Illegal garden act caught on Aussie mum's home camera highlights strange new trend

Yahoo

24-07-2025

In what appears to be a growing trend nationwide, yet another suburban Aussie homeowner has fallen victim to the strange surge in plant theft. This time, a Queensland mother has lost her prized lemon tree, with the outrageous late-night act caught on home security footage.
Ineke McMahon had a vision when she planted her lemon tree out the front of her Brisbane home. Her neighbours would "come home with their kids from school" and "pick a lemon to have with their gin and tonics". But pretty quickly that dream was dashed.
CCTV shows a mystery figure recently approaching Ineke's yard at about 4.30am in a seemingly targeted takedown. Ineke believes the offender had likely been circling the suburb "looking for something to steal" before they set their sights on the fruit tree.
"It's unbelievable, we just couldn't believe it," the mother-of-two said of the robbery. "It's distressing and also highly amusing at the same time," she told A Current Affair.
Other than grainy footage of a shadowy figure appearing on home surveillance cameras, little else is known about the offender. While Queensland Police are aware of the incident, all that remains of the tree is the trail of dirt left behind after it was plucked from the ground.
As for Ineke, she "has no idea" who might've had their eyes on it before it was taken. "And why are you driving around at 4.30am on a Friday morning?" she wondered.
Australia's lucrative plant theft trend
It's the latest example of plant snatching to take place in the country, and local homeowners who are falling victim say they are fed up.
In May, a South Australian gardener branded a late-night plant thief "despicable" and called for the alleged robber to "get a job", after his property was targeted twice in three weeks.
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Andy Luke, from the Adelaide suburb of Eden Hills, said both he and his neighbours had repeatedly been targeted by the thief. But because the CCTV footage did not capture the offender's face or vehicle registration, there's little police can do until they strike again.
Andy believed the alleged robber was selling the plants elsewhere.
"I think someone is either taking them and selling them, or they're dodgy landscapers and someone had an order for English hedges and they decided to come and take them," he said.
Earlier in Adelaide, a resident resorted to placing Apple Airtags in the pots of their plants to track down plant thieves after months of theirs going missing in the night.
Further east, A Sydney student recently told Yahoo she was left "devastated" after robbers pinched $300 worth of new plants from her front garden.
In yet another incident, a 36-year-old man, also from New South Wales, found parts of his newly planted hedge had been stolen, prompting him to leave a very disparaging sign for the culprit. "I was absolutely gutted and instantly irate," he told Yahoo at the time.
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