A lot of people here post on Craigslist asking people to come pick their citrus. Sometimes its already been pick and its in boxes. Other times the owners provide a ladder and you have to pick your own. Asking someone if you can pick fruit off their trees who has not offered though must take some gall.

The question I would be asking is "How are all these strangers getting my phone number?"

Well put oregonwoodsmoke.

If you get another phone call, you should quote them a per pound price, and ask them when they will be coming by? I would also get an unlisted number.

This may also help
http://www.bird-x.com/hydroblast-scarecrow-p-46.html

My phone number is on a sign in front of the house, so no mystery about how they are getting the number.

It's very easy to take an address and do a reverse directory and come up with the phone number for that house. These days, many people are driving around with internet access in their pocket.

oregonwoodsmoke I understand now. I guess I just never thought of putting my phone number on a sign in front of my house.

I know just how to take care of this pest. I would take some white paint and a brush. The really thick kind that covers in one coat. Then I would paint over the sign.

Next I would make a new sign. It would say.....

Free pick your own fruit. MUST CALL AND GET PERMISSION FIRST. Call between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 AM.

I would paint the phone number of the biggest jerk I know on the sign.lol

A "Trespassers will be prosecuted" sign would be on the gate to make people think twice about picking without permission.

Now all joking aside. Why have your phone number on a sign in front of your house? If I did that my phone would be ringing off the hook.

If I had my phone number posted outside for whatever reason, I would not be at all surprised to have people call me about the fruit hanging on my trees. And I wouldn't get irritated, either.

I'd simply tell them, politely, that the fruit is not for public use. Period. If you DO have enough to sell, comply with any laws and regulations in your location and offer them for sale to those who call.

I figure your phone is out there to advertise your business, whatever it is.

I've heard that in some Latin countries the custom is that fruit trees are everyone's property unless it is being grown commercially.

I know that the Guatamalan laborers of landscape companies often help themselves to my clients fruit, which can be very exasperating when there's only a few fruit on a young tree.

I find it amazing that someone raised in this country would call a stranger to ask to pick fruit off his trees. Maybe if there was lots of drops that indicated the fruit wasn't being used.

I must admit that when I was in CA a few years back in Dec. I saw all these persimmon trees just loaded with fruit that should have already been picked and I was awfully tempted to knock on the doors to ask permission to pick but I was just too shy.

A lot of fruit goes wasted and there's nothing wrong with asking an owner if they wish to share- if it's going to fall on the ground and attract hornets and raccoons then one is providing a service to remove it.

But one might ask politely, with hat in hand, and with the idea in mind that they might be asked for something in return. I've gleaned fruit from neighbors many times, but I try to show up with a pint of jam or an offer to help prune (so many trees really need it!) and I make sure to clean up- to pick up any waste fruit that's lying around and throw it away for them.

We've also picked fruit for a few people who have excess, and taken it to the food bank for them. That works pretty well for everybody, and we get a little for us as well.

There are so many "pet trees", as Olpea puts it so well, that fall into neglect over the years. Our local master gardeners program has considered an "adopt-a-tree" program with volunteers caring for orphan trees and donating the fruit, but thus far it ain't happened.

Just get yourself a pair of Jack Russell terriers. I have them they scare the hell out of any one (human or animals). This little 10 pounds dog thinks he is 500 pounds when he attacks. Squirrels Deers and even the mail man are terrified.
I give my surplus fruits and vegetables to the local soup kitchen. But this is my choice and I am happy to do it.

People can be weird. I had a lady knock on my door in the middle of July and give me a sob story about how she used to have a "beautiful perennial garden" that she had to give up when she divorced and moved. She then asked me if she could go out into my garden and dig up a number of sunflowers (annuals at that) which were coming into bloom at the time. WITH SHOVEL IN HAND, I should add -- she told me she had been digging "wildflowers' along the roadsides, so she already was "shovel ready" I guess. Crikey!

I was more polite to her face than I would really liked to have been. I just told her that, in the first place, they were annuals, they wouldn't transplant successfully in the middle of summer and at full size, and that it would leave big holes in my flower border, since I planted them in a pattern, but that, if she wanted to come back in the late summer, I would give her some seed heads (I know, I shouldn't encourage them, but I wimped out). Luckily, she never came back.

I do think it's awfully brazen to just stop at someone's home and ask for some FREE fruit from their yard. If I am going down the road and see a patio set or grill I like in someone's yard, can I just stop and ask for it?

Personally, Oregonwoodsmoke, if I were you I think I would do as someone else suggested and put a sign out there offering to sell fruit at a REALLY, REALLY HIGH PRICE. Then, if someone is willing to take you up on it, at least it will be worth the time and effort. Apples, $ 75 a bushel. Something along those lines.

Got a good laugh out of Thisisme's post.

I think some people just don't recognize the cost. I knew a guy who had a fish pond he stocked with fish and people would ask if they could fish for free.

The worse case I can think of is a guy who made his living with a bull dozer and had all kinds of people he knew ask to "borrow" his dozer when he wasn't using it. The guy was a nice guy and politely told them no, but felt like answering them, "Sure, can I borrow your wife to have a couple kids?"

Whether it's undervaluing the wear and tear on tools/machinery, or underestimating the cost of growing fruit, it's hard for folks to understand unless they've experienced it.

I guess I don't mind if people ask because I could really use help with the picking and I always end up with more of SOME kinds of fruit than I can use.

What frosts me is the people who don't even ask, and who steal all the fruit from a tree just bearing for the first time. [I suspect the neighbor's teenagers]