Mystery of the phantom flower thief

CAUGHT on camera . . . the flower thief on Turf Pit Lane, Moorside

THE disconcerting figure of a man is seen walking along Turf Pit Lane in the early hours of the morning.

His ominous shape moves with purpose as he ventures on to the driveway of a home before reaching his destination, a flower bed next to the Moorside homeowner's parked cars.

The man reaches out and plucks one plant from the bed, fills in the hole, looks around and then takes another before stashing them in a plastic bag before fleeing.

That was what greeted Gary Park when he reviewed his CCTV footage after noticing the flowers his daughter was growing had gone missing.

The bizarre footage shows the man, who appears to be elderly, making the steal at around 2.30am on June 7. Many factors have given this particular theft an uneasy feeling for Gary.

Why flowers? Why is an elderly man stealing flowers at half past two in the morning? In Gary's words it's a bit more unsettling than if someone had stolen his cars, at least there seems to be some sort of purpose to that, he said.

Whatever the reason, a bemused Gary has released the CCTV footage in the hope it will make people aware.

He said: "Around Christmas time we had the house broken into and lost our cars so we got CCTV. My daughter has been growing these plants and they have been flowering really nicely.

"We were coming out in the morning and noticed that some of the flowers were gone, but somebody had taken the time to fill the holes back in.

"So we looked at the CCTV and you see an elderly guy come up to the house from the street, heads straight to the flower bed, pulls them out, puts them in his bag and walks away.

"I was quite angry about it, I'm going to report it to the police but I know they do have a lot on at the moment.

"If somebody steals your car then you think they've done that to make money, but if someone is stealing plants then they are just a pure thief. He's stealing them for his own gratification not his lifestyle. He's doing it just because he likes the look of them.

"It is a really unusual one, he knew exactly what he was going down for. It feels a bit worse than the cars going, my daughter has seen the CCTV and she's frightened and hasn't slept.

"Although it is so petty and so trivial ­- laughable even ­- it is has affected us more, but then you can't let people like that affect you."