# Yard display thieves



## Johnny Thunder (Feb 24, 2006)

This sucks.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/A-Halloween-Trick-No-One-Finds-Funny-105375013.html


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Agreed, and that's why we put up and take down the bulk of our display on the 31st. All it would take is one jerk to ruin the season by stealing something from the yard.


----------



## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Awww..that so sucks. And he's an old dude too, so just wrangling all that stuff to put it out & up is a pain, and then to have it STOLEN!?? His mums in the background look like they cost $30 each plant..they are HUGE. What kinda jerk steals inflatables??


----------



## Acid PopTart (Oct 29, 2007)

That's terrible.... people..... I gotta agree with Debbie5, I mean, who _does_ steal inflatables? Okay, back in my younger, punk rock days we went "yard shopping" which involved us not exactly stealing lawn ornaments, we just would move them across the street or next door into their neighbour's yard.

Thieves stole those solar lawn lights from my mom once. Which I thought weird. We live a few streets down from where she use to but on a dead end street and no street lights. Which I thought would be setting us up..... unless everyone has heard our dogs by now. My dozen technicolour flamingos have all survived for five months. _Yet_, a high speed chase took place, _in cars_, in the park right behind my house, as in across the baseball diamond, and then exited out into our neighbour's yard. So no telling.


----------



## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

I've got to say I've been pretty lucky.
I would have all of the electronics and most of the pretty stuff in the haunt by the middle - end of Sept...lot's of it would be in there the end of Aug.

Someone did steal a road cone once.


----------



## Glyphen2010 (Aug 30, 2010)

I was just telling my Co-Worker at about 11:30PM we take down the stuff we cherish and can't live without, like our corpses and zombies, but leave out our graveyard and anything fixed to the house. I put the stuff back out when I get home from work. I usually take the week of Halloween off so I can have it up longer throughout the day. I've even borrowed security cameras from work and placed them around the house to desuade theives. Also, I put out ADT type security signs in the lawn.


----------



## sickNtwisted (Sep 29, 2010)

That's just infuriating!!! We all did stupid sh*t when we were kids but that's going to far. 

I always put my decorations out on Halloween morning and take everything of value down after all the candy is gone.


----------



## Dark Angel 27 (Sep 11, 2008)

*That's just plain horrible! And the dude's right. its not just him that was robbed. its the tots too! i sure hope they find that loser douche bags that did it in time for halloween!

I had put out the lighted trees on the front lawn...and the next morening they were both knocked over and it looked as if they tried to steal the lights but gave up. So, now I can't put anything like that up till the 31st*


----------



## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

You wonder what the person(s) who did this will do with what they stole? Are they going to try to sell the stuff, or keep it for themselves?


----------



## remylass (Sep 18, 2008)

It just makes me sad, and it makes me sick. Some of my decorations feel like my offspring.


----------



## cjbmaaaaaa (Sep 12, 2010)

One year when we still did our yard haunt, we had a group of 6th-7th graders come through the neighborhood and slashed everybody's inflatables. They must of hit like 15 houses, mine included. I lost my Frankenstein, they literally cut a huge chunk out of him so he couldn't be repaired. Luckily the cops got them. After that we would build our basic graveyard and then we started putting up our plywood walls and put everything inside just to keep things safe.


----------



## remylass (Sep 18, 2008)

cjbmaaaaaa said:


> One year when we still did our yard haunt, we had a group of 6th-7th graders come through the neighborhood and slashed everybody's inflatables. They must of hit like 15 houses, mine included. I lost my Frankenstein, they literally cut a huge chunk out of him so he couldn't be repaired. Luckily the cops got them. After that we would build our basic graveyard and then we started putting up our plywood walls and put everything inside just to keep things safe.


Did they actually get in any kind of trouble?


----------



## daBOOhouse (Aug 4, 2010)

I've lost two pumpkin heads to my pumpkinrot style scarecrow. Other than that, we had some punks slash a couple of the inflatables for Christmas. Though, after the repair, the big puppy dog could have served double holliday duty thanks to the stitched up 18" scar across his face...

The stuff I have out now is super heavy, staked fairly firmly into the ground our attached high up on the house. There are a few other trinkets and store bought gravestones out but none of the real goodies. Anything else goes out on the 30th and gets put up on the 31st... 

Thieves suck! Let's send 'em a good ol' dose of bad Karma, some curses and a few all around bad vibes!!!!


----------



## Death's Door (Mar 22, 2006)

That sucks big time!

Even though everyone in the neighborhood knows how I decorate and give out some fine goodies, we had a couple of punks that were on their way to school and was looking at the grim reaper in my front yard. Hubby watched him because he looked suspicious and then this punk tried to steal the head off my reaper (head was removable so I could put the scarier one on later). This pissed my hubby off and when he came back in the house and told me about it. He couldn't believe it. I told him I could and that is why I put up 90% of my props up on Halloween and take them down Halloween night. 

I would love anything to keep up most of my props for at least a couple of days so I could enjoy them more. However, some kids just don't care and are selfish and I don't want to give them a reason.


----------



## Acid PopTart (Oct 29, 2007)

Da Weiner said:


> That sucks big time!
> 
> Even though everyone in the neighborhood knows how I decorate and give out some fine goodies, we had a couple of punks that were on their way to school and was looking at the grim reaper in my front yard. Hubby watched him because he looked suspicious and then this punk tried to steal the head off my reaper (head was removable so I could put the scarier one on later). This pissed my hubby off and when he came back in the house and told me about it. He couldn't believe it. I told him I could and that is why I put up 90% of my props up on Halloween and take them down Halloween night.
> 
> I would love anything to keep up most of my props for at least a couple of days so I could enjoy them more. However, some kids just don't care and are selfish and I don't want to give them a reason.


Brazen, aren't they? I should be surprised, but back when we had the 4 foot chain link fence, I watched a kid cut across my back yard over my fence on his way to school! What are you thinking? What if my two large dogs were just being let out? And I bet if they bit this trespassing brat, they'd be banding down my door to put my dog down and to pay for damage.

Sorry, I just had to vent.

It's just hard to believe some of these kids these days, walking right up to your display like that. Was it obvious you were home?

And everyone's right, you're stealing from us and from those who really enjoy what we do!


----------



## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

Someone stole a 77 year old's decorations? That is pure evil. I hope to be haunting at that are.


----------



## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

RoxyBlue said:


> Agreed, and that's why we put up and take down the bulk of our display on the 31st. All it would take is one jerk to ruin the season by stealing something from the yard.


Same. It makes for a long day but I wouldn't want anything stolen or destroyed. Why must some people ruin others fun?


----------



## Sliver (Oct 9, 2010)

definity sucks! that same thing happened to me but it only amounted to about $50 in losses. Now it all goes up and comes down on the 31st. The bummer thing about that is it gives hardly anytime to do something really big


----------



## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

A guy a few blocks from me used to do a great haunt...he had to stop cuz he is so close to the high school, and the little thugs kept breaking in to his yard (he had put up 7 foot hi chicken wire fencing) and stealing stuff. And he's A COP. Luckily, while I live the same distance from the high school, I don't have the same bouquet of scum walking home past my house. I've never had a problem..(knocking on desk). Except for ToTers on the night of Ween- THEY can try to wack a prop once in a while.....


----------



## smileyface4u23 (Apr 1, 2008)

That is just awful that someone would do that to that nice man. But, stuff like that is exactly the reason why the majority of our haunt goes up and comes back down all on the 31st. We'll hang some stuff in the trees, or from the house, but all the actual yard stuff does not appear until the 31st. It makes for a very long day. I really wish I could leave it out longer, but I know when I woke up the next day some of it would be gone.


----------



## Night Watchman (Aug 15, 2009)

I am always afraid of vandals. I also hate setting up the day of because I like to enjoy my own display. I am going to chance it and set up Friday afternoon. I figure if I catch someone doing something to my display I can add one more static prop to the graveyard!


----------



## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Man that burns my hide. He seems to be in Philly not far from the NJ PA M & T group maybe we can make a prop and sent it to him. I will bring it up at our next meeting.


----------



## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Why is there no NY Make & Take Group? Or am I just not on the list cuz I'm too weird?


----------



## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

We never put anything out except the scarecrow and the graveyard (stones, columns, and fence) until the morning of 1031 for that reason alone.

And whats sad is that I was talking to a coworker who also likes Halloween and she said when they were kids they used to steal decorations from their neighbors. I seriously had to bite my tongue because I don't want to cause a hostile work environment. But I have zero respect for her even as an adult because she just kinda blew the whole thing off.


----------



## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

debbie5 said:


> Why is there no NY Make & Take Group? Or am I just not on the list cuz I'm too weird?


Aren't we all weird according to our neighbors.  We are not snobs anyone is welcome to join us. We have had people join us from other parts of the country who just wanted to visit or were passing through. Not long ago we had the watcher and his wife visit us from the south. He plays a mean guitar and they made southern pulled pork. That was a great meeting. Debbie or anyone else anytime you would like to join us crazy weird people just come on down.


----------



## sungod (Oct 29, 2010)

I've been doing a yard haunt and haunted house for the last 5 years. This year someone actually stole some of my decorations!!!!!


----------



## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

People see stuff...they take it for themselves and they don't care what it does to the victim. Others think it is fun to trash stuff. I don't understand it.

My house was robbed a couple months ago...I am just now kinda feeling ok in my own home.

I had stuff stolen also. I can't afford to replace it so it goes up on 10/31 and comes back down on 10/31.


----------



## Lunatic (Oct 3, 2006)

Ahh man! This is exactly why I have never set up my haunt before Halloween. I trust no one! I take the day off from work if necessary and kill myself all day getting ready. It only takes that one F'n scumbag to ruin it for the rest. The added stress of setting up everything in one day just to take it right back down is extremely tiresome but unfortunately very necessary...and I live in a really nice town!

Sorry to hear about everyone's losses.


----------

