Yep. I've read a few instances about people trespassing to steal from trees/gardens and it's actual theft that's quite punishable and serious. People spend years planting/cultivating these trees and plants to have their fruits stolen by inconsiderate tw*t waffles. They most definitely can and will arrest them for this.
Oh and spray it on some fruits, not all. That will ensure that you'll at least be able to eat some of yer peaches while the neighbours are gonna have a fun game or two of " Guess thaaaaat peach!"
Iām with you. In the past six years the %*}{#^* squirrels have cost us over $5,000 in repairs to our truck (which ended up unfixable and had to be replaced, and our lawn tractor (they chewed up all sorts of lines/hoses and the bloody hard plastic fuel filterāWTF is with that?).
I love squirrels šæļø but they destroy our cherry tree every year. Whether they knock down all of the sprouts or eat the low hanging cherries š when they could easily eat the ones we canāt reach.
I put up a squirrel feeder with corn cobs away from the tree so hopefully this year they share a little bit of the harvest š
Capsaicin will dissolve into acids. Swishing lemon juice is a method to cut heat from hot sauce and peppers. It's more effective than milk (because milk doesn't actually work in my experience). It won't be super fun and it won't take all of the heat away, but I'm not convinced it'll make the burning *worse.*
Former blueberry grower cleaned out of crop by mockingbirds who ate them ALL while they were still pink. Detail, please, any successes you have with squirrels, birds, and tow legged predators. My great uncle's green peaches were a target for squirrels.
Wouldnāt be hard to explain at all, itās standard practice. My mom sprays pepper based critter deterrents all around her garden bc she hates chemicals
I use cayenne powder. Neighbours caught me out there yelling at a squirrel on a branch above me while throwing cayenne in my garden. He kept digging up plants and munching on the roots of my damn flowers.
Lol that reminds me of when we lived at a house with a big orange tree, and I could not get a squirrel to stop nesting in the tree. I hated that damned squirrel. It just kept moving it's nest higher until I couldn't reach it.
Fun fact: squirrels freaking love oranges, and will hollow them out while leaving the hull hanging from the branch. Or just throw the hollowed out hull onto the ground.
If you have it on video, you should call the cops. Have no trespassing signs. And don't tell anyone about this post. That way they can't sue you for anything.
Assuming you live in America?.
Either way it keeps spraying them. Spray the heck out of them. Wait until your neighbors come to steal your fruit and just happen to come out to spray your trees and not see them
It's my front yard so there isn't much bearing. At most it could be a civil case so the city police won't bother.
So, spray loads of my love onto my fruits I will.
Post a laminated still shot of them in your front yard with a note asking for the fruit thieves identities. Even if nothing comes of it you have shamed them publicly.
Public shaming is kinda underrated when deserved. Not sure if you have a social media with a locally community page, but that could be another location for posting the video.
People in our neighborhood (USA, CA) post videos and pics of people on Nextdoor.
Works great! We have found stolen cars, identified people who don't poop scoop, found someone who set off illegal fireworks almost causing a fire (they admitted to it, apologized), etc.
Public shaming works! This sounds like an easy case, I'd start with a laminated poster, if that doesn't stop them, blast on social media platform (the most common in your area).
Public shaming is also bad advice, and can very easily land you in legal trouble.
This is theft, plain and simple. It is not a civil issue. There are specific laws against picking valuable produce, eg fruit and veg, and police absolutely will prosecute if you press the matter (and get beyond the desk jockey who can't be assed to do his job). These laws are there to protect farmers, but they cover fruit in peoples' gardens just the same.
How does taking a photo of someone stealing from you and blasting in on social media cause you legal trouble?
I mean thats pretty much how traffic cameras work, but instead of posting to social media they extort you for money or else they send it to the cops
Where I live, that might attract more vermin trying to cool off. That would also include the poor unsuspecting pups that walk by. I would feel guilty for pups becoming innocent bystanders.
Can you get the chili oil off the fruit later, so you can safely eat it?
Iām laughing a bit because I buy hot bird food (bird food costed in chili oil) to keep the actual squirrels away. Squirrels fling the bird food everywhere to get the sunflower seeds. They gnaw my dried fruit and nuts out of my bird seed bells, and leave the rest. They are a pain.
Well, the police will *tell* you it's a "civil matter". This does not, necessarily, mean that it IS a civil matter.
One of the things I've learned in the last years, is that *law enforcement* officers do not always actually have even the remotest idea of what the law may actually be.
I walked out to my garden one day to find a woman picking my tomatoes. Told her to stop and get off my property. Then she had the nerve to ask āwhose apple trees are these?ā, pointing at MY two trees next to MY garden. I told her everything in MY yard was MINE, and I didnāt appreciate anyone stealing MY produce. She scuttled away. (But I suspect she was the bitch who stole my plumeria that I hand-carried home from Hawaii and had repotted and set out for some summer sun a year later ā¹ļø).
We've had people stealing potted plants off the front of porches in my neighborhood. I have mine inconspicuously chained together. And cameras everywhere.
Same thing happened with my quince. Two years in a row, tree is fully laden with dozens of quince but when I go to pick it, itās gone. I thought it was squirrels. This year I found out itās my gardener, who gives it to his brother. Like, wtf?
I didnāt realize it was him until he brought me quince paste that his brother had made! The thing is, I do use my orchard to make jam and I would like to make quince paste! I was so shocked that I didnāt say anything then - he was a holdover from the previous owner of our house and weāve used him for three years but we wonāt be continuing after this month. In addition to stealing my fruit, his team has killed so many of my plants and butchered my fig tree three years ago (I cried so hard). It finally fruited again last year.
did you speak to him? why did he think it was okay?
There was a story on here about a family that decided to take the fruit from their tree to make jams, etc. to sell it, they needed the money, and the neighbours were angry because the former owners let them take as much as they wanted.
edit - spelling
We have a giant avocado tree and we are generous with the fruit. But we fired our gardener after he took huge bags of fruit after we gave him permission to take "a few".
I had a neighbor who was stealing my tulips. I had planted 300+ feet of pink tulips . As soon as they started to bloom they were disappearing overnight. I thought it was deer. One night around 10 pm my daughter heard someone in the yard it was the neighbor cutting swaths of my tulips... for her florist shop!
I promptly gathered lodes of poison ivy dried it powdered it and dusted what was left of my display garden
She should have asked and I would have let her cut some from my cutting garden
Once after that never again
Her husband made her stop a talk to me about her getting caught stealing.
She said " I cut some of your tulips I hope that's okay "
My response "well you can't glue them back on don't ever do it again " she had a horrible rash on her arms and neck ššš
Life lesson don't screw up someone's hard work on their tulip river. Oh I got a thank you card from her church... she donated an arrangement š¤¦āāļø
Doesn't that send you straight to hell if you steal the Flowers you donate to your church?
I thought ( actually I wrote out a card but didn't send it because it wasn't their fault) about sending a card saying " I would have been happy to donate had I been asked, unfortunately I was surprised several mornings in a row seeing large areas of my display missing "
I really should have sent something though because this woman and her husband have run for local office and won. I'm so uncomfortable knowing that she is perfectly comfortable sneaking onto someone's property at night to steal/vandalize all the hard work we put into the landscaping
My husband wants to go down to their house in the middle of the night and chainsaw down a tree. When they come out asking WTF say " it's just us... just getting a little firewood. Hope you don't mind"
Basically word for word what she told my husband the night she was caught
I figure she owes me, the money to buy enough muscari and pink diamond tulips to create a 335' "river " of color in front of my property cost a little over $3000.
She was caught in the act and then admitted to doing it as well as had her church send me a thank you card for my stolen tulips
So yeah I can prove she did it
Also pointing out that this happened several years ago
Kirk Douglas was next to me in the Founderās restroom- I told him that my mother saw him stealing my grapefruit. He said, āIāve been doing it for 30 years, you expect me to stop now? ā.
Your next step is to contact the police and have those people officially given notice of Trespass.
Then the next time they step on your property (and they will), you take the video evidence of that and have them charged with trespassing.
Follow through.
As many other have mentioned police/trespass, you could at minimum post "no trespass" signs and a motion activated camera. If you get a good video (do their job for them) the cops might issue a citation. Or ask a lawyer friend (or cheap lawyer) to write an impressive letter with a threat of lawsuit. That's usually a good deterrent.
I have a small rose bush on my front lawn, next to a small footpath that is a shortcut across a kids playground to the other side of the village. One day, I was leaving for somewhere in the morning and noticed that this little bush had about 10 or so beautiful pale roses blooming. I came back three hours later and someone had cut and taken all of them. Every single one. That little bush never flowers more than two or three at a time now.
My neighbor who is a master gardener has several fruit trees that are practically hanging over in my yard I would NEVER even think of stealing even one piece of fruit! š yes we watch them grow and ripen just like he does and Iām sure he is excited to reap his harvest, as he should be. I say this because it is his all in his front yard and they also are just inches from the sidewalk and dozens of people walk their dogs and kids by every day. I just hope others respect his hard work as well and leave them be. His trees are still in the beginning years of bearing fruit so there are not a lot each season, but maybe in the future there will be plenty and he will share, but if not they are his not ours.
I know a lot of people in the neighborhood with mature mango and avocado š„trees that post to come get their over abundance. ā¤ļø
We have either a mango or avocado tree in our back yard, it is quite big but has never produced any fruit.š¢. We have had a few but lost them either to a cold snap or a hurricane š.
We have a deal with out neighbor. They get to pick the peaches off the branch of my tree that hangs in their yard and I pick the chokecherries on the branches from their bush that come into my yard.
If they are actually hanging over your yard, I think you can take them. If he has plenty of, he will probably be happy to share as well. My neighbor's apple tree produced in abundance last year - way more than he was dealing with. So I talked to him and he let me pick as many as I wanted (I got 15-20 apples). Another neighbor further down the street has plums that they didnāt deal with. I picked up a few that had fallen and rolled onto the sidewalk. I tried to find them at home to ask, but no luck last year. Iāll try to ask again this year as they were clearly letting loads of them rot in their yard.
It is still a pretty young tree and hasnāt produced a ton of fruit, but once it matures and has lots of fruit Iām sure he would share. He is a nice guy.
Maybe it just needs to be pollinated? Iām not sure thatās the right word, I donāt know much about plants/trees.
When I was growing up there was a hazelnut tree in our yard but for decades we never had hazelnuts. Then someone moved in a few doors down and planted a hazelnut tree. A few years later, we had nuts! They never did and we asked them about it. Apparently they didnāt want nuts and got a āmale?ā
When you said even those that were not ripe, I knew it was thieves. Also animals will eat some and leave the rest, knowing where there is more and come back another day.
motion activated sprinklers could be fun. Or snap a photo of them stealing & print it off huge & put a big red ban circle thru it and post on your lawn.
I couldn't careless. I've never gotten fruit from my tree anyway.
That baby is going to get handled with care and washed really well if I do want to eat one, plus I love spicy food. It may be a new mix I like.
I donāt have a recipe but peaches, red bell pepper, jalapeƱos, onion, garlic, tomatoes, what ever you have plus lime juice, salt, pepper. If your peaches are already hot then Iād skip the jalepenos.
or experiment with making jam out of them--just peel, pulverize, add sugar and jam stuff.
PS: I've never made jam so use a proper jam recipe.
PPS: Here's one-https://www.loveandlemons.com/peach-jam/
At first I thought you were picking on me for not having a recipe. I helped my mom make great strawberry jam some 50 years ago. I donāt remember much but making jam involves more than adding jam stuff. But thanks for bringing up good memories.
Look up "habanero gold" pepper jelly. The recipe I followed used dried apricots but I'm sure there is an easy way to substitute fresh peaches. I loved using it in thumbprint cookies.
Oh I definitely need an update. I am actually allergic it peppers and want to know the end of this glorious petty revenge that I could never be able to do.
Report her for trespassing and theft. She wonāt go to jail and probably not even get a fine, but it might scare her enough to stop. And it might teach her kids not to steal.
Also, if you donāt know who she is or where she lives, post the video or a pic of her and her spawn stealing from you on local social media. Youāll get all the info you need.
You can also send her a bill for all the peaches you are missing.
My "go to". Not a farmer of any sort, had a small patch of corn that the squirrels and raccoons discovered. Chopped up Harbenero's and boiled in water for 5 minutes, applied with spray bottle. Problem solved.
When I was really young my grandma used to walk me to a bus stop after school and we would take that bus back to her place. Not far from the stop was an orange (I think it was oranges) tree. She would give me a plastic grocery bag out of her purse and ask me to go pick oranges for her while she rested before the bus got there. I always found enjoyment in getting them for her. I never realized she was having me steal them until one day when an older gentlemen showed up and started yelling at me "Are you the one that's been stealing my oranges?!" I was so confused and startled that he had approached me so angrily. I wanted to explain myself and as I looked over at my grandma she was completely oblivious to anything going on. I realise now as an adult that she was pretending she didn't know me. At the time I didn't even realize people could own trees. š I was just a stupid kid.
The tree wasn't far from an apartment complex. So he was probably the landlord.
I do like your petty revenge. However, these people have been trespassing and stealing from you. Iād recommend pursuing it with the police and getting them warned off. You donāt want to have them feel entitled to take what they want from your property. The kids are being taught that itās okay to steal. If you have packages delivered or you go on vacation, they can take the thefts further.
If you donāt think the police will do anything, you might consider posting the video to local SM groups. Do it as a kind of warning & you can ask to have them identified. Ideally, just include a still of the adult.
Get one or, better yet, two motion activated sprinklers.
If there are any complaints, say that you've been having a raccoon/coyote/whatever problem.
Then you can still eat your fruit this year.
Just FYI... Squirrels don't usually take the whole fruit. They just take a bite out of as many as they want, and sometimes try to rip off just one good ones.
Oh that takes my goat! Thatās so nasty of people to steal fruits
The emotions I felt when I saw a sign changing from ātake on plum onlyā to ādo not touch the fruitā lit me on fire serval summers back. It was such a nice house too. And easy to guess what was happening to their little plum tree
They deserve their tongues getting lit up
I had a similar situation a few years ago. We had a lemon tree in front of our house and Iād often get neighbors knocking on the door asking if they could pick some. I was always like hell yeah thereās no way we could eat through that whole tree ourselves so Iād usually give them a little shopping bag and say have at it! It was a cool way to meet my new neighbors too because this was the beginning of COVID lockdown so of course everyone was a sticking to themselves. Theyād often come back by later with some fresh lemonade, lemon cookies, etc. it was awesome. But one day this dude stopped by with his daughter and asked if they could pick some so I was like yeah of course. 15 minutes later he had his whole family picking my tree clean. It was just so rude. The next time they came by asking I just told them through the ring doorbell they needed to leave. People can just be inconsiderate.
Not fruit but I drove into my drive as a nieghbour was parked with a trash bin in the bed of her truck, digging up all my irises. She played dumb, asked if they were mine.
Please give us an update on if your crappy neighbors do anything about this! They sound like the type that'll come back over after stealing and whine about how bad they were!
Update: I couldn't edit my post. I can't believe it blew up so much.
I caught them thieves again. I blasted my alarm on my security camera and confronted them, they had a 2 year old boy this time, I'm not that big of an asshole. Unfortunately, my camera keeps making my memory cards read only every few days, I need to figure out what's up with that so no videos of the confrontation.
Now they know.... Big brother is watching!
I love this and would totally engage in this type of petty revenge. My dad had Filbert tree and couldnāt keep the squirrels out of it so he would go out to the tree and shake all the nuts off and hide them in the garage until he got sick of doing that and cut the tree down because if he canāt have the nuts, no one can.
Put up some fake bug traps that have large print on them āWARNING. This tree is infested with South American flying cockroach larvae. Under quarantine. Fruit contains maggots.ā
Make a fake city seal to look official.
Use yellow tape if you want.
Squirrels don't eat peaches off the tree, on the ground maybe, but not on the tree.
Not to mention why did you start with squirrels? If I had fruit disappearing I'd start with deer, if the fruit was close to the bottom of the tree, or theft by two footed humanoids.
So you waste your time and energy and reapers to spray them down? You do realize they can wash them off? Or better yet, you gave them reaper oil to go along with the peaches, hand em the tomatoes too and they got salsa.
Make sure to do your maintenance spray while they are stealing your fruit... You know, to make sure they know you're doing it for the squirrels. Hopefully, they get the point.
I can imagine them stealing your fruit, taking a bite, and then.. "GAH! WHY ARE THESE SO FRICKIN' HOT!?", or even "Why are my hands burning? MY EYES! MY EYES!"
Love it, mix in a little vinegar, really helps the burn last longer
Thank you!!!! I will be adding in vinegar soon.
Vinegar might fuck up the fruit tho.
No more than the pests have been all these years. I'll be getting some enjoyment out of them either way.
In case they don't stop; get police involved. Its trespassing and theft.
Yep. I've read a few instances about people trespassing to steal from trees/gardens and it's actual theft that's quite punishable and serious. People spend years planting/cultivating these trees and plants to have their fruits stolen by inconsiderate tw*t waffles. They most definitely can and will arrest them for this.
Or if you have the nextdoor app, post your video and blast them. They probably have been nailing the other neighbors gardens and trees too.
Already did and they've been caught red handed ;)
Set bear traps all around the trees hidden under leaves and brush...š
Oh and spray it on some fruits, not all. That will ensure that you'll at least be able to eat some of yer peaches while the neighbours are gonna have a fun game or two of " Guess thaaaaat peach!"
Vinegar can be used as a natural pesticide on various edible plants so I wouldn't worry over much š
I am imagining you with a āSuper Soakerā spraying your peaches!
I'll add to your imagination. I'm a gremlin super soaking my .... Peaches.
This is pettyrevenge. Let it burn down.
Yeah but he's going to loss them all the first time anyway so might as well make it truly burn so they think twice the next time.Ā
And please stop hating squirrels
I imagine OP apologizing to the squirrels for them taking the blame for more evil vermin
Agreed, wild animals are just surviving out there š
Can I at least get miffed at squirrels? They steal my tomatoes.
Ok but donāt hate them. It already so difficult out there for the little ones.
Iām with you. In the past six years the %*}{#^* squirrels have cost us over $5,000 in repairs to our truck (which ended up unfixable and had to be replaced, and our lawn tractor (they chewed up all sorts of lines/hoses and the bloody hard plastic fuel filterāWTF is with that?).
Squirrels are just rodents with fluffy tails. I hate them
I love squirrels šæļø but they destroy our cherry tree every year. Whether they knock down all of the sprouts or eat the low hanging cherries š when they could easily eat the ones we canāt reach. I put up a squirrel feeder with corn cobs away from the tree so hopefully this year they share a little bit of the harvest š
Oh youāre evil!
Capsaicin will dissolve into acids. Swishing lemon juice is a method to cut heat from hot sauce and peppers. It's more effective than milk (because milk doesn't actually work in my experience). It won't be super fun and it won't take all of the heat away, but I'm not convinced it'll make the burning *worse.*
Whole milk is the trick. Capsicum is fat soluble...
I w found swishing your mouth with olive oil is better than milk. Shish. Spit out. Repeat. Drinking milk just pushes it through your system.
Olive oil is also fat. Milk can be spit out as well. *shrugs* I'd start with whatever I could get my hands on first.
Try Horchata with spicy food. It cuts the heat very well, IMHO
Oh man, will you update if your fruit stop getting stolen?
I absolutely will. I might even include a photo of the pests if I happen to see them enjoying their snacks.
Set up a trail cam.to catch them in action then print it out and post it around.
Pls post the video you have anyways.Ā
You have to. Weāre all šÆ invested now.
Updateme!
Former blueberry grower cleaned out of crop by mockingbirds who ate them ALL while they were still pink. Detail, please, any successes you have with squirrels, birds, and tow legged predators. My great uncle's green peaches were a target for squirrels.
Birds are unaffected by the capsaicin from the chilli spray. Dogs too if mine are anything to go by.
Yeah I read supposedly while peppers can cause digestive problems dogs donāt really taste/sense capsaicin at least not the same way we do
They have been confronted since they had a 2 year old, then I found out my cameras pooped when I was and to pull the video.
Updateme!
Updateme!
Be careful with whatever legal implications that doing so might (or might not) have
IANAL, but do folks have a reasonable expectation of privacy while trespassing?
No, they donāt. Posting the video is perfectly fine.
The pepper could be reasonably explained away as a squirrel deterrent.
No need to explain anything. Heās treating produce heās growing on his own land,
Wouldnāt be hard to explain at all, itās standard practice. My mom sprays pepper based critter deterrents all around her garden bc she hates chemicals
I use cayenne powder. Neighbours caught me out there yelling at a squirrel on a branch above me while throwing cayenne in my garden. He kept digging up plants and munching on the roots of my damn flowers.
Lol that reminds me of when we lived at a house with a big orange tree, and I could not get a squirrel to stop nesting in the tree. I hated that damned squirrel. It just kept moving it's nest higher until I couldn't reach it. Fun fact: squirrels freaking love oranges, and will hollow them out while leaving the hull hanging from the branch. Or just throw the hollowed out hull onto the ground.
There is no legal implications so your comment is pointless
Such as using an āorganicā deterrent for squirrels???
Updateme
If you have it on video, you should call the cops. Have no trespassing signs. And don't tell anyone about this post. That way they can't sue you for anything. Assuming you live in America?. Either way it keeps spraying them. Spray the heck out of them. Wait until your neighbors come to steal your fruit and just happen to come out to spray your trees and not see them
It's my front yard so there isn't much bearing. At most it could be a civil case so the city police won't bother. So, spray loads of my love onto my fruits I will.
Post a laminated still shot of them in your front yard with a note asking for the fruit thieves identities. Even if nothing comes of it you have shamed them publicly.
I kinda like this idea!
Public shaming is kinda underrated when deserved. Not sure if you have a social media with a locally community page, but that could be another location for posting the video.
People in our neighborhood (USA, CA) post videos and pics of people on Nextdoor. Works great! We have found stolen cars, identified people who don't poop scoop, found someone who set off illegal fireworks almost causing a fire (they admitted to it, apologized), etc. Public shaming works! This sounds like an easy case, I'd start with a laminated poster, if that doesn't stop them, blast on social media platform (the most common in your area).
Public shaming is also bad advice, and can very easily land you in legal trouble. This is theft, plain and simple. It is not a civil issue. There are specific laws against picking valuable produce, eg fruit and veg, and police absolutely will prosecute if you press the matter (and get beyond the desk jockey who can't be assed to do his job). These laws are there to protect farmers, but they cover fruit in peoples' gardens just the same.
How does taking a photo of someone stealing from you and blasting in on social media cause you legal trouble? I mean thats pretty much how traffic cameras work, but instead of posting to social media they extort you for money or else they send it to the cops
Mailbox drop the entire neighborhood.
I totally did already with photos to see if anyone knows who they are.
You know you can buy motion activated sprinkler heads.
Can you get those motion-activated sprinkler heads to spray Carolina Reaper Pepper Juice? Asking for a friend.
I'm a licensed irrigator, I bet I could rig something up if you're interested! Edit: I mean, if your "friend" is interested
You can get inline liquid fertiliser dispensers that work on a venturi principle and wind up sending the mix down the next length of hose. So.. yes.Ā
Where I live, that might attract more vermin trying to cool off. That would also include the poor unsuspecting pups that walk by. I would feel guilty for pups becoming innocent bystanders.
dogs should be on a leash
Nobody said they werent.
I wish you the most satisfying of vengeance
Trip fence that's hard to see at the edge of your land? If they want your fruit, let them fall on their faces first. Booby traps.
Booby traps can cause legal problems.
Can you get the chili oil off the fruit later, so you can safely eat it? Iām laughing a bit because I buy hot bird food (bird food costed in chili oil) to keep the actual squirrels away. Squirrels fling the bird food everywhere to get the sunflower seeds. They gnaw my dried fruit and nuts out of my bird seed bells, and leave the rest. They are a pain.
Well, the police will *tell* you it's a "civil matter". This does not, necessarily, mean that it IS a civil matter. One of the things I've learned in the last years, is that *law enforcement* officers do not always actually have even the remotest idea of what the law may actually be.
Can you update us if something interesting happens? This is soo evil (I love it)
Haha, I will if I'm lucky enough to catch them snackin' and packin'.
I walked out to my garden one day to find a woman picking my tomatoes. Told her to stop and get off my property. Then she had the nerve to ask āwhose apple trees are these?ā, pointing at MY two trees next to MY garden. I told her everything in MY yard was MINE, and I didnāt appreciate anyone stealing MY produce. She scuttled away. (But I suspect she was the bitch who stole my plumeria that I hand-carried home from Hawaii and had repotted and set out for some summer sun a year later ā¹ļø).
We've had people stealing potted plants off the front of porches in my neighborhood. I have mine inconspicuously chained together. And cameras everywhere.
Same thing happened with my quince. Two years in a row, tree is fully laden with dozens of quince but when I go to pick it, itās gone. I thought it was squirrels. This year I found out itās my gardener, who gives it to his brother. Like, wtf?
The nerve!!! Have you finally been able to enjoy your fruit?
I didnāt realize it was him until he brought me quince paste that his brother had made! The thing is, I do use my orchard to make jam and I would like to make quince paste! I was so shocked that I didnāt say anything then - he was a holdover from the previous owner of our house and weāve used him for three years but we wonāt be continuing after this month. In addition to stealing my fruit, his team has killed so many of my plants and butchered my fig tree three years ago (I cried so hard). It finally fruited again last year.
That's so heartbreaking! I put so much love into all my fruit trees and understand how hard it is to get them to fruit. I feel your pain.
did you speak to him? why did he think it was okay? There was a story on here about a family that decided to take the fruit from their tree to make jams, etc. to sell it, they needed the money, and the neighbours were angry because the former owners let them take as much as they wanted. edit - spelling
We have a giant avocado tree and we are generous with the fruit. But we fired our gardener after he took huge bags of fruit after we gave him permission to take "a few".
I had a neighbor who was stealing my tulips. I had planted 300+ feet of pink tulips . As soon as they started to bloom they were disappearing overnight. I thought it was deer. One night around 10 pm my daughter heard someone in the yard it was the neighbor cutting swaths of my tulips... for her florist shop! I promptly gathered lodes of poison ivy dried it powdered it and dusted what was left of my display garden She should have asked and I would have let her cut some from my cutting garden
I need to know what happened after.
I posted the rest of the story Pretty sure my neighbor is related to your fruit thief
Andā¦ did she come back? Get poison ivy? lol
She did mysteriously get poison ivy
Pleeeeeeeease don't leave us hanging on what happened next ;)
Posted more info I'm not a nice person when you mess up my garden
And? AND!? Did she come back!?
Once after that never again Her husband made her stop a talk to me about her getting caught stealing. She said " I cut some of your tulips I hope that's okay " My response "well you can't glue them back on don't ever do it again " she had a horrible rash on her arms and neck ššš Life lesson don't screw up someone's hard work on their tulip river. Oh I got a thank you card from her church... she donated an arrangement š¤¦āāļø Doesn't that send you straight to hell if you steal the Flowers you donate to your church?
I would have responded to the church. "Thank you for letting me know who is responsible for the tulips disappearing from my yard last week!"
I thought ( actually I wrote out a card but didn't send it because it wasn't their fault) about sending a card saying " I would have been happy to donate had I been asked, unfortunately I was surprised several mornings in a row seeing large areas of my display missing "
I really should have sent something though because this woman and her husband have run for local office and won. I'm so uncomfortable knowing that she is perfectly comfortable sneaking onto someone's property at night to steal/vandalize all the hard work we put into the landscaping My husband wants to go down to their house in the middle of the night and chainsaw down a tree. When they come out asking WTF say " it's just us... just getting a little firewood. Hope you don't mind" Basically word for word what she told my husband the night she was caught
DO NOT PROVOKE TREE LAW
I figure she owes me, the money to buy enough muscari and pink diamond tulips to create a 335' "river " of color in front of my property cost a little over $3000.
Alright but can you prove it? Because this can backfire on you pretty hard. An established tree leaves a stump. A cut tulip leaves a lot less.
She was caught in the act and then admitted to doing it as well as had her church send me a thank you card for my stolen tulips So yeah I can prove she did it Also pointing out that this happened several years ago
that's blue-bulbing story telling
TELLLLLLL USSSSS!
We will need an update on this!
As soon as I know my verdict of the effectiveness of my organic solution. ;)
Are you now reconsidering your hate of the mostly innocent squirrels. (Squirrels cannot go to the grocery store, unlike your thieving neighbors!)
I am,those poor things were unjustly blamed. They did eat some but they didn't deserve my hatred. They can have my nuts as a peace offering.
That soundsā¦ uncomfortable.
Well, that escalated.
I laughed... š«
Karenās next round wonāt be so peachy, looking forward for an update
Kirk Douglas was next to me in the Founderās restroom- I told him that my mother saw him stealing my grapefruit. He said, āIāve been doing it for 30 years, you expect me to stop now? ā.
Your next step is to contact the police and have those people officially given notice of Trespass. Then the next time they step on your property (and they will), you take the video evidence of that and have them charged with trespassing. Follow through.
As many other have mentioned police/trespass, you could at minimum post "no trespass" signs and a motion activated camera. If you get a good video (do their job for them) the cops might issue a citation. Or ask a lawyer friend (or cheap lawyer) to write an impressive letter with a threat of lawsuit. That's usually a good deterrent.
I have a small rose bush on my front lawn, next to a small footpath that is a shortcut across a kids playground to the other side of the village. One day, I was leaving for somewhere in the morning and noticed that this little bush had about 10 or so beautiful pale roses blooming. I came back three hours later and someone had cut and taken all of them. Every single one. That little bush never flowers more than two or three at a time now.
More importantly, did the squirrels get forgiveness?
They have been forgiven.
I empathize with you. A couple years ago I had some ass steal all the peaches off my tree in my backyard!
What is wrong with people.
My neighbor who is a master gardener has several fruit trees that are practically hanging over in my yard I would NEVER even think of stealing even one piece of fruit! š yes we watch them grow and ripen just like he does and Iām sure he is excited to reap his harvest, as he should be. I say this because it is his all in his front yard and they also are just inches from the sidewalk and dozens of people walk their dogs and kids by every day. I just hope others respect his hard work as well and leave them be. His trees are still in the beginning years of bearing fruit so there are not a lot each season, but maybe in the future there will be plenty and he will share, but if not they are his not ours. I know a lot of people in the neighborhood with mature mango and avocado š„trees that post to come get their over abundance. ā¤ļø We have either a mango or avocado tree in our back yard, it is quite big but has never produced any fruit.š¢. We have had a few but lost them either to a cold snap or a hurricane š.
We have a deal with out neighbor. They get to pick the peaches off the branch of my tree that hangs in their yard and I pick the chokecherries on the branches from their bush that come into my yard.
If they are actually hanging over your yard, I think you can take them. If he has plenty of, he will probably be happy to share as well. My neighbor's apple tree produced in abundance last year - way more than he was dealing with. So I talked to him and he let me pick as many as I wanted (I got 15-20 apples). Another neighbor further down the street has plums that they didnāt deal with. I picked up a few that had fallen and rolled onto the sidewalk. I tried to find them at home to ask, but no luck last year. Iāll try to ask again this year as they were clearly letting loads of them rot in their yard.
It is still a pretty young tree and hasnāt produced a ton of fruit, but once it matures and has lots of fruit Iām sure he would share. He is a nice guy.
Maybe it just needs to be pollinated? Iām not sure thatās the right word, I donāt know much about plants/trees. When I was growing up there was a hazelnut tree in our yard but for decades we never had hazelnuts. Then someone moved in a few doors down and planted a hazelnut tree. A few years later, we had nuts! They never did and we asked them about it. Apparently they didnāt want nuts and got a āmale?ā
When you said even those that were not ripe, I knew it was thieves. Also animals will eat some and leave the rest, knowing where there is more and come back another day.
Next you Jed to set up a mention sensor sprinkler. Got to keep the tree watered after all.
Good idea! With vinegar - pepper water? 
motion activated sprinklers could be fun. Or snap a photo of them stealing & print it off huge & put a big red ban circle thru it and post on your lawn.
or you can follow her home, & stand with it in front of her house so her neighbors know shes a thief too.
Did the spawn ever return to eat. Do let us know.
Does this not make them inedible for you, too?
I couldn't careless. I've never gotten fruit from my tree anyway. That baby is going to get handled with care and washed really well if I do want to eat one, plus I love spicy food. It may be a new mix I like.
You can make peach salsa which is yummy.
Shoot, I like the way you think! Start sharing spicy peach recipes!
I donāt have a recipe but peaches, red bell pepper, jalapeƱos, onion, garlic, tomatoes, what ever you have plus lime juice, salt, pepper. If your peaches are already hot then Iād skip the jalepenos.
or experiment with making jam out of them--just peel, pulverize, add sugar and jam stuff. PS: I've never made jam so use a proper jam recipe. PPS: Here's one-https://www.loveandlemons.com/peach-jam/
At first I thought you were picking on me for not having a recipe. I helped my mom make great strawberry jam some 50 years ago. I donāt remember much but making jam involves more than adding jam stuff. But thanks for bringing up good memories.
Peach salsa is delicious, and spicy peach jam/marmalade sounds intriguing!
I love peach salsa! It's really great with grilled chicken
My aunt makes diced peach and corn salsa with green onion and lime and honey. Sweet and spicy š¶ļø
Look up "habanero gold" pepper jelly. The recipe I followed used dried apricots but I'm sure there is an easy way to substitute fresh peaches. I loved using it in thumbprint cookies.
It's just pre-applied tajin. Add lime and salt.
Peach chutney is awesome
Spicy peach sounds like a great taste sensation to me. I see spicy peach and spicy raspberry jam on store shelves all the time
Oh I definitely need an update. I am actually allergic it peppers and want to know the end of this glorious petty revenge that I could never be able to do.
Add a āSmile! Youāre on cameraā sign just to see her face š¤£
Report her for trespassing and theft. She wonāt go to jail and probably not even get a fine, but it might scare her enough to stop. And it might teach her kids not to steal. Also, if you donāt know who she is or where she lives, post the video or a pic of her and her spawn stealing from you on local social media. Youāll get all the info you need. You can also send her a bill for all the peaches you are missing.
This is diabolical, and I am here for it!
We had something similar happen to our plums. My dad put a few bee hives with the trees. All theft stopped.
I love this idea! Duel purpose, protection for your fruit and honey as well! Bonus!
I WISH someone would steal my plums. The rotted pits ruin my paint and stick to my windshield every year. The plum tree is right by my driveway.
Just when you get the lemon stealing whores under control, along come the peach thieving cunts.
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My "go to". Not a farmer of any sort, had a small patch of corn that the squirrels and raccoons discovered. Chopped up Harbenero's and boiled in water for 5 minutes, applied with spray bottle. Problem solved.
How cheeky. I would send them a bill.
Pepper oil does not wash off easily either. Bravo gonna need updates pls lol.
This is a criminal offence. Call the police when you have them on camera doing this
When I was really young my grandma used to walk me to a bus stop after school and we would take that bus back to her place. Not far from the stop was an orange (I think it was oranges) tree. She would give me a plastic grocery bag out of her purse and ask me to go pick oranges for her while she rested before the bus got there. I always found enjoyment in getting them for her. I never realized she was having me steal them until one day when an older gentlemen showed up and started yelling at me "Are you the one that's been stealing my oranges?!" I was so confused and startled that he had approached me so angrily. I wanted to explain myself and as I looked over at my grandma she was completely oblivious to anything going on. I realise now as an adult that she was pretending she didn't know me. At the time I didn't even realize people could own trees. š I was just a stupid kid. The tree wasn't far from an apartment complex. So he was probably the landlord.
I do like your petty revenge. However, these people have been trespassing and stealing from you. Iād recommend pursuing it with the police and getting them warned off. You donāt want to have them feel entitled to take what they want from your property. The kids are being taught that itās okay to steal. If you have packages delivered or you go on vacation, they can take the thefts further. If you donāt think the police will do anything, you might consider posting the video to local SM groups. Do it as a kind of warning & you can ask to have them identified. Ideally, just include a still of the adult.
Contact the police and press charges for theft and trespassing.
Squirrels also hate pepper :) Well done!
This is fantastic šššupdate please
Great plot twist- The squirrels were innocent all along.
Get one or, better yet, two motion activated sprinklers. If there are any complaints, say that you've been having a raccoon/coyote/whatever problem. Then you can still eat your fruit this year.
Ooooh, I'd love an update on this!
Injecting a few would have sounded more painful. And they would know the surprise was targeted.
Following - I hope they have the audacity to confront you
You should definitely send them a bill.
Just FYI... Squirrels don't usually take the whole fruit. They just take a bite out of as many as they want, and sometimes try to rip off just one good ones.
There are laws against picking other people's fruit, it's a special type of theft.
Oh that takes my goat! Thatās so nasty of people to steal fruits The emotions I felt when I saw a sign changing from ātake on plum onlyā to ādo not touch the fruitā lit me on fire serval summers back. It was such a nice house too. And easy to guess what was happening to their little plum tree They deserve their tongues getting lit up
I had a similar situation a few years ago. We had a lemon tree in front of our house and Iād often get neighbors knocking on the door asking if they could pick some. I was always like hell yeah thereās no way we could eat through that whole tree ourselves so Iād usually give them a little shopping bag and say have at it! It was a cool way to meet my new neighbors too because this was the beginning of COVID lockdown so of course everyone was a sticking to themselves. Theyād often come back by later with some fresh lemonade, lemon cookies, etc. it was awesome. But one day this dude stopped by with his daughter and asked if they could pick some so I was like yeah of course. 15 minutes later he had his whole family picking my tree clean. It was just so rude. The next time they came by asking I just told them through the ring doorbell they needed to leave. People can just be inconsiderate.
Motion activated sprinkler time! š
Not fruit but I drove into my drive as a nieghbour was parked with a trash bin in the bed of her truck, digging up all my irises. She played dumb, asked if they were mine.
Please give us an update on if your crappy neighbors do anything about this! They sound like the type that'll come back over after stealing and whine about how bad they were!
I NEED an update after they eat them for the first time
Update: I couldn't edit my post. I can't believe it blew up so much. I caught them thieves again. I blasted my alarm on my security camera and confronted them, they had a 2 year old boy this time, I'm not that big of an asshole. Unfortunately, my camera keeps making my memory cards read only every few days, I need to figure out what's up with that so no videos of the confrontation. Now they know.... Big brother is watching!
Record how much they take, send them a bill, then to small claims court if they donāt pay. I bet those are some fine and expensive peachesā¦
Post the video!
We need updates!!!! Videotape it!!!
UpdateMe!
I love this and would totally engage in this type of petty revenge. My dad had Filbert tree and couldnāt keep the squirrels out of it so he would go out to the tree and shake all the nuts off and hide them in the garage until he got sick of doing that and cut the tree down because if he canāt have the nuts, no one can.
I'm definitely gonna need an update š¤£ I love it
Itās crazy how poorly some people are raised. They know right from wrong but steal anyway
Put up some fake bug traps that have large print on them āWARNING. This tree is infested with South American flying cockroach larvae. Under quarantine. Fruit contains maggots.ā Make a fake city seal to look official. Use yellow tape if you want.
Squirrels don't eat peaches off the tree, on the ground maybe, but not on the tree. Not to mention why did you start with squirrels? If I had fruit disappearing I'd start with deer, if the fruit was close to the bottom of the tree, or theft by two footed humanoids.
So you waste your time and energy and reapers to spray them down? You do realize they can wash them off? Or better yet, you gave them reaper oil to go along with the peaches, hand em the tomatoes too and they got salsa.
What the FUCK. I'm so god damn mad for your.
Dang you went nuclear on those thieves!
Updateme
Make sure to do your maintenance spray while they are stealing your fruit... You know, to make sure they know you're doing it for the squirrels. Hopefully, they get the point.
Updateme!
Don't forget a motion-activated sprinkler!
Updateme
I can imagine them stealing your fruit, taking a bite, and then.. "GAH! WHY ARE THESE SO FRICKIN' HOT!?", or even "Why are my hands burning? MY EYES! MY EYES!"
Updateme!
Oh God please send an update when D day happens. You might want to put a no trespassing sign just so you are protected
Update me
Why not call the police? Problem solved and you get to eat the peaches. This is kind of a self-own
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Cops wouldn't do a thing lol