Is this stealing?

[happypet]

We are renovating and have heras fencing across the front of the garden (farther back than what we legally own). I was in the front garden, when I heard someone chatting close behind me- 2m away. I turned to see a women picking blackberries from our plant- which grows in our property. She was chatting to her toddler whilst filling a bucket! I live on a quiet lane, and 6 houses along, its open fields with alot more blackberry bushes to choose from.

Excuse the pic, but I thought it odd that she squeezed herself between our car and the plant- to pick fruit from our bush. I realise its only blackberries, but AIBU that fruit on our property is ours?

And so you struck up a conversation with her, told her toddler you hoped they enjoyed making something with the blackberries and politely said to mum that there are bushes down the street that don't belong to anyone but these are on your land and you'd like to use the fruit yourself....??

Did you not just speak to her and say ‘This is private, please don’t take my fruit that is on my property and a thornless variety which I planted, obviously not wild. Thanks’?

So if I understand correctly, "heras fencing" is that temporary metal fencing that you get round festival and building sites and the like?
Does the garden look well-tended on the other side? Maybe she thought it was just a bush on a building site?

Some of the comments on this are killing me 🤣🤣🤣 oh god I needed this wee giggle after day I had

Why don't you just reposition the Heras fencing so it's more obvious that the bramble bush is inside your garden?

If you live in in the country, is the parking area more of a pull in and rough looking so that it could give the impression of not being privately owned.

alternatively maybe she used to chat to the person who previously owned the house and they told her to help herself.

i wouldn’t be upset

I hope you made her sellotape the stolen blackberries back onto the bush.

It most likely looked like they weren’t on your property. If she had crossed over into what was clearly a front garden then fair enough but if the boundary is unclear then it’s not really her fault. Moreover, it’s sodding blackberries, get a grip.

Call the police !!!!

Yes I suppose it is stealing. I'm willing to take a stab in the dark that this woman and toddler weren't intentionally stealing, just thought it was a Bush outside a building site next to a car parked up.

Back in the good old days, if you were a landlord, you could have sent them to prison (maybe Botany Bay) or shot them if you were handy with a rifle. Wouldn't matter if it was intentional or not, sadly times have changed.

If the bush was in the lane then no, I'd say free for all. But if she's come into your property then she's taking the piss. I'd have told her to bugger off your property.

Put an honesty box out and a price list.
And a dummy cctv camera.

Your property set up sounds ambiguous. The nature of blackberries themselves suggests wild to most people, I think. The grass in front of your fence won’t look like it’s your garden, because of the temporary fencing you’ve put in - it will just look like you’re parking on public land down the lane outside your property. The temporary fencing itself won’t suggest that plants near it are specifically cultivated. I doubt the picker realised it was your private plant.

Yes, it's stealing. Whether you can do anything about it though is a different matter, unfortunately.

I have the same issue with various other fruit (all cultivated varieties) in a divorced garden that sits the other side of a permitted access road and boundaries a field on the other side. It's clearly a garden. The fruit is prickly to stop people from climbing the fence to nick eggs, lettuce, tomatoes etc.

I'm lucky - we have local police (I know!!!) who will 'have a word'. It still doesn't stop it, but the neighbours keep an eye out for known assholes.

One woman knows her 5yo can't be prosecuted due to his age. Tbh, if she'd asked, I'd have made sure it was safe for her kid to pick some (not the easiest terrain to navigate)... but she gave me a mouthful. She still comes back!

Why do you feel its not okay to pick from the bush on your property but it is okay to pick from bushes on open fields which presumably are also privately owned?

They are on our plant, growing from our land, within our boundary.

If she was in a lane and the berries were easily accessible from a public place it is not stealing. If she came onto your property then that is being a CF.

We had this once. Also rural. People walking onto our drive (clearly our property as they had to pass the gateway) and picking blackberries off the hedge that runs between me and the neighbours garden.

I went out and said 'this is my garden' and they looked surprised and went away. Cheeky fuckers.

That would be my thought too. She either thought the house was standing empty or if you can’t see the house from the road I assumed it was an empty land/ building site.

Bloody hell, I could not begrudge someone blackberries

Absolutely irrelevant. It's on the OP's land, it's her bush to decide what happens to the berries, not some trespasser.

@happypet I hope you told her to get off your property!!

She probably presumed that your fence marks your boundary line, which is reasonable.

She could be back, with her devious intent and untrustworthy toddler. Today a few blackberries, next she will be up the garden path nicking your spare loo rolls and taking that bacon out your fridge! Call the parish magazine and keep those curtains twitching just in case.

@Underanothersky

That's up to you, there are bkackberry bushes a few doors down in the public domain, thus woman has no right to trespass.

Would you also not begrudge a passer by entering your home & helping themselves to a glass of tap water from your kitchen sink??

it's no different.

I would be pissed off if someone came into my front drive to pick the blackberries from the bush under our front room window. They're mine! I like to pick and use them for all sorts and next door help themselves too.

However, the bush is very clearly on our property. From your diagram I can't tell how it looks from the lane - does it actually look like private property? I mean, you know it is, but try to see it from the pov of someone who doesn't know where the boundary is. I don't know what heras fencing is either, so if it's not a common barrier for residential areas then perhaps think of that is adding to the confusion over where the boundary is?

Technically we should all seek the land owners permission before picking blackberries.

So what did you say to her op?!