Couple beat the basket thieves
Hanging basket bandits hold no fear for gardener Jean Mason - whose husband has invented an anti-theft device that has protected her blooms for the past 27 years.
It was back in 1980 that thieves struck at the couple's Great Barr home, making off with the chain holding up the colourful flower arrangement and leaving the hanging basket on the ground.
Jean, aged 68, said today: "I swore there and then that I'd never let it happen again."
Husband Eric, a retired toolsetter, said: "It was a rather fancy chain. At the time, there was a fashion for wearing chain belts. We think that's why it caught someone's eye."
Eric, now aged 87, set to work in the garden shed of their home in The Grove and sawed two discs out of some scrap metal, made a hole in the centre of each one, placed them either side of the wall bracket and linked them with a nut and bolt.
Jean said: "It's simple but it really works. We've never been bothered since. Our daughter has three baskets at the front of her house in Cannock, and they've never been touched either."
Jean said she sympathises with the Rowley Regis residents featured in the Express & Star who had baskets stolen. She said: "I thought 'I know how to solve that problem'. It's wicked that people steal baskets. I wanted to help."
Jean said an advantage of the device was there were no ugly chains and wires to spoil the basket's appearance. "I just wished we'd patented it years ago - we'd be rich by now," she added.
Eric says the discs can be made by boring a hole through the metal lids covering the gas jets on cookers, obtainable for next to nothing at scrapyards.
By Marion Brennan
