[Chat] Re: [Discussion] Backyard theft in 3100 block Abell Ave alley

[Kathleen Wilsbach]

At 1:47 PM -0400 4/20/05, echalmers at mindspring.com wrote:
>Don, that's a great idea. Maybe it would also 
>work on other things, like bikes and garbage 
>cans.
>
>We had a rash of plant stealing on our block 
>(2700 Guilford) some years ago, but with high 
>fences around most yards, it's now a little 
>harder to get in. People sell the plants. I 
>stopped planting full-size daffodils in front of 
>my house because people picked them all as soon 
>as they bloomed--someone told me people also 
>sell them for a little change. Stangely enough, 
>people don't seem to want the big beautiful 
>yellow and red tulips, just the daffs. So I 
>plant Tetes a Tetes and Minnows, the miniature 
>varieties. No one picks those, and they look 
>very sweet.
>
>I have heard stories of landscapers who dig up 
>trees and shrubs to use on their jobs. How weird 
>is that? Even the vegetable world can't avoid 
>the theives.
>

I read an interesting piece in the National Resources Defense Council magazine
about people who steal shrubs and sell them to manufactures of Taxol (breast
cancer medicine).  The medicine was originally extracted from the bark of
the Pacific Yew.  Then they discovered that smaller varieties of Hemlock
shrubs are also a good source.  It can be sustainably harvested since that kind
of shrub thrives with frequent pruning but the thieves find it easier just to
dig up and steal the whole shrub.

-Kathleen