Has Anyone Ever Stolen Your Garden?

More stoops in the news, and this time it’s a sad tale of plant-theivery, which is apparently a thing. According to today’s Metropolitan Diarist ,Wendy Toth, Crown Heights stoop gardeners have to chain down their outdoor potted plants or risk waking up to bare steps:

…my boyfriend and I placed two palms in thick plastic planters along our steps. They cost $5 each, on sale at Lowes. And they were stolen within the week.

That’s when I saw the wires, threaded through holes drilled into the backs of so many planters like ours and wrapped around the nearest tree or pole. The flower-filled basins across the street are as big as St. Bernards, much too heavy to lift. Every container garden in the area is on lockdown.

I really wish this meant that thieves were desperate for plants of their own (a garden by any means necessary!), which would at least be sort of charming, as crimes go, but obviously, that’s not actually the case. One of Toth’s savvier neighbors spelled it out:

“They dump your plant and resell the pot on the street for $3,” she said, as if everyone knew.

Park Slope is a pretty different scene than Crown Heights, but it’s also not immune to stoop-theft. And it’s certainly full of gorgeous potted gardens. Does this happen in the neighborhood? Do you secure your potted plants in any way? Is that necessary?