Thieves steal flowers, plants from Indy garden center 5 times since June

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Police are investigating after thieves were caught on camera stealing flowers and plants from a business on the north side of Indianapolis.

It happened at Cantrell’s Lawn and Garden on Keystone Avenue.

Kathy Cantrell said thieves have targeted her business five times since June. The most recent case happened on Tuesday.

She said the thieves made an appearance twice that day – once in the morning and then again at night.

Her employee, Duane Berry, said he came into work and found the flower and plants missing.

“Hotsas, impatiens, cannas, caladium, petunia, hanging baskets,” he said. “Just a little bit of everything is gone.”

Berry does a check every morning and knew they were targeted once again.

Surveillance video from the most recent case shows a man stealing dozens of flowers and plants. He makes several trips loading everything into his car. Cantrell said the video goes on for about ten minutes.

“We try to make it so everything looks nice out there fresh and then they come in and start stealing stuff and we can’t afford to keep replacing,” she said.

Cantrell said the thefts amount to thousands of dollars worth of inventory gone.

“I don’t know if the person is doing it for money, if they’re doing it so they can buy drugs or if they’re doing it to even support their own family,” she said.

Cantrell said she’s not sure who’s behind the crime. She just wants them to stop.

“If somebody is hard up, if they got children to feed, I would be more than willing to go to the store to buy them food so their children can eat if that’s why they’re stealing,” she said.

Cantrell is now thinking about adding extra security at night. She said the suspect and vehicle descriptions have been different in most of the cases.

If you know anything about the thefts, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers at 262-TIPS.