Grand Theft...

[pat]

The MVPD officer just left.

Someone came in last night and stole all the tangerines off of our backyard tree. And I do mean all the tangerines. Even the ones off the top of the tree that we had left because they were too hard to reach. Every last one. We're talking well over 200 of the little orange suckers. They even took some of the fallen fruit.

They didn't touch the bikes, or the scooter that belongs to James's friend. They did not steal the lawn mower or the weedeater. The car was accidentally left unlocked, but there was no sign that anything had been disturbed. We can see no sign that they tried to enter the house. If they did, they left my laptop, the most valuable easily portable thing in the house.

Just the tangerines. And the officer pointed out that this had to have been a planned crime -- they would have needed boxes to get the fruit out of the yard.

All of this happened less than ten feet from my bedroom window, and I slept through all of it. The only thing I can think is that the noise of my CPAP drowned out the sounds of people climbing the ladders. (The ladders had been left in the back yard to harvest fruit, but they were moved out of position and one which had been flat on the ground was open and standing up.)

I am annoyed and a little angry about losing the tangerines -- they were pretty good ones. But they were little, nowhere near commercial size. What would someone do with them? I am at a loss there.

But I am really freaked out about the invasion aspect. What if they had broken into my house? I would not have heard them.

I really wish brian1789 were not away on travel.

Comments

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

As I said in Brian's journal, there is the chance that they were hungry homeless trying to feed themselves. It doesn't make it any less wrong or any easier to deal with but it could explain why they took nothing else.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I mentioned this to the officer. He said that was very unlikely: homeless people tend to grab fruit that's near the sidewalk, and this theft was just too organized and would have required boxes or bags to transport the fruit.

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my other thought. I'm sorry. I can imagine how violated it makes one feel, and how vulnerable.

I've been mugged before and we've had things stolen from our back porch or our car. *hugs*

[frankenboob.livejournal.com]

My first thought was of this little old Asian woman who combs our neighborhood stealing fruit. Lots of fruit.

Very odd to have a tangerine thief. Glad nothing else (and no one else) was bothered! Glad you are okay.

I have plenty (and I mean PLENTY) of small, seedy tangerines (that taste really good) if you would like some. We have two types in our yard.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

They want to make lots of tangerine juice? Or marmalade? Or they're selling them in bags at the side of the road ("jus' twee dollah!") It's a bummer, for sure. Time for a lockable door to the back yard?

(hugs) I know how annoying--and disturbing--this is. (We've both been burgled, AND had all of our tomatoes stolen one year--different incidents)

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

Yikes! The loss of the tangerines, while sad, is *nothing* compared to the loss of peace of mind and a sense of security. Yikes!

And this is also such a *bizarre* crime. I know that when I have completely unexpected things happen, it makes me feel off-kilter and anxiour generally-- I hope you don't have that experience.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Ho-ly.... O.O

I'm glad you're all right, and I totally understand being freaked out!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Oh, ouch. Talk about your loss of security/feeling invaded...

I'm sorry.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

It seems unlikely that somebody who would grab a bunch of tangerines but leave a lot of other valuables lying around would break into your home, if that's at all comforting. I find that people often don't thik of such things as property and view it as "not stealing, really".

I recently saw a woman in sort of hippy-ish clothing wandering down the street. Sticking out of her backpack she had a container with a bunch of flowers in a bouquet type of thing. She stopped at one point, opened her backpack, and took out some clippers. She then stepped into someone (front) yard and clipped a rose off of their rose bush. She put it into the container with the other flowers, put the clippers away, and continued onward, not a care in the world. I was kind of floored because my first thought if I ever pondered something like that would be, "How would I feel if I came home and someone had cut my carefully-tended rose bush?" which would be enough to stop me right there, but I suspect that she just thought, this is a thing of nature, I am a child of nature, I have as much right to this as this person does.

(Similarly, I once saw an old, slow-moving Chinese lady stroll, taking a good minute to do so, onto someone's front porch in my neighbourhood, take out a bag, pick all of their tomatoes from their front porch box garden, put them in her bag, walk back out and continue on her way. WTF?)

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

That's not to say that your feelings are invalid or inconsequential, btw. I was just thinking that maybe it'd help you sleep a bit better.

(Another weird tale of theft: My friend Gus had a bike. Every day someone would go into his backyard, sometime in the early morning, and steal it. Every evening, they would return it. This continued for about six months. Finally, there was a series of days with terrible weather every day, and the bike never came back after that. It makes me sort of curious as to what happened. Did the person get tired of bringing it back every day. Did they figure that without any attempt to chain it up after that long the person must not care? Did they slip in the bad weather and wreck the bike?

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

She then stepped into someone (front) yard and clipped a rose off of their rose bush.

That's behavior one would expect from kids -- and I've trained mine out of it (mostly). Adults should know better. I mean, what happened to people saying to their kids, well before adulthood, "What if everybody did that?" or "How would you feel if that were *your* rosebush?" ?

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

That's not to say that your feelings are invalid or inconsequential, btw. I was just thinking that maybe it'd help you sleep a bit better.

I understood what you were saying : )

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

But I am really freaked out about the invasion aspect. What if they had broken into my house? I would not have heard them.

That to me is the most disturbing bit :( I hope they figure this out!

[erin-c-1978.livejournal.com]

I find that people often don't thik of such things as property and view it as "not stealing, really".

Yup. During one session of the botanical art class I took a while back, the instructor was chatting with us about the growing problem of landscape theft. One of the stories she told was about the experience of a friend of hers, who walked out her front door to find someone digging up her trilliums and loading them into a pickup trick. When the instructor's friend objected, the thief said, "Oh, you have plenty" -- and continued digging them up!

[erin-c-1978.livejournal.com]

That is incredibly lousy. Some people really suck.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard of.

I do like having dogs, partially because it's very hard to sneak up on us. The neighbors can't even approach their own fence without canine permission.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It's different because it's random kids, but I was once housesitting for friends who had a big tree full of almost-ripe apricots in the front yard. From in the kitchen at the back of the house, I heard a *smack* and yelling, and ran out front to find half the tree on the ground, split, and the kid who had been on the branch rubbing her butt as she raced away, about fifty feet behind her friends who had a head start. I picked the apricots that were now on the branch on the ground and preserved them, but I was pissed -- there went a good tree.

But those were random kids in the daylight grabbing a snack, not intentional tree-stripping.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

That's one of the stranger things I've heard in a while. I would be plenty freaked out, too. I'm glad that none of you were harmed physically.

[who-is-she.livejournal.com]

oh, honey, here's some big hugs for you!
(((((pat))))))

Yes, this brings up a lot of feelings.
Brian will be home to give you hugs soon!

more hugs.....

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Had Cyber (the dog who lived next door) not moved in December, they would never been able to do this.