SALT LAKE CITY -- You've heard of car thieves and bike thieves, but what about a shrubbery thief?
That's who Salt Lake City Police are looking for in the Liberty Park neighborhood.
A woman in a bathrobe, walking her dog, was caught on home security video trying to uproot trees on Emerson Avenue just before 10 p.m. Tuesday.
The woman can be seen walking across the street with her dog. She then makes her way down the sidewalk until she comes to a newly planted tree. She starts shaking it, as though she's trying to pull it out of the ground, but then she quickly gives up and continues walking.
The woman is then picked up by a second camera in the next yard. She stops and looks at a bush, then proceeds to casually walk over, uproot it from the ground and stroll away, with her dog following behind.
Neighbors have been left dumbfounded.
Traci Dean said: "Who is his lady? It's crazy, who pulls out a tree, right?"
"Obviously everyone's a little bit concerned, the fact that someone is willing to walk up in someone's yard and uproot a tree, it just makes you think: What else will they do?" said Justin Bindel.
The homeowners said they have additional video showing the woman dragging the bush to the end of the block and leaving it there. Then she came back later that night in a vehicle and hauled it away.
"I think she wanted a nice tree for her yard and wasn't willing to pay for it, she saw the pretty yard over there and decided she would take it," Dean said.
Other neighbors say this doesn't look like your common criminal, going from shrub to shrub and looking for an easy target. They believe she could have been under the influence of something.
"Maybe we should be pretty vigilant about protecting the trees in our lawn now," Bindel said.
The homeowners who were victimized said the bush that was taken was planted last fall. It cost them $75, and they are very upset that it was stolen. They would like it back.
So far no one has been able to positively identify the woman. If anyone has any information, you're being asked to call Salt Lake City police.
