Harry Cook Uses Trowel To Scare Off Garden Thieves (VIDEO)

Anyone who tries to steal from Harry Cook's garden has to be a blooming idiot.

The 67-year-old retired truck driver will do anything to protect his garden. In a recent case, he was forced to use a trowel against two crooks bent on pilfering his petunias, two leylandii trees, three conifer trees, a pot of pansies and a large tub of violas.

After catching them red-handed in their van, Cook -- who hails from Leicestershire, UK -- told the thieves to "put the blooming things back" before watching them replace the flowers and leave empty-handed, The Telegraph reported.

To make his point, Cook shook his trowel angrily -- and it worked, much to his surprise.

“I was holding my garden trowel and I think they both knew I wasn’t going to give up my flowers without one hell of a fight," he told The Mirror. “It was probably lucky for the van men because my wife was at Wimbledon watching the tennis, but if she had been with me she would have been at my side and they would have had two of us to contend with.”

Cook had a good reason he didn't want any thugs fiddling with his flowers. Not only did some of the plants in the garden cost him hundreds of dollars, but he won the prize for best garden in two major contests in the past 12 months, and was getting ready to win a third.

"I'd like to make it a hat-trick of awards so I wasn't going to let anyone ruin that," he told This Is Leicestershire.

Although Cook was able to protect his garden from being robbed, the thieves escaped and now local police are on the lookout for the grey Vauxhall van used for the getaway. The two suspects are described as white, aged between 20 and 30 and of muscular build.