Valley Businesses Hit By Flower Thieves

Anji Puryear is looking for a thief.

He has a green thumb. A big pot of petunias. And a lot of nerve.

The guilty party has been stealing flowers. Puryear, the office manager of Chiropractic & Therapy Associates on North University Road, has been hit twice.

Earlier this month, someone stole the 3 by 3 foot planter outside the office door she had filled with petunias, geraniums and other colorful plants. On Tuesday, she planted about two dozen new flowers directly into the ground. That night, someone swiped three or four of the nicest ones, digging them up, roots, dirt and all.

“I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry,” Puryear said.

And she’s not alone. As many Valley businesses can attest, flower-lovers aren’t always satisfied with just looking.

Bill Bongers, owner of Skipper Bill’s boat shop on East Sprague Avenue, has had to replant the flowers in front of his business three times this year due to theft.

“I even had to get more dirt,” Bongers said. “They’d take all the dirt with the plant.”

At one point, his frustrated wife threatened to replace the flowers with cactus plants.

“I even stayed here at night, thinking I might catch them,” he said.

Tom Rousseau, president of Tom Rousseau Insurance on East Sprague Avenue, got so frustrated by the repeated theft of his flowers that he put a message on his reader board.

“To the person who is taking our plants: Why are you so cheap?” the sign read.

After seeing the message, a sympathetic Valley woman brought Rousseau six nice geraniums. Unfortunately, the thieving didn’t stop. Finally, an anonymous tip led Rousseau to the likely flower snatchers.

Instead of confronting them, he put up another sign.

“The person who took our plants lives in a nearby mobile park,” it read.

The flowers stopped disappearing.

Bond Family Chiropractic on South Pines Road also has been hit. Over the memorial day weekend, a 24-inch pot of geraniums, petunias, ivy and other plants disappeared from the front of the business. Employees wonder if their flowers ended up on someone’s grave.

“It’s funny but it’s sick at the same time,” said Puryear, who spent six weeks growing her flowers at home before placing the heavy pot outside her office door.

“It took two of us to lift it up in the truck and move it,” said Puryear, who can just imagine the thief tugging at her flower pot and dragging it off in the middle of the night. She figures the flower enthusiast must have been quite burly.

The second time Puryear was hit, the thief took only the best plants. Puryear has driven around the neighborhood looking for them, without luck.

She feels bad about it, but she refuses to replace any more plants.

“I can’t keep continuing to fill flower beds for (thieves),” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo