothes and purses, not someone who seemed like they needed money. Lame.
Maybe it was their tree?
Maybe it was their tree?
Wrong tool
If it was their tree, they would have used pruners/lopers to avoid damaging the tree. Also, you take those earlier in the year while still in bud so they open while inside.
Snap their photo
Next time, snap their photo, including the plates on their car if possible, and send it to that address. Then post it to the net so we can shame them- but do it before we gardeners snap! I once, only half-jokingly, told a bored teenager who was breaking branches off a tree that I'd use the next one on him as good old-fashioned switch! I knew his Mama, and when I pointed out that she wouldn't blame me one bit if I really did, his eyes got big. The tree stopped dropping branches after that! Now, if that tree had been my own.... (SMH)
Garden Punk Control
... But being as this is a Garden Weasel, the most powerful hand cultivator in the world, and would mulch your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"
True story this
I took my young nieces 6 & 7yrs old to a local park. We were admiring the daffodils someone had taken the time to plant around one of the trees. So pretty! As i was helping the 7 yr old in the car the 6 yr old who is behind me on the sidewalk says "look what i picked for mommy" - yes - she was clutching all the daffodils! She had no clue that she probably just ruined a neighbors little garden and i was not going to ruin her gesture of love for her momma so i packed her in the car fast and hoped no one saw us. The flowers were well received but I did tell my sis in private where they came from. We had a laugh. Sometimes these things happen and are not meant as mean spirited.
so instead of using it as a
so instead of using it as a teaching moment you decided to let the 6 year old continue thinking it's A-Okay to destroy other people's property?
True story this
I came home from work one day to find a neighbor with her toddler in my front yard, and she was encouraging him as he picked my daffodils and brought them back to her.
That little boy was 2 or 3, so maybe he didn't know better yet. But 6 years old is well old enough to know right from wrong. Shame on you for not teaching that lesson.
And the lesson didn't need to be a harsh one.
One could praise the fact that she wanted to give her mother a nice surprise gift, but then explain that (in the future) one has to think about whether it is proper to pick the flowers -- and give some basic guidelines.
Shame shame
Shame shame shame. Let me shame a 6 year old. No thanks. If i caught her in the act i would have but the damage was done.
Are you 6 years old?
I didn't say to shame the little girl, I said that you should be ashamed. As the poster above says, it would have been possible for you to gently tell her that the flowers weren't hers to pick, even if her intent was good. Would you let her steal from a store if it was something for her mother?
That's a cop-out
Just once I'd like to come outside and discover that someone has replaced a plant their kid or pet has damaged- or at least left a note of apology so we can be assured it was not intentional. I'd rather have someone hit my parked car and take off than do the same damage to my garden without making amends. The garden I tend with my own hands is PERSONAL. It'd be more akin to vandalizing an antique model T that someone's spent real time and soul restoring. It's crushing, and infuriating that asshats like you don't get it.
Imagine another 6 year old helped plant those flowers
Imagine that another 6 year old helped plant those flowers, and ask yourself how you would explain their destruction to that child. Your next outing with the kid in your life should involve some gardening reparations and a small sturdy note capable of withstanding a few rains. (Hint- use a Sharpie on a piece of a standard white paper plate.) And do not assume too much time has elapsed if it's been a few years. Much like bullying, these gardening transgressions are rarely forgotten. Even if the original planter has since moved on in search of a neighborhood where their efforts will be respected, the effect of such a gesture will be appreciated, and the experience remembered in a positive way by your young charge.