Crime & Safety

UPDATED: Plant Thieves Strike Linden Hills—Again

Same crime struck the same block around a month ago.

Should the gardeners of Linden Hills think about chaining their plants down like bicycles? Not 30 days after thieves dug scores of valuable plants out of yards on the 4100 and 4200 blocks, the same or similar bandits struck again. 

According to three reports filed by Minneapolis Police Department officers, some time between 10:30 p.m. on June 26 and 5:45 a.m. the next day, an unspecified amount of plants were dug up and removed from the yards of three houses on the 4100 block of Chowen Avenue South. Two houses had only a few plants removed, but one had "numerous plants and adornments" removed.

Last time, on May 30, one of the victims told WCCO-TV that the missing plants were valued at $1,000. 

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“These were very discerning plant thieves,” Abby Rutchik said.

"Seriously though—what a bite, what an invasion of privacy," fellow victim Kathy Kosnoff told Patch in an email a day later.

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In an email to Patch Friday morning, Rutchik confirmed in an email to Patch that she and another May 30 victim were again targeted, and again lost around $1,000.

"They took exactly what they took the first time, but more," Rutchik said. "We have very mature landscape, so it looks great, but...We are really bummed out."

Minneapolis police spokespeople were not able to return email inquiries about the thefts as of press time, but we'll update this story as we get reactions from them.


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