Holiday Poinsettias Purloined in Gables
CORAL GABLES (CBS4) - In this holiday season of giving and helping, someone helped themselves to festive holiday landscaping installed at the Baptist Health headquarters building in Coral Gables.
Security video shows a woman pulling up dozens of red and white poinsettia plants that Baptist landscapers had put in over the weekend. The video shows the woman, in a black dress, arrive on a bicycle shortly before midnight Sunday and pull the plants out of freshly mulched planters and flower beds. She made off with two bags full of poinsettias.
Baptist replanted the Poinsettias Monday. Monday night, security video shows the same woman returned on her bicycle and stole more of the holiday plants.
"We've called it the 'bah, humbug caper,'" Baptist Vice-President Cindy Cancio told CBS4 News Thursday. "We plant the poinsettias to make it festive, not only for our employees and visitors, but for the Coral Gables community."
Baptist filed a report with Coral Gables police, and provided them with the security video of the Poinsettia thefts.
"We had our landscaper replace all of the poinsettias, and it's certainly not about the cost of the plants," Cancio said in explaining why Baptist alerted police. "It's about the principle of the holiday season, when people are supposed to be caring and nice."
Coral Gables police say they have increased patrols by the Baptist headquarters building, as they would for any victim being targeted by a repeat criminal.
"Just to have this occur is kind of sad," said Officer Kelly Denham. "We want citizens to enjoy the holiday season and be able to put out holiday decorations without the thought of them being stolen by somebody."
Denham said police distributed the security video publicly in the hope of learning the identity of the poinsettia pilferer.
"With the media's help, perhaps we can have someone identify who this person is that stole the poinsettias."
