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Well the title says it all. Over the weekend, now that school is out, there have been a lot of restless individuals in the neighborhood where a friend of mine lives. This friend of mine permits me to keep a small garden of temperate CPs on his back porch knowing that I am in between residences. For a couple months now the little CP garden has been waking up and adjusting to outdoor life again with little incidence. Usually this time of year a rogue jay or other wildlife will remind me that plants such as these are too enticing to leave be. This year, however, some wildlife with about a dozen more digits and opposable thumbs decided that these plants were too enticing to leave be.

Of all the plants out there the only thing stolen was a pot totaling about 65$ worth of VFTs and crockery. Had it been any of the Sarrs I would be devastated since as of this year I have nearly completed my want list of American pitcher plants including some very neat NoID crosses that were sent via trade this spring. Had I lost my first S. minor or catesbaei I think I would be far more irate.

So here is my deal. I have been living in Iowa for most of my life and aside from the occasional VFT in the box stores CPs are very foreign to Iowans. When I was 12 or 13 and living on the farm, I spotted a CP "collection" for sale in a Bailey's seed catalogue that included one sundew, a VFT, and one S. purpurea. Based on the instructions included I potted them up in the finest richest soil mix I could buy. Two weeks later: no survivors. I was disappointed and chalked it up to "some plants are too hard to grow".

Since my first experience as a child, I had never given up hope on CP's and continued to grow and learn hort principles with all the common riff-raff available here in Iowa. I had certainly received my two green thumbs by a couple years ago when I found D. capensis on one of the local garden center shelves. It had all but its petioles dried up but still I was fascinated. Luckily for me and that first D. capensis I found TerraForums. If it weren't for the dedicated folks who utilize this forum and generously help any who ask, it would have been impossible for me to break into this hobby.

I am dying to share this hobby and the things I have learned with others in my area, but after a year or two now of looking for anyone interested I have come up with only a bunch of blank stares from the locals. With this recent theft, I know that someone is interested. Now how do I connect with people and save them the trouble of stealing when I would have been happy to give anyone, who is interested and willing to learn, free plants to spark their interest and start their collection?

What a bummer!
 
Man thats a bummer! Seems like theft is more prevalent than people realize.
 
I'm sorry that happened, but at the same time, I'm glad they didn't grab anything you were too attached to. I think it's obvious they didn't want them for the money, but they've probably got the pot in a shaded location out of sight and are giving it tap water. They should feel pretty darn guilty in a couple weeks when the whole pot starts to wither. @_@
 
How unfortunate! And here I was, thinking people only stole Nepenthes. I wonder why they would steal a Venus flytrap if they can be found in stores, considering the risk.
 
How unfortunate! And here I was, thinking people only stole Nepenthes. I wonder why they would steal a Venus flytrap if they can be found in stores, considering the risk.

If it's teenagers, they're not thinking like that. I'd bet good money that the ones in the pot looked a lot fuller and healthier than any in the store. Also, depending on conditions in Iowa, they may only just now be getting plants into the hardware stores, where they can easily be overlooked if you're just in there for some glue and duct-tape.

If you no longer trust that location, maybe there's a small storage facility around with climate control and outlets for lighting fixtures? Of course, if you're hard-up, I understand something like that may not be feasible.
 
Ive had VFTs stolen a few times. Noone ever touches the expensive sarrs just the cheap typical VFTs. I would chalk it up to wildlife but wildlife wouldnt take the pots too lol.
 
this is a bummer, I was even more shocked at the fact that you want to connect with them. im glad your seeing something positive out of this. Im sure its some young teenager that lives very close to your friends place. In fact it could be the backyard neighbor who peeped and spotted them, whoever it was, im sure they had their eyes on it for a while because of the location the flytraps were in and considering how big the pot was, it sounds planned. well never know for sure. Sorry for your loss.
 
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Unfortunate. I've known a number of people who have had all sorts of "normal" plants -- both in ground and potted -- stolen out of their yards. Not surprising cps would also be candidates for theft, too.

Also, not the least bit surprised the vfts were what was stolen.
1) They are probably the best known cp among the non-cp educated masses.
2) The fact that they actually move, would very likely make them much more interesting to kids or other non-cpers than pitfall traps like pitcher plants.
 
This is sad, I feel like I should pity the stealer for doing something so low. : / Glad to hear your other plants are okay!
 
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It's low of them to steal the plants, however I know all too well the mindset behind it. The bright side of the picture is that there are far worse things that they could be stealing, (drugs, technology, money, etc.)

Maybe leave a little sign in the exact location that the plants were stolen that says, "Shortbus - terraforums.com". It would make sense to me that the thief would probably observe that location again at some point and check to see if you removed all the plants or whatnot. Then they would google that and it could lead them here.
 
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