Stealing Pears?

[Struggling]

Okay. So there are some pear trees in my town. I don’t know who owns them. They’re near an abandoned store, but they might also belong to the neighboring condos, or the City itself. My dad likes to take these pears to eat. When the store was not abandoned, the owners of the store saw and didnt seem to care…though he never got explicit permission. And as I said, they might not have cared just because the pear trees did not belong to the store, but rather to the City or the condos. No one else has ever taken the pears. They have fallen to the ground and rotted or been eaten by wasps. I have sometimes been with him when he has taken the pears.

Now, normally I wouldn’t worry too much, but this particular situation stung my conscience because of the whole St. Augustine stealing pears things in his Confessions.

Am I wrong to help my dad take the pears without finding out who owns them and getting permission? If they belong to the City…then who really does own them? The pears are going to be wasted anyway…but I know that doesn’t necessarily make it right; if the owner wants to use his property for rot and waste and wasps…that’s his decision to make, not mine.

So…should we be taking the pears? We only take a few…

 

[Sailboat]

We have lots of abandoned fruit trees where we live, and we gather fruit every year. Lots of people here don’t even pick fruit off of their own trees and don’t take care of them or prune them. This definately sounds like an abandoned tree and you should help yourself. Otherwise the fruit will be wasted.

 

[Della]

If it truly bothers you, you could find out (via city hall) who owns the property and so be able to ask permission to harvest the pears. Just a thought. :tiphat:

 

[Sailboat]

If it truly bothers you, you could find out (via city hall) who owns the property and so be able to ask permission to harvest the pears. Just a thought. :tiphat:

The trouble with this advise is that you are dealing with a bureaucratic entity that will most likely want to cut down this excellent tree for liability issues once they are alerted to the fact that it’s unregulated. After all, someone might climb up to get a pear, fall down, and sue the city!

 

[carol_marie]

If the owners just let them go to rot anyhow, I can’t imagine they would care if your Dad ate them. I think it’s OK.

ps. I think it’s awesome that you have such a well developed sense of right & wrong though. I wish I had that when I was your age -