Oh my. Reader Leslie photographed these Naked Ladies in full exhibitionist mode last weekend. She saw them while they were waving their business around on the traffic island at Precita and Alabama. Also known as Amaryllis, these lovelies only show off their stuff in August, so gawk now before they cover up again.
PHOTO: Reader Leslie
Ever wonder how those sneaky succulent thieves operate? How DO they abscond with plants from the front yards of green-thumbed Bernal residents? Wonder no more, because Bernalwood has obtained footage that shows exactly how one such theft unfolded.
[Insert Drudge-like **Exclusive!! Must Credit Bernalwood!!** stipulations here]
Yesterday a tipster sent Bernalwood a security camera video that shows a guy stealing succulents from the front of a house on Prospect Avenue. (Thank you!) In the video, the theft was a drive-by; The perp parked at the corner, captured the unsuspecting plant, then sped away with the stolen goods in his getaway car.
But before you go calling Officer Elton with a hot tip, remember: This video was taken in 2010, which means the trail on this particular caper has likely gone cold. Yet this video is satisfying nevertheless, because it strips some of the mystery from Bernal’s Succulent Stealing Crime Spree.
UPDATE 3 Aug, 2011: Corroborating the “drive-by” plant theft technique shown in the video, a Bernal neighbor emailed a more recent witness report to us this afternoon:
We live on Nevada St. right off of Cortland and a few nights ago my dad while parking our van saw a red car (he could not tell what model and make) that stopped in the middle of our block and dropped a tall male off who proceded to walk down the block where there was a pot with a bougainvillea plant. My dad said the man picked up the potted plant and the red car drove down to the corner of Cortland and Nevada and picked the guy up. My dad who was parked in front of our house honked the moment he saw the guy pick up the plant but by the time my dad could yell or something they were gone.
No Photoshop retouching or color-enhancement here; This is a straight-from-the-camera photo of an intensely colorful Bougainvillea on Crescent Street that’s currently broadcasting to the entire neighborhood in intense, Technicolor purple.
Strap on your sunglasses as we zoom in for a closer look… if you dare:
Whoooooa.
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Wow. Wow! WOW! If ever there was a story that epitomizes the spirit of Bernalwood (apart from our collective obsession with celebrity, glamour, and haute couture), it is this…
As you may recall, last week Bernalwood published a post about The Ugliest Spot in Bernal Heights, a barren patch of east slope hillside overlooking Highway 101 and the Spaghetti Bowl. Well, upon reading that post, a few of your Bernal neighbors decided to do something about it, and they volunteered to spend time on Saturday cleaning up the hillside mess. Yup, that’s right: They stepped up to clean the mess!
Neighbor Mia talks about the cleanup effort on her blog:
This Saturday, me and Josh headed over to give it a quick clean up, which took about an hour. You can see the rest of the results in my flickr stream.
There was a fair amount of trash strewn around, and a real mess of broken wood and bits of concrete and stone. It looked like most of this junk may have come from a nearby fence renovation project.
First we removed the graffiti from the sign, with a spray cleanerthat worked surprisingly well. We then used the discarded building and fence supplies to make a bench (where one can sit and contemplate “progress”) and couple of cairns/shrines/ompahli (depending on what you like to call a pile of rocks).
Here’s a photo of that ad hoc new bench:
So if you see a tear rolling down my cheek right now, please know that I’m not existentially bummed out like that sad Native American (who was really Italian-American) in the “Keep America Beautiful” commercial. No, these are tears of pride and admiration for the infinite awesomeness of the Citizens of Bernalwood.
THANK YOU to Neighbor Mia and the rest of her Cleanup Crüe for a job well done.
PHOTOS: Neighbor Mia
With a little luck, relief may be at hand for public gardeners in Bernal Heights who are fed up with having their drought-resistant plants stolen by botanical bandits. Indeed, the last few days have generated a tidy crop of media coverage about the thievery menace.
Under the headline “Plant thievery in full bloom in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights,” this item ran in yesterday’s San Francisco Examiner:
Watchdog residents in the Bernal Heights area are frustrated with thieves raiding their gardens. They have written about their experiences on Bernalwood, a neighborhood blog. Here are some examples of thefts:
– Man seen cutting agave plants at intersection of Montezuma Street and Coso and Mirabel avenues
– Succulents being stolen all up and down Ripley Street between Folsom and Alabama streets
– Jasmine plant taken from planter on Folsom Street between Precita Avenue and Ripley Street
– Succulents in front-yard planters on Nevada Street and Powhattan Avenue cut
– Succulents and flower cut from front yard on College Avenue in St. Mary’s Park
– Beheaded succulents in pots on Southern part of Bernal–Crescent Avenue
– Small Japanese maple in a pot stolen from front steps at Cortland Avenue and Coleridge Street
– Aeoniums “neatly cut off” along Guerrero medians, Guerrero Park, sidewalk gardens
– Aeoniums twice stolen from home on Anderson Street
Woo hoo! (Thanks for the Hat Tip, SFEx!)
Then this morning, Bernal gardener extraordinaire ChuckB zapped us on the Twitter:
Most helpfully of all, though, an officer from the SFPD reached out to Bernalwood readers via the comments section to solicit help in tracking down the culprits. He wrote:
I am Officer Broderick Elton #320 with San Francisco Police Department. I am investigating the series of plant thefts and damages.
I suggest that anybody who has had their plants stolen or damaged to please file a report online via http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=778 , or call 311 to file the report over the phone. I am attempting to consolidate this information and follow leads generated by the community. Please forward any information on possible suspects and report numbers to me.
I have spoken with several residents whom are going to assist in getting the word out to all the community regarding this issue. Flyers similar to this will be delivered to residents and made available at community meetings.
Ingleside Police have been notified of this ongoing issue and are committed to helping resolve it.
I have read the blogs and am currently investigating those leads. […]
I may be contacted via email broderick.elton@sfgov.org
Thanks to Officer Elton for getting on the case, and to all Ye Citizens of Bernalwood, please remember what we said recently about the virtuous benefits of reporting crimes even if the SFPD doesn’t always send a car out to investigate: If you don’t report it, it’s like the crime never happened.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: Bernalwood
Here’s some encouraging news for crimefighters and public-spirited gardeners.
In the comments to this post and this post about recent plant thefts in Bernal Heights, Bernalwood readers have informed us that the San Francisco Police are now actively investigating the crimes, with an eye toward capturing the horticultural kleptomaniacs responsible.
Here’s a comment posted today by Reader Joyce:
Yesterday we got a visit from a very nice police officer regarding our thefts that I posted about earlier. Indeed, they are taking this very seriously, and I notified them about this website’s postings. Officer Elton explained the process of how things may move forward. Any information you can provide to them would be most helpful. He is fully expecting to be inundated with information from all of you. You can contact him at his email address: Broderick.F.Elton@sfgov.org
Bernalwood 