Video captured the moment a hooded thief uprooted a freshly planted hyacinth from a couple’s flowerbed – before depositing it in her bag for life.
In bizarre footage, the woman, who appears to be in her 60s, can be seen strolling along the driveway of the home of Dennis and Svitlana Jacobsen.
She then swiftly pulls the flower out of the earth – taking a clump of roots with it.
The thief carefully places the hyacinth plant in her large blue carrier bag before walking across the road where she eyes up another flowerbed, seemingly in her sights.
Mr and Mrs Jacobsen had only planted the flower a few weeks earlier.
The couple realised it was missing after spotting a gap in their flowerbed the next day.
Ms Jacobsen, 43, said the footage – from the pair’s doorbell camera – had left her ‘upset’.
She added: ‘I looked at the border and thought ‘where is my purple flower? There was just a hole in the ground where it was.
The hooded woman swiftly pulls the flower out of the earth in the flowerbed – bringing a clump of roots with it
The thief carefully places the hyacinth plant in her large blue carrier bag before walking across the road where she eyes up another flowerbed, seemingly in her sights
Dennis and Svitlana Jacobsen had only planted the flower a few weeks earlier. Ms Jacobsen said the incident had left her ‘upset’
‘The camera has a good view of the driveway and when we looked at the footage, there was a lady slowly approaching the flower bed. She pulled it out and popped it into her bag.
‘It was a hyacinth, we bought them two months ago as bulbs and they had just started to bloom.
‘The woman was aged between 55 and 70 and was wearing sunglasses and a scarf, so I think she was trying to hide herself.
‘I didn’t recognise her but somebody did say the same lady stole some of their flowers last year.
‘It has left me upset.’
She said the bulbs had cost ‘only £1-£2’ but suggested this hadn’t made the incident any less hurtful.
‘The bulbs only cost £1-£2 so it isn’t about the money but about how people try and make their home nice and colourful with flowers so people who walk in the area can enjoy it and somebody feels they have the right to just come along and take it,’ she said.
