Gone

Robb · Post by **Robb** » Sun Oct 05, 2014 11:42 pm

I came home from my holiday yesterday and discovered that several of my cacti were missing. I suspect someone has stolen the cacti with very little knowledge of them and most likely plans to use them in their garden, as lots of the larger plants had been taken and all of my rarer plants are still in the GH. All in all the person took 10 of my plants including 2 of larger Echinopsis, 3 trays of 1 to 2 year old seedlings, 3 other smaller cacti and a cactus garden I was looking after for a neighbor while their house undergoes earthquake repairs. While these plants aren't necessarily rare, I have a certain emotional attachment to them as lots of them were some of the plants I bought when I first started my collection and some of the seedlings are the from the first proper batch of seeds I ever sowed. Wherever they are I hope they're being looked after well.

Kamos · Post by **Kamos** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 12:04 am

Sorry to hear that Robb

Some people out there have no shame! I know I'd be sad if one of my older plants was stolen
or died.

Aiko · Post by **Aiko** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:11 pm

The ones taken were outside and not actually in the greenhouse?
Better have a look around in nearby gardens and window sills, to see if you spot any familiar plants. If they were outside, I bet it was an opportunistic theft and the thief does not live very far away (or comes by regularly).

tumamoc · Post by **tumamoc** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 6:52 pm

I feel for you, Robb.

Robb · Post by **Robb** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 8:45 pm

Thanks for the kind words!
Aiko, the cacti were in the GH, but they were visible as a few of the polycarbonate panels were being kept in the garage because they had blown free due to our high winds. I have asked most people on our street and no one has seen anything suspicious, and I doubt any of my neighbours would want to steal cacti.

toadstar · Post by **toadstar** » Tue Oct 07, 2014 9:20 pm

That sucks. Maybe consider planting a few rows of cholla cacti to help keep the burglars at bay.

Robb · Post by **Robb** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:53 am

The plot thickens! On Friday I had three Echinopsis stolen from my greenhouse again- I'm glad I decided to keep the majority of my plants in the living room. Then on Saturday one of the stolen Echinopsis reappeared on my greenhouse bench. I'm sure it wasn't there when I went to check on my cacti early in the morning as the part of bench I found it on had been totally empty. Weird, right?
Today one of my neighbors dropped off one of the Lobivias that has been missing, they found it in the garden of an abandoned house while they were out walking on Friday. I went to the house, and after some searching I found the entire punnet of Echinocereus viridiflorus

!! The neighbor had also seen some other cacti, but they weren't there. This leads me to think that the person has stashed them there and planned to come back later and get them.
In the meantime I am busy getting a lock on my GH to keep the rest of my collection safe!

Rod Smith · Post by **Rod Smith** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:17 am

Strange happenings. You're wise to get a lock on your greenhouse but it's weird that most of the stolen plants were still in the locality.

Aiko · Post by **Aiko** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:54 am

Robb wrote:The plot thickens! On Friday I had three Echinopsis stolen from my greenhouse again- I'm glad I decided to keep the majority of my plants in the living room. Then on Saturday one of the stolen Echinopsis reappeared on my greenhouse bench. I'm sure it wasn't there when I went to check on my cacti early in the morning as the part of bench I found it on had been totally empty. Weird, right?
Today one of my neighbors dropped off one of the Lobivias that has been missing, they found it in the garden of an abandoned house while they were out walking on Friday. I went to the house, and after some searching I found the entire punnet of Echinocereus viridiflorus !! The neighbor had also seen some other cacti, but they weren't there. This leads me to think that the person has stashed them there and planned to come back later and get them.
In the meantime I am busy getting a lock on my GH to keep the rest of my collection safe!

Sounds like a local, knowing the house was abandoned and comes back regularly. So your plants are nearby!

Maybe you can install a small tracking device in one of the pots stolen (or to-be-stolen)?
There are many cat tracking devices out there you might use, designed to log where a cat goes all day and can show this on a map.

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