This is the THIRD time (sorry title is wrong) we’ve seen her do this. So who knows how many times she’s done it without us noticing?? We’ve caught her before but she keeps coming back. AND she literally brings scissors so she goes out the door to take roses from MY HOUSE. MY GOD are people shameless. Literally in broad daylight where everyone and our cameras can see. The last time we called her out, and yet she came back?? Also we did tell her to stop. Multiple times
That actually looks like reasonable force to protect property damage from such a threat. No one would reasonably be injured from a household hose being sprayed on them.
I personally would be fascinated to watch an elderly Asian woman sneak into my rose bushes and scurry away with her catch of the day 😂
I'm filled with curiosity! Are you her only target, or just one of many houses she hits on her rose raiding route? We need to vote on an alias for this woman. I have suggestions.
A couple of years ago my neighbour’s cat decided to start shitting in my garden. I politely asked them to keep their cat off of my property. They ignored me. The cat kept coming back. So while I was on my patio reading a book, I clock the cat. I stay calm. The wife gives me a grin like “whatcha gonna do about it”. I pulled out a massive super soaker and sprayed the everliving shit out of the cat. The wife threw a tantrum and said she’d call the police. I told her “by all means”.
Then two days later, I see the cat again. As it was positioning to take a big old dump, I spray it with a super soaker again. This time the wife did call the police. That couple shared their side of the story. I shared mine. The cop asked them “is her garden shared property or her property?” They were forced to admit it’s mine. Then the cop told them to keep their cat off of my property.
Oh but it gets better. Their son (who was 7 at the time and whined and cried every 2 seconds) for some reason thought it would be cool to shoot the soccer ball right at my garden. I tolerated it twice before I went ballistic and sprayed the ever-loving fuck out of him. They called the cops again. Hilariously enough, same cop arrives. Same line of questioning. Same conclusion. Stay off my fucking property.
About two weeks later, I’m hanging outside again and the kid starts a water balloon fight with himself. He threw a few that landed on my property but it was at the entrance so it’s fine. Then he literally aimed it at me and it exploded right on the ground in front of me. I was soaked.
This time I called the cops and they got a bylaw ticket for persistent disturbances. Now their cat doesn’t roam free without their supervision and the kid is terrified of me. Love to see it. Fuck inconsiderate assholes like this.
Edit: I should mention all of this was happening while they knew I was going through cancer treatments (cervical cancer, I’m fine now). I just found out a month ago that the wife has the same type of cancer now. As I was walking my dogs, she happened to be sitting on a bench and I simply said “I hope you’ll be okay”. She greeted me back with a “fuck you, bitch”. I did nothing illegal. They did. I still hope she’ll be okay because I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. But cancer or not, she’s still a shitty, selfish person who thinks she’s the main character. I’ve absolutely no patience for people like that.
Also loved the couple of DM’s I got about shitty neighbour situations that are crazy similar to this. Thank you for sharing. If you ever get pissed off that someone soaked you (intentionally or not) while you were on their property, I’d say it’s fair game and you just gotta deal because the world doesn’t revolve around you. What can I say, my scotch bonnets and Carolina reapers matter more to me than your unsupervised cat and your bratty kid 🤷♀️
I love cats, but IMO this is the correct approach as a deterrent. Surprised the cat came back after the first incident, though. At least you didn't hurt the cat.
Oh old ladies absolutely have self awareness, they just have no empathy and don't care and pretend they are senile to get away with it. They also seem to bask in the shit storms they like to create!
As someone who has one of these old Asian ladies as a mother, this makes me cringe and I apologize on behalf of them. If they immigrated over awhile ago - when their country was dirt poor - the concept of personal property (in terms of things that grow or crawl on the ground) is really hazy. Also, they grew up with the mindset to obtain things as cheap/free as possible.
I remember my Asian mom did not GAF - she would drag me along to poach crabs, clams and oysters without a license, well over the limit, out of season, adults and babies.. Forced me to sneak into neighbor's yards to steal their chanterelle mushrooms. Snuck onto nature conservancies dedicated to plant and wildlife preservation. Snuck into no-trespass forests on military bases for mushrooms and ferns. Steals grapes from her neighbors yards without asking, and when they confronted her, she argued with them and angrily bad mouths them till this day. It's so shameful and embrassing. I'm so sorry.. A lot just don't care and don't agree with the law when it comes to harvesting.
Maybe something you can do, if you know where she lives, is to gift her a big cutting from your bush and say "I saw you liked my rose bush and wanted to give you a piece so you can grow your own."
She'll be super embarrassed that she was caught red handed, and yet she won't be able to refuse the 'gift' because you're being so 'nice'. And now that she knows that you know, she'll leave your bush alone and not bad mouth you to all the other neighbors. 😔
Edit: Just realized you mentioned you already confronted her. I would just set up one of those fancy sprinklers everyone is talking about!
Lmaooo the five paragraph solution, which I frankly agree with, only to be overturned by a two sentence edit. I do think the gift idea is probably still okay, look at how she looks around to see if anyone’s around. If you catch her red-handed, she will be very embarrassed. Then next time she comes, you don’t even need the sprinklers, just open your window and say you don’t have anymore to give her.
Reminds me of when I was in my 20's visiting California a lot and I would see old Chinese ladies harvesting stuff from the sides of the freeways. I found out later on that some of them even planted things there on purpose because they didn't have enough backyard to have the gardens they wanted.
This behavior is perhaps not common, but you do see this amongst older Chinese people. Using the word Asian here is a generalization though - this is primarily a Chinese thing (perhaps also Korean) - doing something like this in Japan for example would be considered extremely shameful. There are vast cultural differences in Asia, but for some reason overseas Chinese people have a tendency to say "Asian" when referring to their own people which is very weird. You never hear a Chinese person in China refer to themselves as "Asian".
Just wanted to circle back here cause it’s a kinda interesting comment.
You say that using the word “asian” is a generalization but then you proceed to generalize the Chinese by saying they’re the ones primarily doing the actions seen in OP’s post. How do you know with 100% certainty that this old lady isn’t Thai, or Vietnamese, or Laotian, or Cambodian, or Mongolian, or (god forbid) Japanese or Korean?
That’s what the Chinese have to deal with on a daily basis. Everything bad gets attributed to them (cheap eats, cheaply made items, bad quality, no manners, etc.), while the younger generation of Chinese (esp the overseas ones) are nothing like the older generation. They get away with a lot less while, conversely, the Japanese and the Koreans (to a slightly lesser extent) get away with a lot more. BTW - the Japanese certainly deserve their global standing, but do the Chinese deserve to be generalized into one big pot of shit? That’s why the Chinese don’t make an effort (I wouldn’t say never) to go out of their way to refer to themselves as Chinese because as soon as they do, over generalizing comments like yours pop up. It’s like how you slap a Made in Japan or Made in France sticker to anything and their value goes up X times - except with the Chinese, it’s the opposite, and it applies to people too.
Print out a screenshot of her taking the roses and put it on a wooden post right there at the corner so next time she comes she knows she's being watched
Steal a $5 item from Walmart? They will break down your fucking door. Steal a $5 item from someones yard repeatedly? "Nothing we can do, this is a civil matter."
No. We have two teenage foster daughters who have been stalked and harassed by their former church. Trucks have been sitting outside our house for hours at a time. We documented, took photos and videos.
It came to a head when one of the trucks followed the girls to school... where they called the SRO for an escort into the building. The SRO documented the vehicle and occupants.
When we gave the information to the local police, they said there was nothing they could do.
We took it above their head to the DA... my wife works closely enough with them that they can't afford to piss her off. They opened an investigation.
Turns out the local police chief was reducing charges for women who would suck his dick or have sex with him in his police vehicle. Once the investigation started and an ambitious subordinate (who wanted his job) started talking, he resigned and disappeared in the middle of the night.
EDIT: We are a small town with less than 10,000 people and fewer than 15 cops. The chief had his fingers in everything.
Yes, that is what tipped the situation in our favor with the DA.
The department's own people had to explain why one officer cited the guys in the truck for trespassing on school property (We had video documentation of them parked in front of the house and immediately pulling out and following the girls to school), while the rest of the department stuck their heads in the sand and said I see nothing wrong here.
I mean you have all the plausible deniability in the world. You’re on your property. You just wanted to go outside and water your garden. You’ve got your AirPods in, you’re in your own little world. You turn while watering, but you don’t expect or see a tiny woman on your property HACKING into your garden. Not guilty.
I had a problem with people removing huge branches of my dogwood tree every year as it started blooming. I then sprayed my tree with malathion. Maybe I had a bug problem, you never know. Smelled like a combination of tuna and tomato soup farts. No one wanted those flowers after that. No problem since.
Had a nearly identical situation with my Dad and his roses about 15 years back. Old lady was told, yelled at multiple times not to just cut and take roses.
Eventually he just sprayed her full force with the hose, she called the cops and when questioned he said "I was just watering my roses". She never came back.
Is she chinese? If so, her generation was probably brought up during the Cultural Revolution, during which time they are taught to obtain as much as possible for as little as possible
what to do about it? Pride is very important for them. If you post a picture outside with her stealing the roses, I bet she will not have the face to come back.
I have a lot of Chinese people by me who will come onto my property as well as into my backyard to take fruit from my trees. Whenever you say something they just look at you and have no reaction
We've had several incidents in my city where older Chinese women not only steal flowers off plants, some of them straight up steal whole pots with flowers in them right off people's porch. The city has a 60+% Chinese population though, so it's not a racism thing going on, it is other Chinese residents calling them out. The affordability of doorbell/house cams are a real game changer in this day and age.
My city (in Canada) is largely Cantonese/Hong Kong immigrants so it's hard to say, mainlanders only started coming here heavily in the past 10 years
. I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the several negative stigmas they have towards mainlanders coming here and point fingers when it happens.
Same! We had these plastic flowers that spun in the wind and our neighbors would just stand in our yard with their toddler and let them pick the flowers up and play with them. Like…it’s on our property and also they’re not toys?? Why would you feel entitled to move my stuff??
Every confrontation was just a brick wall, blank stare. I honestly think it stopped because the kid got tired of it. Who knows how often it happened without me even catching them.
Young chinese people even have derogatory terms for old people of that generation and women in particular akin to Karen but more specific and pejorative
All the comments saying a paintball gun or a super soaker would be a great deterrent are all great ideas until you realize that's somehow assault and battery- despite the fact someone is trespassing on your property and stealing your stuff their rights supersede yours in the eyes of the law.
She keeps doing it because so far the consequences have not been enough for her to stop. The more she does it without confrontation or consequence the more it is reinforcing in her mind that she can do it.
Post a No Trespassing sign visible. Have her trespassed from your property. Confront her every time, video her in her face and do not make it comfortable for her. Call LE and trespass her.
In most cases people just need to ask. I grew up with an avocado tree in our yard and we would give them away to people in the neighborhood if they asked. We would tell off people if we caught them just taking them. Just be civil and ask your neighbors about stuff.
I dunno, I'm kind of on the fence about this. We plant perennials and a variety of annuals at our restaurant, and well, one day I was coming in to do some maintenance and I saw this homeless guy with his backpack on and he had a bundle of zinnea and snapdraggon.
He looked happy to have those flowers on his pack, and I knew he'd gotten them from us because we're the ONLY place that does this. Seriously; we're the only business doing it on this side of town.
I didn't think anything of it other than they are serving their purpose; making someone happy. Now if they'd just stay the fuck out of my koi pond and quit making a mess of the cigarette butt tower thingy...
I have a rather nice and large collection of succulents in my front garden. From time to time I notice that someone has cut something off... and honestly I am not really upset about it. The plants grow back. Someone gets to start their own succulent somewhere using cuts from my plants.
I had an avocado tree once. You'd be amazed at how entitled people are at just taking shit that don't belong to them. They don't take one or two, which would piss me off but I'd get over it. No they take as many as they can take. Then come back for more.
People get angry too much. In a world that is already unkind. I would’ve walk out and held a conversation with her. She might be lonely and see beauty in that one little rose. Bush looks unkept.
OP, you wouldn't happen to be in the UK, would you? I work with a colleague in the UK and her mom has Alzheimer's. Apparently she's been stealing flowers as well. She's also Asian. Must be a crazy coincidence if it's her, if so, I can let her daughter know.
Having lived in a tourist town for 20 years, old Asian people are some of the most entitled ones on planet earth. It's honestly fascinating how they don't even realise it.
Go outside and stand right next to her without saying anything, but maintain eye contact. When she leaves, walk alongside her, still without saying anything, all the way to her front door. That should normally calm her down, and you won’t have done anything wrong.
Follow her and see where she lives. Then start taking her shit in front of her. Tell her you steal my stuff, I steal your stuff. That is the only way to make it stop as the cops won't do anything about it.
4.5k
u/Otherwise-Lie8595 Sep 08 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/l378gODdla75xN0CA