stolen plants/cacti

[spacemonkey]

So i have been a browser and trader and small time poster on the forums for about 4 years now and don't like to add my two cents out of fear of sounding/looking like a lot of new posters to the forums that i see that get shut down and told to go do some research instead of offering a helping hand... but i digress for that is a topic i want to start a discussion on on later on one day.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience/stories with their plants being stolen?

I had what i consider to be a large and growing cactus collection around April 2012 but had 90% of my babies stolen from my house right before going to work up on the Gibb river road for 6 months, i believe someone parked a Ute up to my fence, jumped it and passed the pots (around 25 at least) to the driver.(i lived next to a park at the time).

i don't know what the collection was worth but to me it was priceless and i felt worse than when someone cheats on you. like my baby had been taken and i didn't know if where feeding them right and looking after them or if they just wanted to abuse them and destroy them for a night of sick fun (bit dramatic i know but that's how i felt OK).

i try not to think about it cause it makes me mad and sad when i do. But my collection is slowly growing back luckily they left me my first tricho pach. cutting so i will always have that.

so yeah.. that's my story i have a photo of a small portion of the cacti i collected via eBay, gum tree, asking sweet old grannies for a cutting and some of them where even form the lovely people i traded on this forum.

anyone else have any story's opinions or just wanna give me a virtual hug?

i just purchased a new loph recently and it made me remember my old one i had for a year before all that ^^ happened.

(i know my grammar and writing skills arent the best, i thought i had better things to do in school).

[zed240]

That's pretty low and horrible thing to have happened to you.

Consider yourself "virtually hugged".

I have to admit I am a little paranoid about this happening to me to. I try to keep most plants out the back but they can be seen from the road a bit. And since my collection is getting bigger all the time I also don't want to waste my in-ground space so have ventured into planting things in the front garden, (ground only, no pots). But I can't help be worried that someone will help themselves to a cutting or two from the ones out the front.

I don't know what else we can do other than be respectful to others and hope we get it back. I have asked for a few cuttings from peoples gardens and most of the time people are very happy to oblige. If not, well it's their plant and their choice. A friend of mine liberated a cactus from someones garden without asking and I was NOT impressed with him at all, which I told him.

I also try not to advertise about the plants I own to people I wouldn't trust. Did you have a slightly dodgy mate who knew about them who may have told an even dodgier friend of his that he "knew someone who had heaps of mescaline cactus we could steal" by any chance?

[spacemonkey]

yeh... i assume it was this one dodgy mate i had and dont talk to anymore.

cant figure out how to post pictures at the moment. so lets try this

Edited July 9, 2014 by spacemonkey

[mimzy]

That sucks dude. I had a few rather mature potted plants taken from my front porch a little while ago. It's a sickening feeling when a safe neighborhood bites you in the ass. It's troubling they were happy to enter your back yard. Still, life comes in swings and roundabouts, pm you're address and I'll send you a mystery box of seed to get your collection back up and running.

[irabionist]

A friend of mine had quite a few really rare cacti get stolen from them, the most recent being 3 crested lophs. Had them coming in from Thailand and AQIS stole them before they even arrived.... So saddening...

Edited July 9, 2014 by Sabry

[spacemonkey]

oh man,that's super nice.i have a decent collection that i have had for years i plan on germinating a big mix soon. but thanks heaps buddy. all of those up there ^^ are gone except one peruvianus the crest,bridgesii , tbms and spachianus and my first pachanoi cutting. but i have a few more and they have grow alot in that time looking back at this picture.

[incognito]

If u want ill hook u up a bridgesii "eileen" for nuthin except out of spite for thieves. Pm me ur addy u gotta be sooooo careful who you tell about your collection, 9.9 times out of ten it's someone you have told about their properties.

[spacemonkey]

thats super tempting and nice. but i didn't start the thread expecting charity or donations, just thought it would be a interesting topic and a good warning to others.i don't want to seem like i made this thread as charity case.

it was 2 years ago and i have learned from this and now don't trust very easy and have new security measures haha.

[Caitlin]

I am from WA and I had my collection (nothing substantial) all stolen but the smaller ones. Something I had spent about $600 on though.

I totally understand about being heart broken! But i just tried to look at it as being a clean slate, got to start over.

Good luck restarting up your collection. I will try and post a photo but if you are any where near me (pm me) I can give you one of the big cuttings I got yesterday One of the blokes on here said that it is Cereus peruvianus (hopefully the photos work)

Caitlin.

[Caitlin]

also, no big deal about the "charity" thing. I got these for free so its not like I am loosing anything if you want to grab one

[incognito]

I don't see it as charity I have way to many and I detest thrives if it makes u feel better pay postage

[spacemonkey]

I don't see it as charity I have way to many and I detest thrives if it makes u feel better pay postage

when you put it that way how can i say no.i love any new editions and paying postage will make me feel better about it being free

[incognito]

Pm sent

Edited July 9, 2014 by incognito

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

I posted a thread a few years back about 2 seperate instances with my plants... Then I moved house and haven't shared my address out for trades etc, and the problem stopped. Maybe I'm just being paranoid ;)

[rigger]

Hey Sorry to hear this. I really hate disrespectful people so here is something I have done on occasion with other plants.

First you want to make sure you have no kids and aren't forgetful.

Slice some vertical holes in your pots and place razor blades in them with some pliers (and glue if necessary) And/or glue razor blades face down on the inside of the pot's lip. These people usually do these things at night or in a rush. It might look obvious to you even if well hidden but most people aren't looking at the pots closely.

This might sound harsh but these people deserve what they get. (hopefully over time your razors have a bit of rust on the blade also)

At least you have some peace of mind that if it happens again you have dished out some payback! Also if you go and pay a visit to suspects it's going to be pretty obvious if someone has their hand slashed up.

Edited July 13, 2014 by rigger

[waterboy 2.0]

^fck man you cant go booby trapping shit viet cong style...lol

and thats coming from a bloke that would give them a big stick.

[Dreamwalker.]

no razor blades just aren't right...............isn't there some kinda permanent staining inks or something?...........or a good old electric fence.......

or motion detecting alarm/camera/lights....camera can even be fake

or surround them with some really nasty cacti.....the kinds with barbed spines

Edited July 13, 2014 by Dreamwalker

[Slocombe]

or even just a cc camera.

[spacemonkey]

WOW!, well that escalated quickly. i thought about this but i garentee i would end up hurting someone i didn't want to

[J Smith]

Thieves suck.

[naja naja]

^fck man you cant go booby trapping shit viet cong style...lol

and thats coming from a bloke that would give them a big stick.

The razor blades would be the least harmful part if u just surround your collection in a fence of top heavy psycho0. Mine is pushing out spines about 15cm long at the moment. No need to arm them, they arm themselves. Surround your patch with psycho0. I can't even imagine how bad it would hurt to get a spine in several inches. Ouch and potentially quite dangerous. Any1 heard of people loosing eyes or having internal organs punctured? I could certainly imagine they are capable. Edited July 13, 2014 by naja naja

[rigger]

lol, yeah it's a bit harsh! but it's my feeling that if they are in an area people shouldn't be (without bad intentions) no innocent people would be harmed. I would only recommend if you knew it was right for your situation.

I would worry dyes would need too much replacing/reapplying and like cc cameras are only good if you know the guys and where they live. You may have told someone you know who has told someone you don't who then knocks you off. If your a dog person that can help. few are going to go to the lengths of poisoning it for a few cacti

The idea of surrounding the area with spiny cacti is good but better off using black berry or something like that. Thicker to stop prying eyes, and much harder to cut down quickly to gain access to what your protecting.

Hey guys don't make me feel like an asshole! People shoot people for less (not saying that's ok either!) It's just some cuts that will be a painful lesson for a few weeks but it's not going to require amputation of a leg of something!!

The way I view it, If I start a fight and get hurt well that's my problem. few would not retaliate or defend themselves from fear of hurting me. I have little sympathy for someone who says "I can't play playstation for a month, my hands got cut robbing some poor guy".

Edited July 14, 2014 by rigger

[mauve]

I remember that in Hawaii the kawa cultivators had a big problem with kawa thieves until they inserted a kind of GPS chips in the plant, maybe that is a solution for your most prized specimens.

[brooa]

dude that seriously sucks ass. WA is rapidly turning (already turned?) into a shithole unfortunatly.

cant believe no one has said bougainvillea. that shit is nasty.

[incognito]

Not saying this is the case but talking about your "tripping" plants to friends is gonna lead to heartache- I tells 2, 2 tells 4, 4 tells 8 until some thriving asswipe catches wind of your prize plants.