Flower Thief on the Prowl in Cleveland Park

Somebody's been stealing flowers from people's gardens in the Cleveland Park neighborhood. The what we know: flowers. But the why remains unknown.  But it looks like the neighbors had a description and are keeping a lookout. Here are the reports from our companion email list, the Cleveland Park Listserv. 

I just looked out the window in the 3100 block of 34th Street and saw a man walking briskly southward carrying a large bunch of lilacs. They weren't wrapped but loose. I believe I have seen this same man in past years walking away from the Cathedral Close bearing large branches of flowering shrubs. I am sorry if your shrub has been stripped.

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This is probably the same individual who comes into the Newark Street Community Garden and helps himself to everyone's peonies. This year I will call the police (who are conveniently located just up the street) if I seem him.

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If this man is about 60 years old, of short stature, Caucasian, and with wavy, salt-and-pepper hair, I believe I have seen him in past years helping himself to big armfuls of hydrangeas in the summer, from multiple homes. Each time I've seen him, he's walking away from the denuded bushes very quickly.

This man is always dressed in the standard uniform issued by commercial kitchens, and I've wondered if he was stealing blooms for restaurant table vases.

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This is the man I saw this morning. Maybe if we watch for him, we can get the police to catch him.