Joel Banner Baird

Free Press Staff Writer

Among the people who pause to admire Burlington’s garden flowers, shrubs and trees — there is at least one bad apple.

A thief, or thieves, made off with dozens of carefully tended plants this month in the Queen City.

On various Front Porch Forums, most of them in the Old North End, gardeners have posted their shock, disbelief, sadness and anger.

Twenty-six incidents of botanical theft in the past 10 days have been reported on the online forum, the forum’s founder and chief moderator, Michael Wood-Lewis, wrote in a blog on Monday.

The losses range from relatively cheap annuals, like marigolds, to ornamental trees costing hundreds of dollars.

What nearly all the incidents have in common: The plants were removed with the roots intact, rather than simply yanked from the soil.

That’s a sure sign the purloined goods would be transplanted, Emily Lee, who lives on Bradley Street, said on Monday.

“It’s not a vandalism event,” Lee said. “They’re not just creating a mess or being destructive. These were carefully dug up.”

She surveyed her front garden, noting the fresh absence of ornamental sedum, of pansies and forget-me-nots.

“It’s a shame,” Lee continued. “If someone had knocked on my door and asked for some plants, I would have gladly split some of the perennials and given them some. And most plant people I know would have done the same.”

Motives for the crime might extend beyond mere garden envy, said Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.

“We do not know if the recent spate of incidents is part of an organized effort targeting plants for theft and resale on the black market,” del Pozo wrote in a texted response for comment.

City Councilor Sara Giannoni, P-Ward 3, termed the rash of thefts a “quality-of-life” issue.

“For it to happen to people who take so much time and effort to beautify a neighborhood — it hits your soul,” Giannoni said.

On Oak Street, Tom Charpentier has no firm theory about why someone dug up the three dwarf apple trees he planted three years ago as a memorial to his mother-in law.

Three pumpkin-sized holes are all that remain.

“I just planted them to make the area look nice. It looked a little too nice, I guess,” Charpentier said.

Another ornamental tree, this time a dwarf weeping Japanese maple, disappeared, last week.

“And I thought horticulture bred compassion,” posted the tree’s former caretaker, Jeremy Hammond on Front Porch Forum, adding “maybe there’s a budding entrepreneur with a non-ferrous moral compass.”

Whoever stole a budding Asiatic lily last week on Lakeview Terrace “had to know what they were getting,” said Diana Carlisle, who planted the specimen back in 2011.

The lily had been a gift, Carlisle said; its blooms “had a gorgeous, rich red color.”

The thieves ignored her peonies, but dug up several clumps from a neighbor’s garden.

Further down the street, someone unearthed a pair of clematis vines, along with their trellises, Carlisle said.

Like other recent victims of plant theft, Carlisle has considered installing a surveillance camera to oversee her garden beds at night. So has Charpentier.

Jake Blend, a field technician at University of Vermont Medical Center and a seasoned digital forensics enthusiast (but not a gardener) is ready to help.

Four people have responded to his offer to design and install surveillance systems.

A garden-watching rig typically begins with relatively cheap, easy-to-use, “plug-and-play” components: A Raspberry Pi microprocessor will cost between $8 and $40, he said. Add a webcam for about $20; infrared (night-vision) capability for another five bucks.

Other parts might be lying around the house, Blend said: a portable phone charger, an SD card for image storage; a motion-activated switch; a wireless hook-up.

“You can have it alert your phone," he added. "It can tell you, ‘There’s motion on Camera 2,’ for instance."

With or without a high-tech surveillance system in place, Giannoni urges neighbors to notify Burlington Police when plants go missing. Incidents can be reported online at the department's website or by calling (802) 658-2704.

This story was originally published online Wednesday, June 22, 2016.

Contact Joel Banner Baird at 802-660-1843 or joelbaird@freepressmedia.com.

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