He didn’t hide in the bushes — he stole them.
Rosie Sendra has been living in her home for nine years. She loves her neighborhood and has never had any fears about crime — especially the kind of crime she experienced in May. It just seemed so random and out of the ordinary. Sendra had returned home on a Friday morning and was inside no more than an hour or so.
When she came out, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Four 3-foot evergreen shrubs had been removed form the side of her home.
“It’s not like they’re new shrubs,” she says. “They were here when we moved in nine years ago. It’s so strange. They also tried to pull out a tree and left it sideways.”
The shrubs were removed from the ground — roots and all. Sendra has no idea who might have committed the crime, but wonders whether maybe someone in landscaping or gardening saw an easy score. Sendra now has to go through the hassle of planting new shrubs.
Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Jerry Fonville of the Northeast Patrol Division spoke with investigative detectives about this incident and says that this kind of case is extremely rare.
“As a matter of fact, this was the first they had heard of someone actually digging up shrubs,” he says. “There was one other shrubbery theft that they could recall, but it is unlikely related. Their position is that this was probably some kind of prank, but if a legitimate theft, not a common one.”
The Victim: Rosie Sendra
The Crime: Theft
Date: Friday, May 18
Time: Around 9 a.m.
Location: 7000 block of Lakewood Boulevard
| crime numbers |
2
Number of cat burglaries that occurred in one weekend in East Dallas in the 11300 block of Lippit and the 6500 block of Lake Circle; these happened overnight while the homeowners were at home asleep
$350
Amount of damage done to a woman’s Jeep Cherokee in an apartment complex in the 1100 block of Whitehaven; a male neighbor asked her out, she declined, so he slashed her tires and broke her passenger side window
06.04
Date when someone vandalized the parking garage, elevator and garage sign at Mockingbird Station with black spray paint; the suspect had previously received a parking violation
Source: Dallas Police Department
