Protect your Pansies?

I thought I'd keep my first post close to home. My family and I moved to the Vancouver-Hastings area just over a year ago. Admittedly we had our reservations. We'd heard all of the East Vancouver horror stories and we bought into most of those stereotypes.

Shortly after moving in we spared no expense and purchased an alarm system and we remain diligent about locking doors and windows (although we've avoided window bars). We never leave anything of any value outside which is probably good advice for any community.

Time has passed and we now realize that for the most part we were wrong. We live in a lovely, friendly neighbourhood within a thriving and culturally diverse community. We have neighbours that talk to us and to each other, unlike our neighbours in our previous community, and I think that the last grow-op within a few blocks just blew up a couple of weeks ago.

All in all we love our new community and we generally feel safe within it. That was until a couple of weeks ago when the unimaginable happened. Someone stole our pansies! Not only the pansies but the ugly fake plastic tree that we had on our front deck. Worse, the pansy poachers didn't target us alone but hit several other front doorsteps on the street! Even worse still I've learned is that this isn't the first time that this has happened.

What have we gotten ourselves into? Are pansies and other doorstep decoration some new crazy fuel feeding someones drug habit, or does someone just really like flowers but can't afford them? How do you bolt down a flower? My advise here then my friends, watch out for those that can't protect themselves. Protect your pansies at all costs.