Interesting article...have you ever been a victim of a plant thief?

"Durham beset by plant thieves

Samiha Khanna, Staff Writer

DURHAM - On your next stroll through the Old North Durham neighborhood near downtown, stop and admire Alison Aucoin's front yard and her rosy-peach hibiscus blooms.

But don't stare too long. She might call the cops.

Twice since the spring, someone has crept into her garden and uprooted a bush, carrying it away into the night.

Other residents and businesses surrounding downtown also have been targeted. Victims have filed police reports, but the difficult-to-solve crime spree has continued through the summer and has caused residents to suspect even the most innocent fans of their foliage.

At Aucoin's home on West Trinity Avenue, the thief left little evidence, save the stinging disrespect Aucoin has felt ever since. Furious, she posted signs warning plant thieves "keep out."

"That was not the sign I wanted to write," said Aucoin, 40, a grant writer. "However, kids wait for the bus on the corner."

It's clear to residents the people responsible for digging up their camellia bushes, snipping their hydrangea blooms and stealing large planters are methodical, probably using a vehicle to haul items that sometimes weigh more than 50 pounds. But because it's hard to tell plants apart and the crime scenes lack fingerprints and other hard evidence, the cases are hard to solve.

The thefts seem to be happening more this year, or at least are more publicized, said Durham police Sgt. Dale Gunter, who supervises officers who patrol some of the targeted areas.

"I tell my guys, 'While you're in these areas, if you see anyone walking with a fern or gardening after dark, you need to stop and identify 'em,' " Gunter said.

Such crimes are not unusual in urban areas, according to news reports from past years.

Aucoin, from New Orleans, said she had to chain potted plants there, too, but thieves digging up bushes was unheard of. Officials in Raleigh and Chapel Hill have not reported a similar trend.

What is more puzzling to residents and Durham police is where the plants go. Some suspect an unscrupulous landscaper. Others think the items are being resold at flea markets, or even in online classified ads.

"We really won't know until we catch someone doing it," Gunter said.

One theory is that the thefts are for someone's own yard. But if that's the case, someone in the Bull City could be hoarding more large planters and shrubs than a typical residential lot could handle. E-mail reports on neighborhood message groups alone have documented more than 30 multi-item thefts just among residents around downtown.

"It's mind-boggling to me," said Michelle Wallace, Durham County horticulture agent for the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service. Recently, someone dug up two dwarf Yaupon holly shrubs that were planted outside her Foster Street office, she said. "Whenever someone digs up a plant that's already started rooting, there's no guarantee that it's going to live once it gets transplanted."

That hasn't stopped the efforts.

On Sunday, someone stole a half-dozen boxwood shrubs, worth a total of about $75, from planters in Julie Randolph's front yard on busy North Mangum Street.

"I'm sure if anybody saw them, they would just assume that they were doing yard work," said Randolph, 36, a clinical researcher. "If you're going to be that brazen about it, no one's going to think you're stealing it."

It was the second time this year Randolph's house was hit. In May, she confronted a woman dragging away her planters in the middle of the night. As she called police, the woman ran away.

A next-door neighbor, Matthew Flynn, said around the same time, he also confronted two women stealing planters from his front porch, but the thieves also scattered before police arrived. Flynn since has chained down porch items and installed a thorough motion-sensor system that alerts him when people step into his yard.

Other victims have shared more ideas, including wiring plants to their hooks and even planting a business card or other identifier in a potted plant's soil. As frustration has escalated, so have the suggestions -- booby traps involving thumb tacks or barbed wire have been mentioned, but those options could lead to legal liability.

Plus, victims said, they don't want to hurt anyone -- just stop the stealing and win back their sense of safety.

"It's not a huge financial loss, it's just the feeling of being violated," Randolph said. More than once a week, she finds herself patrolling her yard after dark to make sure no one's in it, moving in on her home and her family.

"I'd rather they steal a bike out of my backyard than my plants. It's very personal," Randolph said of her yard. "I spend a lot of time away from my family working very hard on it."

Wallace, the horticulturist, said humans always have struggled to conquer nature, and that's part of the reason gardening is so rewarding.

In parts of Durham, however, it seems the challenge is not in getting things to grow, so much as getting them to stay.

(News researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this report.)

Staff writer Samiha Khanna can be reached at 956-2468 or samiha.khanna@newsobserver.com.

News researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this report."