Just an oddball thought that occurred to me along the lines of wives who make their husbands old ragged torn clothes 'disappear'. Has anyone in your family suggested that you get a nice new hose reel box?

It does seem like an odd item to take, although Lucille has a good point. My guess is they drove away with it.

Just yesterday I was talking to someone about items being taken from front yards. We haven't had anything taken but know people who have. They've mostly been items that are decorative, including holiday decor. We had a neighbor who grows those giant pumpkins each year. One year someone took 3 she'd put around her front door area. It took some work and time since a dolly was needed to move them around. These days people have security cameras that can sometimes get thieves and/or their license plate numbers on camera.

years back I had blankies, a beach towel, sheet disappear from my boy dog's pen area. I put him out one and the next day it was gone. I put another one out for him that night and the next day it was gone. that went on for a week or so. I quit giving him one (poor boy). a month or so later I was talking to my neighbor (an acre or more away) and I was telling her about it... seems her female dog was bringing them home and my neighbor had no idea where she was getting them. Her female dog was nesting... evidently 'S' thought my boy had just what she needed to prepare for her pups. 'S' spent a good amount of time at my house with my dogs, so 'S' was family to us. The neighbors had vacation planned so another neighbor and I took care of them all for about 2 weeks. I took 2 days a week off of work to take care of them. other days I took over the pups when I got home from work. that was a lot more fun than work!

They kept one of the pups and he became a regular here too.

destersteph what a fun story! How did the mom-to-be get the blankets out of the pen? do you think your dog cooperated?

A while back, DH bought a dozen little plastic dinosaurs and put them in our front flowerbed. It's become a walking destination for family groups. Kids play while grown-ups sit on the wall. One or two dinosaurs have gone missing. Either a kid couldn't resist, or maybe a dog or varmit carried them away.

Some years ago, I had a lovely 4-plex handmade wooden bird house (about 2ft x 2ft x2ft) that sat on a large tree stump next to the drive, 15 feet from the road. It vanished one day. I had seen a FedEx truck parked nearby that day, and have always suspected that the driver was the culprit, but no proof... Still makes me mad, no matter what actually happened.

The second year we lived here, after much struggling with a long established and somewhat neglected acre of landscaping, we were making some progress on some of the things I could change. One July night after we'd gone to bed, some came up the hill in back and stole some plants. From the ground. And it looked like yanked out rudely enough I'd be surprised if they survived. Three were things I'd brought from my former garden from the old Heronswood nursery that I couldn't replace - I don't think they'd mean to some thief what they'd meant to me. For that deer browsed steep hill, I'd been putting in some choisya (Mexican orange)...not really special but also gone was a sizeable and weighty plant still in the nursery pot. We could see where someone had gone down the hill (probably sliding on their bottom)....I'd like to have seen that with the heavy pot.

A woman up the street lost some of her corner rock garden plants the same week. It hasn't happened again with plantings that I've heard.

Had a my only white pumpkin snatched from my pumpkin patch. We think we know who did it, but can't prove it. We put up a trail cam the next day and caught a lady in our pumpkin patch eyeing up the orange ones. She spotted the camera and left. We printed off some pictures of her in the patch and put them in her box. She moved , but we still put up the trail cam this year.

We have security cameras that alert us if someone is close. Received an alert from garage. We have two way voice on our security. It was two ladies about our age. Hubs ask can we help you. One replied yes, my name is __ and I am staying at Ocean Breeze room —-. May we take two of your beach chairs and use them this week. We will return them on Sunday? Hubs and I are looking at each other , thinking WHAT? He calmly said, do you need anything else? Both spoke up and said thank you we will return chairs by Sunday. Saturday night came and the little ladies returned the chairs. That was a first for us. Our garage is on back facing street and guess it was tempting with garage open. That was a little weird .

My brother has had two air conditioner covers disappear during the Fall/Winter. The thief or thieves would have to come right up to the side of the house under their dining room window. Plus they live up a small hill from the street below.

There is debate whether or not to cover you AC during the down season, perhaps his wife is in the "do not cover" camp and is secretly snatching them off. ha I noticed when he was telling me about it, she was pretty silent.

hallingarden, the nerve! lol unbelievable. I wonder if she would have asked if she hadn't been caught. Maybe.

Night before last the raccoons water bowl disappeared, last night, the food bowl did also. I think they took them, guess they won’t get food and water here tonight!

Some of these stories make me think it's a wonder how much stuff isn't taken. I see so many nice things in yards walking around our neighborhood. Many of them could be easily taken, especially at night, but maybe all the security cameras now are a deterrent...? Also, most of the homes are set back from the street quite a bit. IDK...I suppose if there's a will there's a way.

Just thinking about the porch pirates who follow delivery trucks around, too. They don't seem to hesitate to nab the delivered packages while cameras are rolling.

The only thing stolen from my yard was pumpkins. Neighborhood kids being bad on mischief night, im sure. My mom had two antique planters with planters stolen from in front of her front door. Her house is set far back from the road and the planters were very heavy. The crooks must have had a hand truck to move them. So infuriating.

later the police said they had found a shop that was selling garden statuary, etc, that had been stolen. They asked my mom to see if her items were there but she never went.

oh, once my gps was stolen from my car parked in the driveway. Some thieves went through the neighborhood and stole stuff from cars. The police actually caught them and i got my gps back!

yes, a hose reel box is a weird thing to steal. Its not even metal which is sometimes stolen for scrap.

I planted four marigolds along the driveway. One day one was completely missing. Next day two more gone, just a little dips left in the soil. Here’s a picture of the sign I put out. The little marigold there is a replacement.

How cheap are you that you have to steal marigolds?! They are so cheap to buy! I'm glad I don't live where I have to worry about someone stealing from me. I've had packages stay on my porch for 2 days and nights without being bothered. The only time I had things disappear was several times when I used to put Netflix movies in my mailbox to have them returned. I notified the post office but I started to put them in the box at the post office instead.

One reason I have decided not to move to the city I work in. Too many times I've heard about coworkers cars being broken into, things stolen from their yards/porches. These things do happen in my town but not much in my neighborhood specifically.

I wonder......could it be sometimes that a group of kids or adults are playing a game of treasure hunt. That's not the name of it, I just can't think of it right now. You know, each person gets a list of items and so much time to collect (or steal) them and whoever gets the most items in the end wins.

Yeah, I remember playing this while on a date once. Only I didn't realize that's what we were doing until he got his list. We drove off and stopped out of sight of the others, he got out, opened the car trunk, and had many of the items on the list! Cheater. No, we didn't steal anything that night.

Scavenger hunt.

Most thieves are too lazy and weak to steal my hose and reel. Combined weight about 200#. It's not going anywhere soon.

Scavenger hunt....that reminds me. I had a "Private property Do Not Trespass" sign that was metal, put up by the water department at the foot of my driveway, my driveway was an easement for them.

I asked the neighbor if he knew anything...he said his kids had a scavenger hunt....may have been them...and .....said .... "It was ugly anyway!" ☺ (that was 30 years ago)

About 20 years ago, in December, Christmas decorations were up on the outside of the house. One of the decorations was one of those blow mold Santas. It was the first Christmas decoration Hubs & I had bought. It was in the front yard bungee corded to a tree (so it wouldn't blow away.) Got up one morning, it was gone. The kids were so disappointed. We scavenged the neighborhood for it, no where to be seen.

About 2 years later, at Christmas time, Santa reappeared. Someone put it on the front porch and plugged it in.

Guess the thief had a change of heart. LOL

Yep, that's it - scavenger hunt. Couldn't think of that to save my soul.

We always kept our garage door shut. DH insisted on it because it faced the street and he had lots of tools in there. One year oldest son moved back home from college for the summer and he and his buddies moved sons stuff into the garage and left, not closing door.

Neighbor across the street was having a garage sale. Son came home later and all his CD's were missing. He knew to close the garage door and didn't. His fault and a very god lesson. I did ask the neighbor if they saw anything, but they didn't. Oh well.

was the reel made out of copper? People steal that all the time for drug money

When we lived in a neighborhood our cameras caught our neighbor from across the street filling buckets of water from our hose and taking them back to his house in the middle of the night. We let it go. The guy was a drug addict,and the house he lived in was his mothers, who had just recently died. He spent his money on drugs so the lights and water had been turned off. He didn't live there long. The bank ended up taking back the house.

Little kids would often steal the tomatoes and berries off my plants. Little cretins.

And worst of all, someone stole my dog when he was 7 months old. They had him for 3 months and used him for fighting. We got him back all torn up. Again, kids. I hate thieves.

We moved out to acreage in the sticks and have never been happier.

I live nowhere that anyone would come to steal anything from my back yard, but my garden clogs disappeared off my back porch. Fenced yard, end of dead end street, no foot or car traffic. No neighbors but those who have been here for years. No roaming kids, etc. I can only imagine the raccoons took them. What they planned on doing with them, I have no idea. Both of them were gone.

At our house of many years ago , the kid Nextdoor and his friend were unscrewing and taking lightbulbs out of our Xmas lights. I’d replace them and more would disappear. I finally had to do a stakeout to catch him and scare him off. Years later in a different state, we too had a blow mold Santa disappear one night the kids were sad. A day or too later I found him laying on the side of the road quite a distance away in the development. He was a bit scratched up. I’m guessing he was dragged by the cored down the road. We still have him 20 years later! So much holiday decor these days is so expensive, I’m surprised it isn’t stolen more often.