I live nearby in Magnolia and just had a very similar tree stolen from our front yard this past week. A weeping blue atlas cedar we'd had for about 10 years. Is there some kind of black market for these things? I am dumbfounded, really.

"Make sure your doors are locked. Make sure you didn’t leave anything in your car. Don’t leave anything nice in plain sight. Keep an eye out every time you walk around downtown after dark."

This is called living in a city.

I'd imagine that scrubbing graffiti of a fence is probably pretty annoying. That shouldn't happen.

"Everyone I know has lost something from petty theft and smashed windows to stolen cars, burglary, or armed robbery. Is that the kind of society you’re ok with?"

Kind of a dumb question. Of course I'm not okay with armed robbery or burglary.

silence.kit, I'm not saying that we all need to don black jumpsuits and march up and down the street with shotguns, but think about how much crap we do have to put up with. Make sure your doors are locked. Make sure you didn't leave anything in your car. Don't leave anything nice in plain sight. Keep an eye out every time you walk around downtown after dark. Plant ivy so your retaining wall doesn't get tagged. Scrub the tags off the fence every month. We're already doing these things as a matter of course and we've accepted it as the way things are. That's my complaint here, that there already is this give and take of our time in defense against the scumbags.
I've lost over $14,000 from burglary and damage over the last 5 years so it's a little more than the nuisance of "just a tree" even though in this case it was a lot more of a sentimental value than the cost of missing landscaping. Everyone I know has lost something from petty theft and smashed windows to stolen cars, burglary, or armed robbery. Is that the kind of society you're ok with?

You act like there's this fucking war going on. It's a stolen tree for Christ's sake!

There's nothing to bury my head from.

You people talk as if this is part of an epidemic. It's a stolen tree! A tree!

The battle is in your head.

I didn't know I was living next to so many lunatics.

silence, clearly the battle is not yours, and I envy you, wish that I could just bury my head...
of course, if I did, I would shut up about it....

Rather, it's not a constant battle.

"It’s a shame that we have to live like this, as though it’s a constant battle of the decent people against the crooks."

But not really.

Jennifer, thanks for your comments. I hope you'll continue posting them as they are very valuable addition to myballard.

spg, yes, knock on wood.
but it is having an effect, huh?

Jennifer, Very sorry to hear about this. So pointless and such a shame.
We were having a car prowl problem on our block a few years ago. Since then a few more motion sensing lights and a few more dogs are around along with a block watch, and now (knock on wood) a whole lot fewer incidents. It's a shame that we have to live like this, as though it's a constant battle of the decent people against the crooks.

sorry goofy I already sold all your stuff to buy a Wii. Sure is easy pickens in Ballard. I moved here for the sole purpose of stealing people's shrubs and the like, and other thieves are moving in for the same reason too Pal, too steal shrubs Pal. Just chalk this up to some jerk - this could happen anywhere Pal.

thanks for checking on me silence. I've had two 'walk-abouts', the most recent, to an aid call on my 'block watch'. I take what I do seriously, I don't talk about what I don't know to be true. I'm, also, trying to keep up on what is generally a 80 hr. work week. Sorry if you've been sitting there waiting for a response.
faux, wish that I had the time to see what everyone posts, so picking on you, 'just' luck.
Jennifer, talk to all your neighbors...

IF there was a car/truck parked in front of the tree, faux might have been correct.

However, I was parked in front of the tree and I left the house before the crime occurred.

Second, had faux read the article he would have seen that in fact the tree was dragged (or pulled) several feet to a vehicle parked nowhere near the tree as it stood in the ground. So that theory is debunked.

Third, while technically the City owns the parking strip, we as property owners are required to maintain said parking strip or pay enormous fees to have the city clean up. Anything planted in the parking strip is considered property of the owner, not property of the city. Hence all the planted parking strips in front of homes and businesses you will find in and around the Ballard area (the city).

Fourth, as a home owner you are also required to maintain the sidewalk -- remove any potential hazards. Yet we don't own the sidewalk.

It's called having a sense of responsibility, for your property, block, neighborhood, and community.

"Ballard has become ‘easy pickens’, all because some of you are glued to your cable tv, glued to your chat rooms, glued to ’social conscienceness’ etc.
Wake up, or suffer, you idiots!"

Shouldn't you be outside, watching the neighborhood?

Or are you posting from an iPhone?

if you could read chopper, you'd see her husband was in the house when this happened.

all I'm saying is I'm aware this plant theft happens and put my better plants in the backyard--which KICKS ASS by the way.

if you had a vintage convertible would you leave it parked on the street? good for you then.

faux, I like how you grasp at air, and call it what-ever.
'looks like the tree was on city property'
you disgust me.
'a block watch would not have helped this tree'
...and how would you know? Were you the lookout for this theft?
I don't know whether or not Jennifer has a husband, but she does have neighbors, and if you are one of them...Good luck Jennifer....

a block watch would not have helped this tree.

by the looks of that picture, it's about 2 feet from the curb. wanna talk about easy pickens?
I really don't care if it's on city property or your own, but a big truck parked where that car is could've easily obscured any neighbor's visibility. The only one who could've seen this is Jennifer's husband.

Ballard has become 'easy pickens', all because some of you are glued to your cable tv, glued to your chat rooms, glued to 'social conscienceness' etc.
Wake up, or suffer, you idiots!
Sorry Jennifer, seriously, but a block watch would have made that theft impossible, imho.
Ballard is too easy, and it's reputation is clearly spreading like V.D.
Not on my watch, but I am but one.
'Love your neighbors' and the rest will have to leave for another community.

Jennifer,

Thank you for alerting the community about this theft. Its useful to share this sort of information. I am sorry for the loss of your tree- it is beautiful and sounds also personally important.

And, as others have said, please do ignore the negative posts.

We had a business with many plants in front that we put in, and over a 2 year period most of them got stolen. Strange, right? Well, it turns out that thieves have stripped entire boulevards on the East side from time to time of the plants put there by the city-it's a lucrative practice to steal plants after all. Most likely the crooks are selling/replanting/landscaping, with a nice profit margin... Obviously there are crooked landscaping businesses out there-but, really, casing plants for theft..? Yeesh! Thieves deserve to be put in the stocks publicly, with rotten eggs provided. We pulled up our remaining plants and had to put them in a safe place. Sad, because we put them there for everyone's enjoyment, and a few jerks had to ruin it all.

This is terrible news. Having anything stolen from you is a violation, let alone such an odd and methodical theft. Anyone remove a tree before? You kind of really have to want to do it.

Sorry Jennifer! Ignore the negative posts...

Let's see here. Due to increased car-prowls we're not suuposed to leave anything in our vehicles. OK fine. When I got broken into, and they caught this perp in my house, the cop asked me "why I leave me checkbook on my desk"? I retorted "this is MY house, where else do I go". So taking this further I guess now we shouldn't plant anything then? Probably should move everything from in front of the windows too now then too? In fact, walking might be hazardous to ones health, due to some unkown elements. Condos look better all the time.

Jennifer,

This news made me mad, but then when I read that it was in remembrance of someone who died (especially a child) it brought tears to my eyes.

I had a co-worker whose fiance had been killed in an accident, and we decided to pool our money for a shrub or a tree in remembrance him. I took her to lunch at Swanson's, then we explored the nursery, where she chose a little tree, I think it was called a dwarf "Twisted Babe". Small, with corkscrew branches, very cool-looking. She has moved 2x in the many years since, and since it was small enough to stay in a very large pot, it moved with her. His family kept his ashes and moved away, so that little tree is all she has left, but his memory.

It's bad enough that someone would dig up someone's tree, but when it represents something so much deeper, it's reprehensible.

And shame on those who made smarmy comments. Grow the hell up.

I think you are right- Misery making company.

Thanks for letting us know that this happened. We will keep an eye out for our neighbors and hope they do the same for us.

My neighbors are good people, concerned and upset about what happened.

We don't want money to replace the tree, not sure we even want to do that.

The intent remains the same, just letting the people in Ballard be aware of what is happening their neighborhood.

Some of this seems to be angry people working hard to get others angry.

Misery making company?

Jennifer-

So sorry to hear about your loss. When growing up at my parent's house, they had a beautiful yellow rose planted in memory of my brother who did not live very long. I know how much it would have hurt my Mom and Dad to have had that rose taken or damaged, even if to everyone else it was just a rose.

So sorry, also, for the people that have commented on here showing little to no sympathy for what happened. What provokes people to be so thoughtless is beyond me.

I would love to donate time/money to help you plant a new tree in your yard.

trees are people too.

what makes this story sad is that it exemplifies to the most pathetic detail how little humanity has advanced itself.

a theft of a weeping deodora cedar. a treasured plant for one family. a lovely site for neighbors.

now this cedar...this lovely tree that someone decided to appropriate for themself, is nothing for them but branches of bad karma.

That tree was a lovely specimen of its kind. It is not unheard of to hear about these kinds of thefts. Usually I've heard it was an old japanese maple that got dug up and ripped off.

Someone did a landscaping job in your neighborhood - saw that tree and remembered where to get it. That person got a new very expensive tree for free and either stuck it in their yeard or sold it to their customer and made a nice chunk of $$$ from it.

So sorry to hear it was planted in memory of someone. Replace it with a firethorn pyracantha and get a new specimen tree for the back yard. Unfortunately, these things happen. They have always happened. Whats new is that there are so many yards with great gardening in Ballard instead of the 1950's standard two rhodies under the front windows and a row of junipers along the front walkway.

@18-- looks to me like the tree is (was) in her front yard near her driveway. that counts as her property.

Do you think the tree is scared? Scared and alone?

Milk cartons? America's Most wanted too? While it's "only a shrub", this time. Maybe Jennifer, if ya like, an event could be in the works. One to raise a few $$ (and a few eyebrows) for you to replace this, and to meet/greet yer neighbors. The ones that care anyway that is. Thoughts?

Maybe the police could take the picture above and "age" it several years, like they do with kidnap victims.

...

The "non comformers" have outed themselves for us. Do we really have to monitor our shrubs now too? It's not "my Ballard" that's going to bleep either. It's your hood too pal. Yer right pal, you can't pick yer neighbors or parents. You can pick yer nose though. I don't think felons and thiefs are the best neighbors. You pal? Give us yer address so we know where to get our stuff then, pal. I wish I could pick my neighbors. It's called moving, pal. Many are voting with their feet. But go ahead and pat yerself on the back for the silly thought. Pal

Oh that poor tree...

I hope it's okay!

When did this become us vs. them?

This is about a little tree planted in the front yard in remembrance of a little girl who did not live very long.

The tree grew and became beautiful and obviously someone else coveted it.

I realize that it is likely that we will not get it back, but I wanted to community to know that this happened. To try and make people aware, maybe prevent it happening again in Ballard.

Maybe it is a sign of our economic times, maybe it's always gone on and I am the first to be upset enough to report it....

What is clear is that if this where you and the item stolen was of emotional value to you...you too would likely be angry and feel violated.

Hopefully, you would want to do everything you could to prevent it from happening to someone else.

I don't know, that is your conscious.

Looks like the tree wasn't really on your property. The parking strip between the sidewalk and street are city property.

Maybe Greg Nickels came to retrieve it.

I'll take that bet, kooky.

So what do you suggest goofy? Running out people that do not conform to you 'your ballard' on a rail? You can't pick and choose who lives where buddy.

holy cow. sorry about the tree.

common person-there are still things that are right and wrong. This is wrong and it is not Jennifer's fault.

While crime isn't a new thing, massive people in Ballard is. Until we all decide this is not the way we want it, this is what we'll continue to get. And please refrain from the "it's only property" line here. It was HER property that she worked/paid for. Kids that steal do what as adults? Teens that hurt animals do what as adults? Got buckshot?

That would be awful if, for fear of theft, people have to stop putting expensive trees in their front yard. I wonder if this is something master gardeners are warned about in the classes they take?

I hope they catch the people who did this. Jerks.

i HATE thieves! @9- why should she have to plan her landscape around what jerks may or may not steal? why can she just put what she would enjoy in her yard and trust people to not feel entitled to take it from her? with that mentality, why plant anything at all? there's always going to be the risk that someone will take it, destroy it, crap on it. just pave it.

You wake up to find your car stolen and you feel a sense of anger, violation, maybe.

You wake up to find a tree stolen out of your yard...a tree?...well, that just must be demoralizing. And confusing.

Weird and sad.

The tree was not $500 when we put it there.

I think the guy running into your gate clearly had it out for you. who bumps a gate then threatens to smash the house? I hope you gave his car a little nudge with your rake.

the bottom line is, you don't put an expensive small tree in your front yard. for $500, you could get a much much larger tree that petty thieves can't uproot an haul off in a minute.

jds; a dragged tree often leaves a clear trail of dirt. When it ends at a curb or driveway, it's not hard to figure that it was most likely put into a car or pickup truck. A tree, dug up to include the roots, is not imo a likely something done as hooliganism; more likely someone stole the tree to plant it somewhere else. Not the kind of item you'd go looking to find at the pawn shop though.

People, including neighbors, can behave unexpectedly. When I lived in Greenwood, one day our back gate had been knocked over and there was a streak of red paint on it. Our neighbor in back of us had a red car which had a big scrape on the bumper, and the tire marks came up to our back gate. I put a note on the back gate after fixing it, "Please use caution" or something. The next day the gate had been knocked over again and a new note was posted by someone "Next time i knock over your gate I'm going to knock down your house too." Sometimes it seems like some people in our neighborhoods like to just up the ante and act agressive and without responsibility. I'd love to hear how you've handled dealing with neighbors like that.

We know that it was dragged because there was a clear line of dirt about the width of the whole that was left, across our path over some other plants, into the neighbors grass where the bamboo poll was left that was attached to the tree to help us train it, then over to the sidewalk around some larger trees and finally out in the street where there was a big circle of dirt; they put it down while they did something and that is where the trail ends. So it was in fact dragged several feet, put in the back of a vehicle and stolen.

The tree was worth between $300 and $500 dollars, that's a lot of savings when landscaping. And you can still charge the customer for it.

How do they know it was "dragged several feet, put in the back of a vehicle and stolen"? That description is awfully precise for what I assume is really "our tree was stolen."

A tree is not exactly an easily fenceable item -- this definitely sounds like some drunk hooligans/kids/whatever rather than a targeted theft. Or maybe there's a black market for trees I'm unaware of...

JCK, I heard earlier today that there was a suspicious package and seaview was closed for a while.

Ridiculous. Seriously, who steals a tree.

Reasonably sizeable trees are worth quite a bit of money. This is not an unheard of crime. But why did no-one notice?

I'm not sure if this is related, but i saw about 8 cops cars around the Lockspot and Taco Time on Seaview Ave. Saturday night/Sunday morning... anyone know anything about that one?

My God - these freaks will steal anything around here....

Would it be legal to shoot someone injuring an innocent tree?