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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed at people stealing fruit?

71 replies

kid · 27/05/2007 13:36

We have a fruit tree in our front garden. A lady that live behind me keeps pinching the fruit off the tree. She leans into our garden to pick the best ones too!
I don't know her, but I know she lives behind my house. What can I do to stop her, or can I stop her?

OP posts:
Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:31

Yes thats them Nightynight

OP posts:
hoxtonchick · 27/05/2007 14:30

kid is a real person, i have been to her house .

Nightynight · 27/05/2007 14:29

I think they are neffles, I never knew what they were called in english!

Dogsby · 27/05/2007 14:28

go out in full view wiht a garden pump aciton water spray but put somehitng "hazmat" over it to look poinsonous
westonsigns.com/images/WSCFF060_HAZMAT.jpg
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Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:28

I think it is this type of tree. The leaves look the same and so do the fruit.

OP posts:
Idreamofdaleks · 27/05/2007 14:26

tell her you spray with carcinogenic bug spray

kimi · 27/05/2007 14:26

you could pin a note to the tree saying please stop stealing our fruit.

I would confront her though if it were me

SenoraPostrophe · 27/05/2007 14:25

are the fruits a bit like peaches but sort of oval shaped and smaller?

Nightynight · 27/05/2007 14:25

is it a nespole tree?

Dogsby · 27/05/2007 14:24

japanese plums they are

Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:24

I wished I was somewhere more more tropical!
I don't know who planted the tree. I'm guessing its been there for years though.

OP posts:
Dogsby · 27/05/2007 14:24

does it matter?

wheresthehamster · 27/05/2007 14:24

I think you should just smile and wave to her from the window as she's helping herself. She might feel really embarrassed.

Or hang a notice from the tree saying "Poisonous fruit - eat at your own risk".

Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:22

here is a picture of the tree. You can't see any fruit or many leaves on it though as it was very bare then.

OP posts:
Dogsby · 27/05/2007 14:19

hakcney ithouth you were in St kitts or womshere

Boco · 27/05/2007 14:19

Hackney? For some reason i'd pictured you living in some tropical country for there to be unusual ripe fruit trees with passers by helping themselves.

luciemule · 27/05/2007 14:19

oh - I thought she was an old lady.
In that case, definitely confront her.
Couldn't you pick the extra fruit and cook it to make an apple-type sauce and then freeze it?

Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:19

She takes the best ones first that she can reach and then takes the brown ones. She doesn't enter my garden but just leans over as far as she can.
Its only a low gate which she can open, so maybe she knows it wrong?

OP posts:
Nightynight · 27/05/2007 14:19

^yuk at the trail of stones. she is clearly shameless. I would be rude to her.

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 14:19

No, I believe you then, was just wondering! it is quite funny and surreal you must admit

Nightynight · 27/05/2007 14:18

well, the neighbour has already caused friction, it seems to me.

fruit stealing is out of order unless the branch overhangs her garden. In which case she is allowed to remove the branch, but must by law return it to you.

Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:17

I live in Hackney, it is for real! I'm not offended if you think its a joke though.
(Hoxtonchick knows me, she has been to my house.)

We were walking our dog one day and she passed us in the street. We thought she had taken some of the fruit as she was reaching towards the tree. We weren't sure so didn't say anything. We then saw the trail of stones leading back to our house that she had spat out from the fruit. So she doesn't just take one or two!

DH saw her through the window taking some a couple of days ago. He said he was going to say something to her but when he got to the street door, she had gone.

Its not the end of the world, but she is cheeky, and greedy! LOL

OP posts:
lionheart · 27/05/2007 14:14

If she's a neighbour would it be worth the risk of offending her/causing friction by saying something?

lionheart · 27/05/2007 14:12

Hang on, in the original post you said she takes the best.

Original poster
kid · 27/05/2007 14:12

I don't know if we would eat all the fruit, I am just annoyed at her for helping herself!

OP posts: