It’s been a while since the last reported instance of residential succulent theft. But someone swiped some succulents from Neighbor Ashley’s sidewalk planter recently, and she’s hopping mad about it:
Unfortunately I’m writing with some crappy news from our neighborhood. Last summer we planted a fuf tree in front of our house to green up our street. Then, to help protect the tree and add a little more green and pretty the neighborhood, we also built a two-sided flower bed around the tree. I planted the flower beds with a variety of succulent and cati, and over the last six or so months we have watched it flourish and grow! But last weekend my heart broke a little when I came outside to find that two of our little guys had been stolen!
As seen in the photos, the holes were perfectly clean and the plants were pulled straight out and taken. It is obvious that it was not an animal, as there was no mess at all anywhere. One of the two plants that I adored had grown the biggest and tallest out of all our other plants; that one got stolen. It had turned a beautiful red color with small white flowers, and it brought tears to my eyes that it was gone.
It hurts in particular to know that we’ve worked so hard and put so much love into it our little sidewalk garden, hoping it would add a little beauty and maybe even happiness to our fellow neighbors. It’s a shame that someone would be so unkind. I worry for the rest of our plants, and I wonder what I can or should do to prevent the thief from stealing again!?
PHOTO: Neighbor Ashley
Bernalwood 
mix in some posion oak…then watch to see who’s scratching
haha, this is a fun option. we’ve decided to plant a couple more cati for now. hoping they won’t be as interested in that.
I’ve got a great cactus for that purpose…
I got hit last week too! They stole 3 mature pink succulents from my front planters! ARG!
oh no! what a bummer, so sorry to hear! ours was a pinkish color as well. it was originally green, but as it grew to about 12-16in tall it turned a reddish/pink color, it was gorgeous. 😦
String up those varmints by their toenails!
It is disheartening – it’d be great if a neighbor could surprise you with two similar plants.
Web cam, motion sensored. Oh yeah time for the sting operation.
we’ve been considering it! loftek makes this pretty bad ass night vision wifi surveillance cam. you can even watch from your smart phone!
I caugfht a woman with a shovel digging up my bulbs. I caught 3 guys who had pulled up my aloe vera plant. I had a huge pot of bromeliads and that walked away as well. Slime balls.
We have been hit 3 times in Noe Valley, I can totally sympathize with you
There was a woman selling succulents outside the farmers market last Saturday at the bottom of Crescent and I wondered if perhaps they were stolen? You may want to walk by and see if you recognize your plants!
Bummer! I live down the road and have frequently admired your lovely planter. In fact, I thought I’d noticed a hole last time I strolled by. At any rate, you’ve done a delightful job of greening up the block.
thank you mrs.yoktales! appreciate it and glad you’ve been enjoying the planter. you’ve probably noticed we did end up planting a couple more prickly cacti in replace of the succulents. hopefully that’ll do the trick! 🙂
that is awful
Perdition to these plant purloining practitioners.
how about a couple of signs like “Smile, you’re on camera” and “Beware rat poison”, “beware vicious dog”….
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