We heard yesterday that what was rather grandly called the shop on our allotment site has burned to the ground, the initial thought it may have been arson. Over the last two years our shed on the plot has been broken into three times, and we are far from being the only ones. Nothing was stolen, but the lock was broken and the door badly damaged. We no longer bother locking it. Worse still in a way are thefts of produce. People work hard to grow stuff, then some bastard comes along and nicks it - one woman had all the fruit from inside her fruit cage stolen, so it wasn't birds or squirrels. We suspect that the overnight complete stripping of two of our fruit bushes was not feathered thieves either. A friend had a giant pumpkin stolen - it would have taken two men to lift it. Perhaps most hurtful of all was an old chap whose potato plants were just wantonly kicked over, several rows devastated.
You begin to wonder about the mentality of those perpetrating these petty but nasty crimes. Do they see us as 'haves' to be attacked? Is it desperation for food - though nobody except a party-giver is desperate for a giant pumpkin. I could understand someone who was unable to feed kids or themselves taking enough for that immediate purpose, but when it is grabbing several pounds of raspberries? I even wonder if those doing these things see what we do as perverse - digging in the ground for our vegetables when real food comes in packets; devoting time to self-help when it is more natural for many to rely on others. It is sadly sometimes in all probability - in one case certainly - plot holders who nick stuff, a terribly anti-social act. As we hit ever darker economic times it is unlikely that the thefts in particular will stop.
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