Surveillance video shows man digging up woman's plants in Lakeview
CHICAGO - On Chicago's North Side, a parkway's plants were ripped out in the middle of the night, leaving one resident determined to root out the rose bush bandit.
Natalie Gordon says she has no idea why someone would pilfer her plants outside her Lakeview home. Now, she has dirt holes where she had worked hard to spruce up the parkway along Ashland at Grace.
"He took all my rose bushes and my lilies. That’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of effort. It’s frustrating and deflating at the same time," Gordon said.
At least this time, she caught the incident on camera. Gordon's surveillance video shows someone dig up the several plants on a rainy night.
"It was surreal. I mean, it's seven-and-a-half minutes of this guy just walking around the yard, digging up each plant individually, and just putting them in his grocery cart," she said.
Gordon added the surveillance camera because she says the same thing happened last year. At the time she, "thought it was maybe some drunk people or something but, you know, looking at the video this guy is totally sober so I don't know."
Gordon has turned to Facebook to help weed out the culprit.
"Blasted it all over Facebook and three different people have identified the same person as a potential suspect," Gordon said.
She has contacted Chicago police, not wanting to confront him alone.
Gordon says she would like the person to reimburse her and not do it again, especially since she plans to replant the parkway eventually.