Burned my fingers, man! (Photo by Renae Smith)
With springtime weather finally consistent in D.C., flora is blooming, filling the city with devastating pollen counts and lovely gardens and hedgerows. It’s a lovely setting to walk around.
Unless, that is, you live in Cleveland Park, where residents are now on the watch for a thief who has been spotted plucking flowers from commercial and residential gardens, and is suspected of fencing them around town. The neighborhood fell victim to a spate of flower thefts in 2011, when residents complained of a man who nicked fresh blooms from a community garden on Newark Street NW.
Cleveland Parkers’ tensions were raised again last weekend after hearing that similar malevolence was afoot in bordering Chevy Chase. One member of the Cleveland Park Yahoo Group wrote her neighbors urging them to be in ready contact with the Metropolitan Police Department should they spot anyone meeting the description. The author thinks it might be one person, an individual who has been suspected of stealing flowers from houses and business for a period stretching several years, but there might be more than a single culprit. But she’s not going on a full deck of evidence.
“His M.O. appears to be lilacs, then peonies and lilies, and finally hydrangeas,” the Cleveland Park resident writes. “He has been seen with armloads of each of these flowers, often walking towards or on Metro or a bus…but he’s never been seen stealing them.”
The original email also includes a photo of a possible suspect, a man wearing a red and black flannel shirt carrying an armful of what appear to be freshly cropped lilacs.
She does urge her neighbors to contact MPD if they see anything amiss. However, not all Cleveland Park folks want to leave it to the fuzz. While some are happy to let the cops handle it, others are turning the Cleveland Park listserv into the Reddit of flowery crimes.
“For about $100 it is possible to purchase online what is called a ‘game camera’,” another resident writes in response. “It captures still and video, day or night. It is motion activated and battery powered. They are all digital, so the images are easily downloaded and passed around to interested parties.”
At least one resident is worried that passing along a photograph of a man carrying flowers might finger the wrong person. Or, if the depicted man is the flower thief, at least advocates for a pacified resolution to the theft wave. “Much like we aim to find humane treatment for the deer in Rock Creek Park, humane repellent for mosquitoes, would it be possible to find a humane solution for this?” she asks.
But others want to catch the flower thief, and hang him high. “This individual steals massive amounts of flowers, apparently sells them to flower shops around town, and has been doing so for a number of years,” reads a response from a more vengeful neighbor. “Do we talk about humane solutions for robbers or for burglars or even for con men who come to your front door? Why should we be advocating humane solutions for this individual?”
Capt. David Sledge of MPD’s Second District says in an email that officers are investigating several allegations of flower thefts, but have not made any arrests yet.
