Flowers stolen from businesses, cemetery

Flowers are disappearing all over town, and it seems nothing is sacred.

Whit McGuinness said Tuesday that he went to collect the silk flower arrangement that adorns his wife Benny's grave at Lone Mountain Cemetery, but when he arrived the sexton told him a lot of the flowers had been stolen.

Normally, said McGuinness, families are asked to remove the flowers Wednesday evenings in preparation for mowing. He said that if flowers are still there, the crew will collect them and place them together in a 10-foot long planter nearby.

"I showed up Thursday afternoon, and there was nary one flower in that planter," said McGuinness.

As he was talking with the sexton, he said, a woman arrived, upset that someone had stolen not only the flowers from her husband's grave, but a small wooden cross as well.

And Lone Mountain Cemetery isn't the only place in town where flower theft has run rampant.

On Thursday the Mark Twain Garden Club, an institution in Carson City for 90 years, donated five planters of flowers for the exterior of the Brewery Arts Center.

By Saturday morning, two of the planters were gone, said member Pat Holub.

"We spent over $300 on flower pots to beautify the Brewery Arts Center. It was disappointing to have them taken," she said. "It just sucks."

In the last three weeks, two baskets of petunias hanging outside of Molly's Gourmet Catering and Charles Kilpatrick's law office have disappeared, said Karen Abowd, president of the Greenhouse Project.

In June, the Greenhouse Project purchased 52 flower baskets to hang downtown, with donations from local businesses and individuals.

Abowd, also a city supervisor and co-owner of Adele's Restaurant, is offering a $200 reward for the return of the stolen hanging baskets.

"Folks have invested $225 for these business baskets in good faith, and this has got to stop or it will undermine the program," said Abowd.