A CF caught in the act

[Kinelll]

I have a plant pot outside my front door and a couple of little garden ornaments sitting next to it, a zebra and a gnome. My children picked them and consider them to be theirs.

I spotted somebody loitering so opened the blinds and caught an elderly lady red handed putting the zebra in her bag.

To be honest I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have around here but I didn't expect the culprit to be an elderly woman😂

As a guinea pig owner I couldn't go past it (have you any idea how much those things eat?), and pulled it up and put it in my shopper, only to hear a furious banging on the window of the house.

Why didn't you just knock & ask?

I grew a giant pumpkin one halloween. I had to roll it down my drive because it was too big to carry. I put it outside with some other carved pumpkins and somebody drove up to the house and decided to pop it into the boot of their car and drive off. A bush obscured the car so we weren't able to see the car properly on our security camera. I was fuming!

A woman let her dog crap just outside our drive.

I wasn't quick enough to stop her but I put it into a bag & sent the kids after her.

I'll never forget the cries of "Lady, lady, you didn't pick up your dog poo. Here it is. Here's your dog poo lady!" that followed her down the street.

Totally agree with this. I recently saw a post on FB marketplace from a girl who had a brand new Dyson air wrap but ‘couldn’t be bothered to return it’ She wanted about 20% off the asking price. I ‘innocently’ said that if she had the receipt it would be easy enough to get all her money back as it was quite a lot to lose. She lost her shit at me which says to me she’d probably nicked someone’s Amazon parcel 🙄 🙄

I bought a really expensive hanging basket complete with tonnes of plants/flowers, hung it outside the front door and when I went out the next morning it was gone....and replaced with a rotten old basket with some dead twigs poking out. Did they think we wouldn't notice?

My mum had a couple of hanging flower baskets pinched. How these people have a complete lack of shame amazes me.

Wait! Hang on! There's a website called Spotted!?!? Where!?

It is actually not surprising that the ones that you are least suspicious of are the actual thieves.

I had a huge tree pot stolen from my front garden by the DDs of my neighbour… an oncologist.

The school bike shed was often vandalised and bikes taken out and left around the neighbourhood… by the kids of the only aristocrats we have in the neighbourhood.

We had a lot of product stolen or damaged in our local arts and crafts shop… mostly middle class mums who have the nerve to steal what they needed rather than buying a whole package.

I guess more than need people have to have the nerve and entitlement to be a thief.

I have two large garden planters in my front garden. They are clearly used.
My friend does clearances for businesses which have failed or are being done up, and he got lots of them from a fancy office building which had folded. So knowing my love of gardening, gave me two. They're plastic but thick plastic and very heavy.

I was sitting reading a book in the chair in my bay window right next to the front garden when I saw two guys come in and try and lift the first one. Broad daylight. They were moaning about how heavy they were and one said "well take the plants out we don't need that".

I was filming the entire time.

I opened the door before they wrecked my lovely plants, and they shit themselves. I asked what the hell they thought they were doing and one mumbled about how he thought they were being "thrown away" so we're "fair game".

I pointed out they are right in the front garden (which is small, you can't get a large sized wheelie bin in it) with plants in so why would they think that, and surely they should knock?

They scarpered quickly after that, I got their number plate but of course the police didn't want to do much. Put it on a local group and told people to look out as well

Cheeky thieves! It's wha they are, thieving scrouts who would steal anything they can without a care.

I heard a commotion outside early one morning. It was our neighbour who gets up at about 5.30 am for work. He had seen a woman with a dog in our front garden, helping herself to a rather nice plant. Our neighbour got the plant back and we have never seen the woman in the road again.

I can’t believe the audacity of some of these folk!!!

Well done op .
We had Facebook drama this week, firstly a poster on the local group saying that a part for their business printer had been signed for by someone else, then 6 days later the same part was up for sale on Marketplace as a bought in error , posted by their neighbour. Screenshots and links a plenty, with hourly updates .

YABU for calling her a CF. CFs try it on, and hope we are gullible enough to give in or not make a fuss. This woman is a criminal.

cement is your friend here

Old ladies nicking cakes used to be a staple in our local M&S.

I was in there in the till queue behind a man with one item. In front of him was an old lady with a trolley. She was still fannying about with it after he’d got served. As he passed her he leaned towards her and said in a loud whisper “enjoy yer cake love”!!

l’m an old lady now, but I guess these days we’re all too worried about our cholesterol levels to be eating cakes - nicked or not.

Your title should read "thief caught in the act" this isn't a CF this is just stealing. This is also why I'm reluctant to get some of those lovely trees in pots by the front door, they are quite ££, people see an opportunity to steal and will help themselves.

I know it isn't really funny but the bare faced cheek of that made me laugh, I just can't believe people are so cheeky. I'm glad you got all your pots back. I feel a bit sorry for her husband, he must have been so embarrassed.

I've thought about getting a huge pot, and filing the bottom with concrete to stop it being knicked.

Plants could still be grabbed though...

These are all shocking!

We have a guy around here who drives around collecting stuff like old washing machines, broken stuff etc ( in the Old days I suppose it would be called a Rag n Bone man) .
The trouble is in addition to the legitimate stuff he also steals anything that isn’t nailed down. I was looking out of the bedroom window one afternoon and saw him taking the badminton ‘posts ‘ for my kids badminton set which they were using in the front garden - I yelled at him and he said ‘ oh sorry love thought it was for us to take away’ - yes sure - with the net attached and set up with the rackets and shuttlecocks next to it!

He also took my metal dog guard from the driveway whilst I was washing the car - went in for a few mins to get something and it was gone.

ancientgran yes, I think he was mortified. If the roles had been reversed (not that I would ever steal someone's plant pots) I know my DH would be disgusted with me for sure!

RunsWithScissors - I wasn't so bothered about the plants really as they were usually cheap and cheerful supermarket ones, but nice big pots aren't cheap and that was what made me really cross 'cos some of the ones she had taken had cost quite a lot (for me) and i couldn't really afford to keep replacing them ad infinitum.

Saw a video clip on Reddit a while back where a couple blatantly stole ornaments, either Christmas or Halloween, from outside a house.

The worst bit was they had small children with them.
What a lesson in life - you like something outside a house, or anywhere, just take it. Ugh.

I saw a video on TikTok last night of a woman pushing a childless buggy and nipping up someone’s path, nicking their doormat and then wheeling it off. So bizarre.
The poster then posted a video of the woman -in pj’s & slippers- returning the doormat so someone obviously spotted the video and told her!

I do wonder if the apparent increase in the amount of stuff people are stealing from other people's gardens and also stealing packages left by delivery drivers etc is a sign of the times, or has it always happened but because social media wasn't around so much before we just never got to hear about it? I personally suspect it has always happened, but it is more brazen these days. Sad times for sure.

I had this happen with a set of blue ceramic ball things, 3 in various sizes
Elderly neighbour had the smallest one in her sticky mitts and was just shuffling off so me and my Daughter shot out and called her back, we then picked up the other 2 and shouted did she want them as it was a matching set
We lived in a very quiet Close, we shouted very loudly, never seen neighbours come to their doors so quickly, one of which then asked said Sticky Mitt Neighbour if she knew the whereabouts of her macramè plant hanger that she'd made about 6 months ago

My husband worked at our Parks and Gardens nursery, where they grew all the plants for the town flowerbeds. Every summer they ran evenings tours of the nursery, and he had to keep a very close watch for people taking cuttings.