A ute driver has been caught red-handed stealing a large flowering plant from outside a suburban property, with a home security camera capturing the man simply striding up to the home, cutting off a large branch and throwing it into the back of his Ford Ranger.
The incident was recorded in Cairns, Queensland, with the homeowner appearing enraged to watch her bright purple bougainvillea stolen by the stranger, after spending years tending to it.
“To the lowlife who decided to help himself to my bougainvillea today. How about you have the balls to ask next time?” the homeowner said. “I’ve taken years to make the front look nice.
“Lucky I have cameras and caught everything you did.”
The woman called out the brazen act to neighbours in hopes of identifying the offender.
Bougainvilleas are a popular plant among home gardeners due to their vibrant flowers. They are notorious for their spiky stems, and it appears the alleged thief came prepared with secateurs.
While they are very colourful, Australians have been urged against planting bougainvilleas as they wreak havoc in any space they are planted, quickly outcompeting other plants. Professor Brett Summerell, Chief Scientist at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, previously told Yahoo News the “pretty plants” have “nasty big spines, so that makes it hard to keep under control”.
“They can overtake a space, so unless you are prepared to keep them pruned, it can be overwhelming — sometimes they will take over a wall or fence,” he said.
The man threw the bougainvillea cutting into his ute before speeding off. Source: Facebook/Tara A.
Plant theft continues to run rampant in Australia
The incident in Cairns is the latest in a recent string of plant thefts, with many hardworking gardeners frustrated to learn their flowers have been stolen from under their nose.
In May, Andy Luke in Adelaide’s Eden Hills had his plants targeted twice in three weeks. In Sydney, Dan Pearce was devastated when he was left with nothing more than a “hole in [his] hedge” after a thief stole his recently planted Thuja Smaragd conifer.
“I was absolutely gutted and instantly irate because this happened a couple of months ago to me as well,” he told Yahoo News at the time.
Plant theft on a larger scale has also been occurring, with one man facing court this month after being accused of unlawfully removing plants from a national park and selling them to members of the public. He has been accused of stealing plants worth up to $10,000, with a number of native grasses and ferns found outside his property in Lake Heights, situated in southeast New South Wales.
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