After two more thefts from the petunia tree in downtown, supporters of the project are ready to fight back.
Westlock Legion president Chuck Naylor said the Legion and the Ladies’ Auxiliary are offering a $280 reward — an amount equivalent to the money the Legion paid for eight of the baskets on the tree.
“It’s not so much the value of the flowers, it’s just that we can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would want to steal flowers from a community enhancement project, and we’re really mad about it,” he said.
The Legion purchases a full ring of eight petunia baskets each year, at a cost of $35 apiece. So far, a total of nine baskets have been stolen or vandalized in three separate incidents.
“There was four gone the first time, four this past weekend and one this past week,” said Shirley Toporowski, president of the Westlock Blooms Foundation which spearheads putting up the tree each year.
She said she appreciates the gesture the Legion has put forth by offering the reward, and hopes it will help to uncover who is responsible.
“It’s just unfortunate, because we have such great community support for this petunia tree,” Toporowski said.
“The Town of Westlock helps put it up, we have lots of businesses sponsoring those pots and individual donations help sponsor those pots too.”
Vandalism and thefts from the tree have been an ongoing problem for the foundation, with half a dozen baskets being stolen or vandalized each summer.
Toporowski said despite the setbacks, the group intends to continue putting up the tree yearly.
“We really believe in making the town look beautiful,” she said.
“We think the petunia tree looks great and we’d really like to see it stay. That’s the last bit of green space in the downtown area that’s relatively untouched.”
The expense of replacing the broken or stolen pots each year, however, has caused the Blooms Foundation to consider the possibility of installing video surveillance to catch the perpetrators in the act.
It’s a suggestion that Naylor said he also supports, as it could be relatively cheap to install and monitor, and would help see justice serviced.
“I’d like to see them do about 1,000 hours of community work if we ever catch them,” he said.
Anyone with information about the thefts and vandalism from the petunia tree should contact the Westlock RCMP at 780-349-4491 or the Legion at 780-349-4046.
