Ashfield resident sends warning to plants thief

Vanessa said her succulent plants, also known as Kalanchoe luciae, had been stolen at the end of November.

“Every morning, I take the dog out for a walk and I thought, ‘something is missing here’ and I looked at my planter box and all my plants were gone,” she said.

“They were beautiful, red and orange plants and the whole planter was full.

“I was going to put cactuses in the planter and see how they go with that.”

The 70-year-old said the plants were probably stolen during the early hours of the morning.

“I heard the dog barking and because a lot of people walk their dogs along here, I did not take any notice,” she said.

“Those roots in those plants were right down to the bottom… whoever took them left me one and I could not hardly pull it out.”

Vanessa said she loved gardening, but she felt unsafe after more than one stealing incidents.

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“A few weeks ago, someone took my pot plant and my little Australian flag keeps disappearing,” she said.

“Last summer, I had ‘jelly bean’ succulents growing around my letter box – they went too.

Kiara Police officer-in-charge Mark Stoneman said incidents like this did not occur on a regular basis.

Snr Sgt Stoneman said people who were building new houses could be inclined to steal plants.

Crime statistics show there were 15 reported burglaries on dwellings in Ashfield from January to October this year compared with 17 over the same period in 2015.