Man Caught On Camera Digging Up All Of Lakeview Woman's Rose Bushes, And Not For First Time
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Lakeview woman was stunned to discover that someone recently ripped off each and every rose bush she planted.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported Wednesday night, Natalie Gordon is so upset that there is now a reward to find the thief spotted on camera unearthing the flowers.
Gordon enjoys gardening and has developed a green thumb over the years too – some little cherry or grape tomatoes are growing in her front yard right now. Some rose buses used to be growing along the parkway too, but not anymore.
"This like one of my lilies - it was torn out by the roots," she said as she showed Terry the damage. "This is like one of my rose bushes."
Every rose bus was destroyed – not by weather, but by one guy caught on camera. Surveillance video captured him coming by with a shovel and carefully uprooting each bush, leaving huge holes where roses sprouted.
"It's really deflating - all that work, all that time, all that money," Gordon said.
She knows her rose garden sits near the street.
"The city has a rule where you can't have weeds, overgrown weeds or something, or they fine you - which is what it was when I first moved in," Gordon said. "I figured I'd make it look nicer."
Yet Gordon cannot understand why the man opted to start digging outside her home. And get this – the roses vanished another time previously too.
"So I went through my security footage that we installed last year after the same thing happened, and I was actually able to pull like seven minutes of video of this guy, like, just digging up my yard," Gordon said.
You read right – she believes the very same guy dug up her bushes before. And it turns out he could be connected to other wrecked rose gardens in the area, a neighbor told Gordon.
"Her rose bushes had been pulled up from the roots and one of them had been chopped up," she said.
While the act is more irritating than anything, Gordon is offering a $200 reward if anyone can identify the guy.
"I just want to find out who's doing it and get them to stop, because I just want to plant my garden one more time and just have it stay," Gordon said.