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‘A scary thing:’ Richmond woman says someone has been stealing her plants

Marilyn Baker was left feeling vulnerable after returning home in March only to find a large, empty hole where one of her euphorbias (an outdoor plant) used to be.

Marilyn Baker was left feeling vulnerable after returning home in March only to find a large, empty hole where one of her euphorbias (an outdoor plant) used to be.

“Someone had walked onto our property with a shovel or trowel, selected one of my new lovely small bushes, and dug it out of the ground to take home,” she said.

“I guess it was just too tempting for someone to walk by them and not take one.”

She has since filled in the hole and planted a small hosta in place of the pilfered euphorbia.

But that’s not the only time someone has stolen plants from her property, said Baker, who is retired and lives in the Gilbert and Blundell area in central Richmond.

A few days ago, she said, someone dug up one of the three small bay trees she was nurturing in a pot until they were ready to be transplanted.

And in the past year, the “dollar store” flowers in her front-door wreath have been all picked out, leaving the wreath bare. A large planter pot near her front door was also taken.

“I feel very vulnerable, and I think that we’re probably going to have to build a fence, or hedge, or something,” said Baker, adding she and her husband live on a corner lot, which may make it easier for people to see onto her property.

“It’s kind of a scary thing if people are taking advantage of you.”

Baker doesn’t have a door camera, and hasn’t reported the incidents to Richmond RCMP, explaining that she thinks they have more serious problems to deal with than missing plants — although she said she will go to police if it happens again.

And while Baker doesn’t know if it’s one individual or various people who have stolen her plants, she said she hopes whoever is involved will “do the right thing” and return them.

Baker isn’t the only one to experience plant theft in recent months.

In April, lawyer Paul Doroshenko posted on Twitter that he witnessed two individuals digging up flowers from a planter bed outside his Richmond office.

“I heard some rustling outside the door. I looked out the window and this couple were stealing my flowers,” he wrote in his post, sharing a photo of a woman hunched over the flower bed while a man stood nearby.

And in May, CBC reported how one East Vancouver man witnessed a thief pull up in front of his home and rip his two-year-old Japanese maple out of the ground.

Plant theft has been a recurring issue in Richmond gardens — an issue that the Richmond News has reported on several times over the last few years.

Most recently, in July 2019, the program coordinator for Richmond Food Security told the News that that year’s season was particularly bad for pilfering from the city’s community gardens.

When asked by the News, a City of Richmond spokesperson said that neither the city’s horticultural staff nor the Richmond Garden Club have experienced any plant thefts from city gardens or Paulik Park this current season.

Meanwhile, Richmond RCMP said they have had 5 reported incidents of plants being stolen since the beginning of February, and that “theft under $5,000 is the appropriate charge section under the Criminal Code of Canada.”

RCMP also encouraged anyone who believes they are the victim of a crime to contact police or use Richmond RCMP’s online reporting tool.