Thieves a thorn in the side of angry garden shop owners

Customers pilfering pieces of cactus plants to sell online have forced garden centres to install surveillance cameras and ban photographs on their premises.

Irate plant nursery owners have taken the drastic step of installing surveillance cameras and banning customers from taking photographs to combat the theft of cactus plant leaves and segments.

The unusual practice, known as “proplifting’’, and the theft of individual vegetable seedlings is costing the businesses thousands of dollars in stock losses.

Klemzig Garden Centre manager Mardi Scott said the theft of leaves and segments of succulents was a significant problem until she placed signs above the succulent cactus display banning photos.

Klemzig Garden Centre is being targeted by thieves. Picture: Mike Jaensch

Prior to erecting the “no photos please’’ sign above the succulents display, she had been forced to have a staff member stand guard to ensure pieces of the plants were not swiped.

Ms Scott said the thieves were taking photos of the plants and then stealing cutting or segments of the same plant before selling them online on sites such as Gumtree and Facebook marketplace, complete with images of the entire plant that were being snapped at her nursery.

“They don’t even bother to pot them up, they just advertise saying they have cuttings of the plant in the picture and sell them for $10 or so,’’ she said.

“As soon as we put the sign up stopping photos of the plants being taken, the thefts stopped.’’

Ms Scott said individual vegetable seedlings from punnets had also been stolen.

Klemzig Garden Centre manager Mardi Scott with a seedling punnet. The centre is being targeted by thieves. Picture: Mike Jaensch

In such cases, one seedling was being taken from punnets of different varieties of vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbages and tomatoes, which meant that punnet had to be discounted for sale at a loss.

“That has been going on for a while, they just stick one little seedling up their sleeve or in their pocket. I reckon some have planted a whole vegetable patch just by stealing one plant of each variety,’’ she said.

Gardening identity Milton Vadoulis, who owns the Vadoulis Garden Centre at Evanston, said the theft of succulents was “a major problem’’ that was increasing.

“It is becoming a bigger problem each year. Cacti and succulents are probably the worst culprits for it and bonsais are another one,’’ he said.

“With the rarer plants, they just take them out of the pot. You know they have been stolen because the pot is left there. Clippings is an issue as well.

“People are collecting them, with some worth thousands of dollars.’’

Mr Vadoulis said in the 45 years he had been running his business, theft had increased from around 2 per cent of turnover to 5 per cent today.

He said he had installed both overt and covert surveillance cameras at his nursery to try and reduce theft, which was also occurring at night.

“They also break in at night – it’s almost like they have an order, so they come and take certain plants,’’ Mr Vadoulis said.

“We have them on camera, we have caught them red-handed but, unfortunately, it’s so hard to prosecute them. It’s extremely frustrating running a business because theft, not just in plants, is a big issue.’’

Mr Vadoulis said vegetable seedlings were also being stolen, but to a lesser degree, as were packets of seeds because of their compact size.

“Where a pack of seedlings might have six plants, they might steal one or two out of it,’’ he said.

Another well-known eastern suburbs nursery said selective plant thefts “had been happening for years’’ and that it had taken steps to prevent such activity.

“We have signs up telling people they are under surveillance and have cameras on our high-value plants,’’ a spokesman said.