*PLANTS STOLEN* : Tony Paroubek's rarest plants

[vraev]

Hi guys,

Tony has had a few irreplaceable plants stolen. Here is his post from terraforums.

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Hi Everyone.


Over the weekend I had a number of irreplaceable plants stolen from the greenhouse.

I am still doing construction on the new greenhouses and quite frankly this gives me pause to wonder if I should just tear them down.

Pass the word.

Keep a look out for black truncata, trusmadiensis, a variety of EP plants, large macrophylla .. and I dunno what else..

They new what they wanted and I suspect they have been to the greenhouse. Which means it's a pretty short list.

Tony

I will make a list of what's missing. I need to get my website back up and running.

The N. Trusmadiensis were seed grown from wild N. lowii seed. The N truncata black were the only ones in the country to my knowledge.

My contact information if anyone hears anything
315-232-3531
I made a new email address for information
[e-mail]

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Please contact him if anyone hear of any suspicious wonderful plants all of the sudden.

thanks,

varun

Here is a list of plants:
2 N. burbidgeae x edwardsiana 12"
1 N. trusmadiensis 12"
2 N. macrophylla 10-12" and several 3-4"
2 N. truncata black 12-16"
1 N. sibuyanensis x trusmadiensis 12-14"
1 N. jacquelineae red 12"
6? N. truncata x trusmadiensis 2-3"
1-2 N. maxima x trusmadiensis southern carnivores clones 10"
1 N. lowii trusmadi 14" upper pitcher stage
1 N. ventricosa squat x (spectabilis x northiana) clone APA clump in pot
1 N. ventricosa x lowii American clone from J. Shafer 16"
3-4 pots of N. lowii x ventricosa red clone APA and APB

[cavila1]

I myself had my greenhouse raided, stealing all of my Venus flytraps, destroying some of my Sarracenias and the rest stolen.

Turns out they were friends of my cousin I showed my collection a week earlier. They wanted it, they stole it.
They even had a yardsale to sell some of my VFT for a buck.

I may be pessimist but I don't think you will see your plants again and it could be someone who you showed them to. Thinking how how you easily you were growing them, that person may be thinking he can do it too and I won't be surprised that he will kill them.

All I can say is good luck, I really hope you do catch who's responsible.

[Adammmm]

I've never heard of a home-grown theft before, but a lot of times at a local garden store, i see people opening VFTS and tucking them inside their pockets, then i bet days later a little kid comes along and his mom buys it, imagine his dissapointment when he finds out there is none. This probably wont happen, though, because theyre sort of hidden. Also, good luck, I'd notify the police because i searched up the black ventricosa, and no hits. You had the worlds only, unfortunately, worth over $100

[jonnyq]

Jun 26, 2008 3:53:58 GMT cavila1 said:

Turns out they were friends of my cousin I showed my collection a week earlier. They wanted it, they stole it.
They even had a yardsale to sell some of my VFT for a buck.

Cavila1, if you're still around, I'd be curious to hear what you did after you found out who it was who had stolen it...

Also, any update on Mr. Paroubek's plants?

[cavila1]

Aug 27, 2008 18:54:05 GMT jonnyq said:

Jun 26, 2008 3:53:58 GMT cavila1 said:

Turns out they were friends of my cousin I showed my collection a week earlier. They wanted it, they stole it.
They even had a yardsale to sell some of my VFT for a buck.

Cavila1, if you're still around, I'd be curious to hear what you did after you found out who it was who had stolen it...

Also, any update on Mr. Paroubek's plants?

Sorry I didn’t reply to your inquiry bu this is what happened. I called the cops but cops don’t arrest people for stealing some ‘plants’. To them I could get them anywhere at Home Depo or Lowes, so the cops didn’t really see any purpose of arresting them. They wouldn’t even make a report; they just gave the kids a warning.

But the father was infuriated, threatening me with a lawsuit for defamation. Nothing came out of it but after he incident. But those kids spend almost a year and half harassing me. Like breaking windows in my house, a neighbor catching them deflating the tires of my car, harassing me with their gang when I’m doing yard work, things like that. I would call the cops and they would give these kids a warning. That was that. Even that same father came to my yard picking a fight with me, he got ticketed for trespassing. Then they moved.

Bad experience but glad its over.

Still sad at the loss of some of my plants.

[danieldickins]

The problem with law enforcement these days, at least around here, is that they tend to concentrate most of their resources on activities that will ultimately produce income for the government or the police department.

Here's an example of what I mean... we had a period of time where someone had tried to abduct children on two occasions in our area. They knew what type of vehicle the suspect drove and what he looked like. One evening, I was driving through the area when I spotted him. I followed the individual and called the police to pass the information on and to continue following him until the police were able to get into the area and take over. Their response was to abandon the effort, as they didn't have the current resources to deal with it, and yet on the remainder of that drive, I passed two radar traps and saw one police officer downtown who was engages in the activity of peering inside of passenger vehicles to find people who had committed the dreadful offence of not wearing their seatbelt.

So your problem was more likely that the police would not derive a profit out of dealing with your problem, hence the brushoff.

[Brian Barnes]

Daniel,
I agree totally with what you say and it is a crying shame that our entire justice system is exactly the same as well. Here in Florida and elsewhere, it's all about the police meeting monthly ticket quotas, receiving hidden bonuses for highest revenues generated per quota and generating the almighty tourist dollar, (thanks to Disney World, Sea World, etc.) by purposely avoiding having to write and document police reports. This makes the crime rates appear lower than they actually are and gives the falsehood that they are doing a good job and tourists are "safe".

The State of Florida as we speak, is installing small illuminating neon lights above all of the traffic lights, so that police can video record the license plates of people running stoplights after dark... with infrared! Then, your $193.00 ticket can conveniently be mailed to you, with a sharply detailed accompanying photo of your tag as proof. And by slightly changing the camera angles, the officer can give the illusion that you've ran the light, even if it was totally yellow the entire time.
Also, a first offense ticket for driving 15 MPH over the speed limit, has now been upped to $1,200.00...Second offense is $2,500.00
The overall motto nowadays seems to now be "To Collect and Ignore" instead of "To Protect and to Serve"...

A perfect example is how "put-out" a local Law Enforcement Officer acted, when I called to report two teenagers going through my neighbor's unlocked vehicle at 1:30 AM a few months back. Upon spotting me, they fled. After showing up some 15 minutes after I called and greeting me with a loud sigh, the officer refused to fill out an official report, despite the fact that I had fairly accurate descriptions of both parties involved.
He merely stated that "nothing appeared to be damaged or stolen" and simply....left. I actually had to go wake up my neighbors and TELL them what had happened. He did leave me a card with his name and number though. What a guy...

It truly is a shame when the acts of thieves and other criminals are completely ignored by the ones who WE pay to protect us. All for the sake of monthly ticket quota requirements, personal gain monetarily and within the Agency ranks.
Plus, they have no idea of the work, ingenuity, experimentation and years that it takes to acquire a successful, thriving CP collection that includes rare specimens. Knowing what I know based on the above mentioned, I'll resort to vigilantism if my greenhouse is ever robbed!

This may seem like an off-topic post, but sadly until the dishonesty and greed of our law enforcement agencies is addressed and remedied, stolen plant incidents....and other crimes will increase significantly.

Happy Growing,
Brian.

[RL7836]

Aug 27, 2008 18:54:05 GMT jonnyq said:

Also, any update on Mr. Paroubek's plants?

I didn't notice any responses so I'll provide a few links since the story has apparently taken a few twists & turns.

Thread on possible related theft

Continuation thread from different poster

A lot of reading with many 'opinions'. I admit to not reading it all but even skimming the posts is illuminating (sadly). My apologies if this info has been shared elsewhere on this forum....