THIEVES have targeted the gardens of two women in Ramsgate – one of whom had her POND stolen.

Widowed Margaret Chambers, 69, woke up last Saturday morning to find a fibreglass moulded pond had been ripped out of the ground in her back garden and its plants tipped out.

Mrs Chambers’ husband Richard, who died last year of cancer, installed the pond five years ago, and she had been trying to get her garden back in good order.

Mrs Chambers said: “I had let the weeds grow a bit because I’d heard you should try and encourage the wildlife, and we had frogs move into the pond last year so about this time of the year I get a lot of tadpoles in it.

“But when I came out here on Saturday, the whole pond was gone. There was just a pile of earth left. I couldn’t believe it. There were dead tadpoles everywhere. I managed to save some of them by putting them in a basin, but lots of them died.

“I still can’t believe anyone could do this. You would have thought they would have made a lot of noise but I didn’t hear anything. I reported it to the police.”

Mrs Chambers has bought a new pond mould at a cost of £45 for the tadpoles she managed to save.

And she was not the only one to have her garden targeted. Less than a mile away the weekend before, mother-of-three Joan Holden, 55, was horrified to find the garden lights she had won at bingo had been stolen.

Mrs Holden, who works as a driver for Unipart, said: “I’d only got them five days earlier, as a gift at Crown Bingo in Margate.

“Lots of people who live in the street had said how nice they looked, and I was really pleased. Then I came out last week and they were gone.

“When I told my neighbours they said their lights had been stolen from their back garden too.

“My lights weren’t very expensive so I didn’t call the police, I just want to warn to everyone else who takes pride in their garden to be on the lookout and take care of their garden furniture.

“The manager at Crown bingo gave me some replacemens, but I haven’t put them up yet. I don’t want them to get stolen as well.”

A spokesman for Kent police said they did not believe thefts from gardens were a problem in the area, but urged people to report any crime.

Insp Terry Chuter said: “It is important people report thefts so that we can pinpoint accurately where crime is taking place and ensure that our officers are patrolling where they need to be.”

Has anything been pinched from your garden? Email us at newsdesk.thanet@krnmedia.co.uk or leave a comment.