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Two blocks from where I live is a condemned house. It's on a main street. There is an official condemmed sign posted on the front door, it's not just a house in foreclosure. My town has been razing houses, and this house has been abandoned for at least three years, officially condemned for two. I'm sure the house will be razed this summer.
My dilemma: There are tulips that have come up on the side of the house, and Narcissus are along the front porch. Would it be wrong of me to dig some or all of them up? Could I get in trouble? Is there someone I could contact to get permission?
I just think it would be a shame to have those flowers destroyed, and I don't have a lot of money to go out and buy bulbs.
Thanks in advance
I'd go get them in broad daylight. I highly doubt anyone is going to say anything. Hell, they might come on over and get some too.
There is another thread where I told the OP she'd be a thief because she wanted to take clippings from restaurants, storefronts, and people's houses. This is not the same thing. Nobody lives there and the plants will be destroyed.
yes, go for it! finders keepers...and while you're at it, see if they have any cool looking old hardware and stuff that would look good out in the garden. Those double hung windows make a nice cold frame if you put a few of them together. Probably a good source for those old tire flower bed plantings as well.
yes, go for it! finders keepers...and while you're at it, see if they have any cool looking old hardware and stuff that would look good out in the garden. Those double hung windows make a nice cold frame if you put a few of them together. Probably a good source for those old tire flower bed plantings as well.
Rustling etiquette from the Texas Rose Rustlers who make a practice of "rescuing" old roses from abandoned houses (far more reasonable than the attitude upthread that anybody who objects is an "old biddy" who is minding your business - though I suspect thieves of anything think the same thing of someone who turns then in, that they - the thieves - deserve anything that they want and anyone who gets in the way of that doesn't understand their special specialness):
[SIZE=2]We all love roses, and there is a special thrill that comes with acquiring cuttings from an interesting specimen that you encounter as you pursue your path through life. The temptation is to look at the rose, and then look to the right and left, and then whip out the clippers and start snipping. [/SIZE] [CENTER][SIZE=2]---- BUT DON'T DO IT! ---- [/SIZE][/CENTER]
[SIZE=2]The public goodwill toward rose rustlers is a fragile thing that needs to be cherished and protected. Few things will do more to damage our reputation and image than getting caught in the act - clippers and cuttings in hand - without having asked permission first.[/SIZE]
OP, I'm about as law and order as you can get but I say if it's obviously abandoned then possession is nine tenths of the law and you should help yourself! I wouldn't even fret much over it as I doubt anybody will even notice.
On a related note I was watching that Anthony Bourdain or whatever his name is CNN program and he was in Detroit with local reporter Charlie LeDuff and Leduff was pointing out all the abandoned houses where house is shot to hell and owners are long long gone. All that may be left is a crumbling foundation but certain flowers keep coming up year after year. Said that's what they call ghost gardens in the city. Hearing that had a real profound effect on me at the time and made me kind of sad to think about it.
OMG, yeah, this should not be a moral question.
If anyone comes along and questions what you are doing, offer to keep digging and help plant a fair share in his or her yard.`
Two blocks from where I live is a condemned house. It's on a main street. There is an official condemmed sign posted on the front door, it's not just a house in foreclosure. My town has been razing houses, and this house has been abandoned for at least three years, officially condemned for two. I'm sure the house will be razed this summer.
My dilemma: There are tulips that have come up on the side of the house, and Narcissus are along the front porch. Would it be wrong of me to dig some or all of them up? Could I get in trouble? Is there someone I could contact to get permission?
I just think it would be a shame to have those flowers destroyed, and I don't have a lot of money to go out and buy bulbs.
Thanks in advance
I haven't read any other responses to your thread. I wanted to give my advice and then see how it compares to others.
Since there is an official sign posted that the house has been condemned, if you get caught digging up the tulips, they might get you for trespassing, which would probably be just a citation, kinda like parking at an expired meter...But if somebody planted those tulips for a personal reason, they might tack on a theft charge in addition to the trespassing charge, and the theft charge would probably be a misdemeanor crime instead of a citation, and it would probably be on your record for a few years.
If I was you, I think I'd call the city and tell them what you told us, and they could probably direct you to the person you need to talk to. But I wouldn't take anything out of that yard without permission from the person or the agency that has authority over that house and property.
Last edited by qwertyasdf; 05-12-2014 at 08:05 PM..
Reason: Edited to correct spelling error
I will go to the tax office on my day off and see if I can get an OK.
I don't want or need any trouble from the police, and I have also considered some upstanding citizen might be inclined to call the cops if they see someone with a trowel messing around at the abandoned house. (They must be a terrorist planting a bomb!) I don't want to do this at night, I'm worried about the aforementioned upstanding citizen coming after me with a gun. I am only interested in the flowers. Not copper, not fixtures, not sod.
The person who bought my house and land in NH.....some years ago.....paved my garden for additional parking spaces. Right over my established rhubarb beds, strawberry plots, heirloom herb beds and some of the richest garden soil in town (I had been adding mulch, burying carp from the river run, adding rabbit, goat and chicken manure...(and eradicating witch grass) for years and years.
I always thought that had a moral aspect to it....and expect that some fine day, that rhubarb will crack through the macadam and stand witness to the affront to mother earth.
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Earth based morality
