Security against bonsai theft TIP

[bingh]

Hi all. I have seen some posts about bonsai theft.
Most bonsai thieves do it to sell them for a quick buck.
Solution:
Go to your local vet, get a pet ID chip, drill a hole in the trunk, stick in the chip and seal up the hole. Now you can't track it like the CIA can but if it ever gets to court you call in the vet as a witness with his scanner. When I first tried it a chip and registration cost about $16

Brian

[kcpoole]

Nice idea and if the trees are recovered it will definitely prove ownership once recovered.

I thought the big problem was actually finding the trees and they mostly just dissapear.

Ken

[bingh]

Hi Ken

That's right but sometimes the thieves aren't very bright. Years ago one was so dumb that he had one of my junipers in one of my pots displayed on his balcony

Brian

[kcpoole]

Hi Ken

That's right but sometimes the thieves aren't very bright. Years ago one was so dumb that he had one of my junipers in one of my pots displayed on his balcony

Brian

LOL that does not surprise me

[John Henry]

Hi All, Last week i had four of my oldest and bigest
pines stolan iam sure i will never see them again.
Thanks John m

[Edward Scissorhand]

Hi All, Last week i had four of my oldest and bigest
pines stolan iam sure i will never see them again.
Thanks John m

John m, thats terrible news. Have you got any pics that you can put up here so we can keep an eye out what it looks like.

[bingh]

Perhaps the forum could include a Stolen Bonsai register where members could show pics of their stolen trees. I had a stolen bonsai register on my website when it was alive

Brian

[craigw60]

I Have had a couple of trees stolen including a beautiful old cedar in a signed Japanese pot, there was some choice language when that one went. What is the distance you can track these chips from ? Are you able to track the trees from afar.
Craig

[Jamie]

im not sure about tracking them from afar with the ones brian are talking about, but have you guys every seen the chips they put in rescued wildlife and then when they release them they can pick up a signal from a fair distance away?

[Ash]

Hi Jamie, Craig, Brian et alias,
For tracking wildlife small radio transmitters are used and not micro-chips. They need to be installed externally for reception and as a result they are pretty obvious (easy for a thief to remove) and will eventually run out of batteries (unless your thief choses to replace the batteries). The smaller the radio transmitters are the lower their power the shorter their detection range. For little ones you have to walk around in the 'known zone' with the recieving antenna searching for their transmitted signal. It is only really big and powerfull ones that can be detected by remote sensing (like EPIRB size!)(or the things they mannacle onto nasty crims after they have caught them). I have not encountered micro-chip sized transmitters that can be located by remote sensing but would love a dozen or so. The micro-chips that Brian is talking about are not really a security against theft nor a way to track them down. What micro-chips can do is confirm that something belongs to your post recovery. Good photographs all along the bonsai way will help with the same.
cheers
Ash

[DavidN]

Hi all
The biggest problem is that the trees really do disappear and are never seen again. I was absolutely shocked to hear last week about John M's trees as these are true beauties and so notciable if they would ever be seen in public. That is where the problem is. These will never be seen in public again and end up in private collections in a certain community!!!! I'm glad John M still has the passion for bonsai as I think if this happened to me I would be too devastated and I would probably give up entirely on bonsai.

David

[AnneK]

Perhaps the forum could include a Stolen Bonsai register where members could show pics of their stolen trees. I had a stolen bonsai register on my website when it was alive

Brian

This sounds like a very good idea. Who is going to be the unfortunate one to be able to Start it off?

Perhaps we should all start taking the pictures in case. And meanwhile the framework developed ready for the occasion.

Regards, AnneK

[Gerard]

Perhaps the forum could include a Stolen Bonsai register where members could show pics of their stolen trees. I had a stolen bonsai register on my website when it was alive

I like this idea, if we can make things difficult for thieves we should do so.
Perhaps we would not see many recovered but maybe less would be taken. It might not ease the devastation of the victims but I cannot imagine how devastated I would be if I learned that I had purchased a stolen tree!

Gerard