Portland property owner plagued by weed-stealing sous-chefs

Danger - No Trespassing Sign (iStock)

The classic old timey threat “git off my lawn” has taken on a completely new meaning in Portland, Ore.

An apartment manager in Southeast Portland says he has a problem with trespassing sous-chefs from nearby trendy eateries harvesting his lawn’s wild weeds to serve at their restaurants.

"If you live in Portland, you have to know what comes with the neighborhood, and in this case, it's bands of sous-chefs," apartment manager, Martin Connolly, told Portland’s KATU News. "In some neighborhoods there's coyotes, some have skunks – here, it's just sous-chefs."

The man claims that employees from local restaurants won’t stop climbing his fence and picking the greens that grow in a fenced-in alley behind his property. He says he's left signs and messages telling them to stop, but he hasn't received any responses. He’s even installed a camera to catch them red-handed.

Feeling too embarrassed to call the cops, Connolly has decided to do his own detective work, using what the chefs leave behind as evidence.

"You can always tell they’ve been here,” Connolly told KATU News. “There's beard nets. I found this recipe lying back here the other day.”

Connolly told the local news outlet that he has learned to recognize the chefs' scent, saying he can tell they’ve been around because it “smells like brisket."

According to KATU News, no employees at nearby restaurants said they were responsible for taking weeds from Connolly’s lawn.

But even Connolly’s neighbor spotted a chef stuck on the fence last week.

"Had a bag of what was probably chicory leaves," said Connolly.