Hello and welcome to our blog.

Hi Utsuri - one of our 2008 fish. Now swimming in a customers pond

I hope you will find something to interest you in our posts.

I hope to show you the adventure we have had in opening our shop.

Greenmann aquatics is a dream we have had ever since we met working

in an aquatics shop. It has taken a long time for everything to come together.

Finding the site was one of the hardest, it had to be right, and I believe with John Browns Garden Centre we have found the best site we can.

Lucie.

Police are looking for thieves who stole valuable fish from a pond.

The thieves entered the back garden of a property on Faringdon Avenue, Lutterworth and stole five koi carp worth a total of £500.

The red, white and gold fish were taken between 2300 BST on 4 May and 1500 BST on 5 May.

Police want to hear from people who saw anything suspicious in the area and from anyone who is offered the chance to buy koi carp.

Pc Stace Reeve from Leicestershire Police said: “We appeal to anyone who may have seen someone acting suspiciously in the area between these times transporting the fish to get in contact with us.

“We also appeal to anyone, in particular garden centres, who has been approached by someone selling koi carp fish in suspicious circumstances to get in touch.”

Thieves are using Google Earth to steal expensive koi carp from homeowners’ ponds, police believe.

They are believed to be using Internet mapping systems to identify gardens with ponds so they can take the sought-after specimens.

Twelve thefts of the exotic fish and pond equipment, some of which are worth hundreds of pounds, have been reported over a three-week period across Hull, East Yorks.

Humberside Police Community Support Officer Sam Gregory said all the evidence suggests the culprits are using the Internet to seek out their targets.

Google Earth provides satellite photos detailed enough to see what is in people’s back gardens.

PCSO Gregory said: “Google shows what is in your garden and you can see people’s ponds.

“One of the properties targeted has an eight foot fence and is set back from the road.

“The pond is in the corner and can’t be seen.

“Unless you were standing right next to the wall, you wouldn’t be able to hear the running water.”

Robert Barnes lost four koi carp and expensive lilies from his pond. The 65 year-old said: “They took the smaller fish, probably because they last longer out of the water.

“My neighbour later told me she had seen two young men with a bike with a box on it and a big black net.”

Nigel Dawson, 40, woke up one morning to find his expensive filter system and 13 koi carp had been taken from his back garden.

He said: “I am devastated. I didn’t see or hear anything.”

A spokesperson for Google said the search engine was just one provider of such satellite images.

They said: “Google Earth is built from information that is available worldwide from a wide range of both commercial and public sources.

“As such, Google Earth creates no appreciable increase in security risks, given the wide commercial availability of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world.

“Criminals could use maps, phones and getaway cars but no one would argue that these technologies are responsible for the crime itself, that responsibility lies with the perpetrator.”

From the ‘telegraph’ website – Link