Green thumb thief stalks West Somerville

By George P. Hassett

     A conniving criminal is burrowing through Davis Square. He is scheming and thieving from Park Avenue to Holland Street. But it isn’t laptop computers or big screen televisions this bandit is after. He only wants plants.

     The victims range from restaurant owners to young professionals to new mothers and they all have the same question — why?

     Jenny Stodolsky of Park Avenue said she went out for a walk with her husband and newborn baby Sunday night only to return 45 minutes later to see her once firmly entrenched daisy plants gone, stolen by the aptly nicknamed green thumb thief.

     "Someone had to have climbed onto our garden, really tugged hard at the roots to get the plant out and then run off down the street with this big plant in their hands. It’s not a case of someone clipping a little bloom off the plant. This took time. It’s just really odd," she said.

      Stodolsky speculated on the thief’s motivations.

     "Are they starting a garden of their own? Did they want it for a girlfriend or a boyfriend or their mother?" she said.

     Christina Theophanis of Dave’s Fresh Pasta on Holland Street, which was struck by the green thumb thief for at least the third time two weeks ago, thought it was the latter.

     "We were hit right before Mother’s Day, so maybe someone was too cheap to buy flowers for their mom and decided to just steal from us," she said.

     Whatever the motivation, Stodolsky does not appreciate the antics.

     "We called the police to report what occurred. Now I’m not losing perspective, but it isn’t just us — something is going on here. It’s just too bad because this is how we get to know our neighbors — by coming outside and working on our gardens under the sun. And this somewhat tarnishes that," she said.

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