Pat Gail, who owns a framing store in Watchung Plaza, once had a bench, a bistro table and a bunch of potted plants outside her store on N. Fullerton Ave., and she liked to think of it as a little piazza where senior citizens or young mothers could sit and take a rest in the afternoon.
Now all that remains are four potted plots. The bench and the bistro table were taken in previous years. One potted plant was taken two weeks ago, and three more were missing when she arrived at her shop on Tuesday morning. Althogther, that’s about $600 worth of landscaping.
“It’s sad,” she said. The pots taken were planted with geraniums, impatiens and other annuals and they were large. “You had to be a sumo wrestler to lift these pots.” Although her landlord has suggested securing her outdoor items with a chain, Gail, who hails from Brooklyn, doesn’t want to think Montclair has come to that.
“I just don’t have the umph to plant more flowers this season,” she said.
A Montclair homeowner who lives near the high school, recently had two planters — Mother’s Day presents — stolen from her front stoop. Her neighbor was missing her baskets too.
“All of the baskets stolen from both my neighbor and I were Mother’s day presents,” she said. “My children were and are still very sad that the flowers that they bought for their mommy were stolen.”
Gail suspects professional landscapers, the homeowner suspects teenagers. No word yet from the police.
Have you had any potted plants or lawn furniture stolen?
YIKES!!!
I would love to see the The Gregory Brothers handle this one. It might end up looking like the Montclair version of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw
HIDE YOUR FLOWER POTS!!!
My first home I’ll never forget planting 3 Boxwoods in the front, woke up the next morning and they were all gone. Very low to steal a mans shrubs.
Just in from the Montclair PD:
“BOLO for a very warge, gway wabbit suspected of a 37-87.1 dash 04 (flower basket theft); wast seen in the vicinity of Watchung Plaza. Approach carefuwwy, the hare has been know to cawwy a gun shaped wike a cawwot. Answers to whatever you ask him, mostly sarcastically. If seen, contact Sergeant Fudd immediately.”
My vote is landscapers…when teens mess around with planters, they’re more likely to smash them.
Here’s what I think. Now I don’t know if it still holds true, but when I was in High School there were always “senior pranks.” Given the area and randomness of the thefts, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing 50 pots of plants on the front lawn of MHS soon. The problem is, if i’m right and the kids see they are in the news and “wanted”, they may ditch the prank and toss the plants fearing prosecution.
Dear Thief,
It’s a POT-TED plant, not POT.
Sincerely,
Nellie
Maybe it is the guys who were stealing newly planted shrubs out of Anderson park a few years ago. I think they were pro landscapers, these guys probably are too.
A florist in a location that for obvious reasons I shall not disclose is in the habit of leaving their hanging flower baskets out on the sidewalk overnight. We were wondering who would actually steal one.
I note that this relatively minor offense against public order and safety rates its own item, whereas more major crimes here (at least in terms of the penalties for them if the perps are caught and convicted) usually get summed up in a police blotter round-up. So it’s clearly, ta-da!, a very slow news day.
And yet some of the old reliables post above. A slow news day doesn’t stop the likes of them, nosirree. Patch, contrastingly, has coverage of more major (and also more recent) crimes as its lead item (at the time I read it, anyway)
If you leave it outside, the chances of something being stolen are high. Period.
I know. I know. “But this is Montclair.”
Sorry, cathar,
I couldn’t post soon enough to offer you a chance to trash your humble servant, Spiro T. Quayle. At 4:21, the time Baristanet accepted your yeasty prose, I was at Home Depot, Bloomfield, examining their well-stocked assortment of potted plant hooks. I had a problem, though, since none matched the rustic finish applied to the attractive hardware gracing my tasteful and historic front door. Now I have all these plants sitting on my porch floor.
Glad to see you view this as a “relatively minor offense against public order and safety”. But really cathar, wasn’t that a line that you slyly inserted in your text purely to insult the Baristas and make them envious of the Patchers and their dedication to more disturbing local crimes? You naughty boy.
Cathar where are your priorities? Plants, potted or otherwise, are what some of us live for. This is a very serious offense.
Don’t say the p-word, cathar.
Could have been a garden center behind it. Now people will have to buy more flowers.
Dag, I agree. My peonies just bloomed. Fantastic.
Montclair: First we steal your heart and then anything that’s not nailed down.
You know, you people can make light of all this and dismiss it as a “minor” nuisance. But I am OUTRAGED!
So much so, that two friends joined me last night in a little benefit concert we organized to provide reward money for the person who catches these peony pilferers, and for replacement begonias for the merchants.
Here is a clip of our performance. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYii6nxhvUk
I love that song croiagusanam. Thanks !
Good job, cro,
Poy-pe-tray-tuzz revealed at 0:29.
Oh when will they (cathar you too) ever learn?
Every year I hang a potted plant on the tree in our front yard, and for the past two years someone has stolen it. Really how pathetic do you have to be to steal someone’s flowers?
I would be positively p.o.’ed if someone took my flower boxes or leafies! I am even annoyed even with the fact that one of my new shrubbies has lost most of its flowers already, one week after installation (obviously I bought it last weekend at the peak of its bloom). So if I’m that annoyed that I can’t enjoy the flowers and fragrance for one stinking more weekend, I would go ballistic if it were dug up and stolen entirely! my Gosh! What’s the world coming to!
p.s. my peonies are slloooooow, still closed up tight, and a couple don’t have any buds at all. 2nd year after transplant. Couple of blooms last year too but not overwhelming. Maybe they are too deep?
What an odd coincidence Cro. We held a benefit concert yesterday too. Ours was targeted more toward voter apathy in the ethnic community, and to bring attention to town governance issues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3YQ24i1wP0 I’m the guy hitting the accordion case with the empty bottle…
Superb job on the empty bottle, deadeye. Perhaps you can help these guys out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj7pDNDuoJ0
LOL…I am so sharing that video! Thanks, Deadeye.
@deadeye, OMG, you have me laughing so loud the deaf dog is startled! Needed that, thanks.
Deadeye, I needed that today too, thank you.
The accordion player looks a little like Woody Harrelson!
deadeye, I’m guessing the guy on the far right with the blue leisure suit is the manager?