strange thieves

[amelia_petkova]

I work at a garden store during the summer, and today one of my projects was to organize and "clean" the vinca. These flowers are in plastic containers that are divided into six sections, with a plant in each section. The reason why I have to do this: customers sometimes pull plants out and either throw them aside or steal them. And then the boss and I got into a storytelling-session on stupid/weird thieves.

Me: I didn't realize we had so many crazy people this year!
Boss: Yeah, I have no idea where they're coming from. They're stealing plants like there's no tomorrow. Look at this. (holds up two plastic pots still half-full of dirt) There used to be hostas in these. Who the heck steals a plant that's going to grow into a bush? What did they do, stick the plant into their pocket?!?! At least in this one they left the tags saying which plant it is. They took the tag out of the other one!
Me: I haven't even seen these thieves.
Boss: The other day, Jerry [her son who also works there] saw this man who had all the trays of begonias laid out on the floor and was pulling plants out and reorganizing them because the plants weren't all exactly the same size. Jerry told him to "get the hell out."

This prompted me to think of other stupid criminals.


I used to work at a library in the media department. Mostly I got the videos and DVDs ready to be put out, but I also did shelving. Early on, my boss and sub-boss told me that there is a problem with library patrons stealing movies and that every so often, I should check the video cases to make sure there are videos inside them.

Why the hell would somebody steal from a library? The movies are FREE, you moron! You can check something out as many times as you want. I don't care if you want to keep it, stop stealing from the library.



Somebody once stole the snowblower from the church my grandparents used to attend. In July. The police caught this man because he was pushing the snowblower down the street in July. Sir, you are a moron.


Anybody have stories or stupid or odd thieves to share?

Comments

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

When I worked at a zoo, we had someone steal two peachicks.

We also had people jumping the fences all the time, especially on free admission days, but no maulings (which is good and bad; I'm of the opinion that anyone who jumps into a cheetah, bear, alligator, or cougar cage deserves what they get. However, draconian laws not infrequently require the animal be killed without good reason if such happens, and that would be bad.)

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I wonder how somebody managed to steal birds.

At the zoo in my area, we used to have peacocks that were allowed to wander wherever they want. Now, they aren't allowed to. The zoo staff discovered that the peacocks were slowly disappearing, then found several feathers in the polar bear enclosure. The two remaining peacocks are now safely behind bars/in their enclosure. Stupid birds.

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

Well, peachicks are small; you could put one in a bag, or a coat pocket - or, in that case, the lady was carrying aroudn a coffee can, of all things.


Heh. Reminds me of the muntjac problem we had...
See, we had an "Asian animals" exhibit. The centerpiece was the HImalayan black bear (actually a subspecies of moon bear) paddock. We had a double fence: one around each animal's paddock, then a lower chain link fence to keep the visitors away from the animals. BEtweent he two fences, we allowed a number of muntjac (dog-sized deer with tusks) to roam.

One day, a keeper came in and noticed that two of the muntjac were acting particularly skittish. She quickly found out why: half of the third muntjac was wedged int he beer fence. THe other half... well, you know.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

A coffee can? Jeez.

The zoo job was how I learned that peacocks can fly. When I was in Wales and went on the castle tour, near the end of the tour we were taken up to this rooftop garden/courtyard. Gorgeous room. It used to be open to the sky, but the castle museum staff had to add a plastic roof because rain was leaking through to the other rooms and the castle's stupid peacocks would fly up there and get stuck. Proves that the phrase "bird-brain" has its roots in truth!

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

Sublety wasn't her strong suit, I guess. But, zookeepers aren't police and all we could do was ask her to leave.

Yep. Peabirds can fly (technically, the females are peahens). So can chickens, turkey, and other fowl. They're just not hery good at it. I believe the longest observed chicken flight is 80-something feet.