Surveillance video helps identify Turlock plant vandal
Social media helped identify a woman believed to have ripped out greenery from the planters of a Turlock business.
10 East Kitchen and Tap House posted surveillance video on on its Facebook page on Monday showing a woman walking along the property and pulling plants out of planters on the fence. She throws the plants on the ground, then pulls the planter from the fence. When it falls to the ground, the woman runs away.
The video was shared by fans of the restaurant, which led police to find her.
“Officers located her at a park after a passerby called to report they believed she was the one in the video,” Turlock Police Lt. Neil Cervenka said in an email. “However, due to the value of the property damage and the fact that there were no live witnesses to the crime, California law prohibited an immediate arrest.”
Police sent the case to the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office for review.
Because the woman wasn’t arrested, police did not release her name. Cervenka identified her as a 51-year-old Modesto woman.
Planters downtown — most of which are maintained by the Turlock Garden Club — are occasionally vandalized, Cervenka said. “But rarely is there any suspect description.”
Stephanie Telles, who coordinates the care of the planters, said volunteers often find plants that have been ripped out. Sometimes they are stolen, but often they are just left next to the planters. And they also find other items: “Needles, garbage, condoms. We’ve found just about everything,” she said.
Maintaining the planters can be a challenge. The Turlock Downtown Property Owners Association pays for the plants themselves, and there is no money in the budget for replacements.
The good news is that for the most part, people respect the planters.
“For the Christmas and Fourth of July parades, when we have a lot of people out downtown, we don’t have a problem,” Telles said. “People really try to take care and not damage them.”
This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Surveillance video helps identify Turlock plant vandal."