The owners of Discount Plants of Florida are looking for those responsible for stealing merchandise from them three times in just seven months — totaling tens of thousands of dollars in losses.
Owner Jimmie Bingham runs the nursery on Old St. Augustine Road with his daughter and said the business has been around since 1974.
“We never had a problem for basically 48 years,” Bingham said.
That was until the first theft was reported in April. The second happened in September, and the third was earlier this month.
Between all three thefts, over $20,000 worth of goods have been taken.
In April and October, the thieves made off with plants. But in September, the theft escalated, and the thieves took a mini skid steer and a trailer owned by one of the nursery’s delivery personnel.
“The people that’s doing it, I wish they’d be caught, and I really wish they’d quit doing it,” Bingham said.
Portions of two of the thefts were caught on camera.
For the one that happened in April, surveillance cameras show a pickup truck driving over cones and into the lot where the plants are stored.
Then you see two people go back to the cones and pick them up.
For the theft that happened in October, surveillance video captures a U-Haul truck driving over cones to enter the lot, where the plants are located.
But for the theft where the mini skid steer and the trailer were stolen, the Bingham family believes that whoever took them knows the family, because they were able to evade the cameras.
“We’re seasonal,” Bingham said. “It’s a big hit financially.”
Bingham said he is hopeful that the people who are doing this will stop.
To try to prevent further thefts, Bingham said they’ve added more security measures to the lot where their nursery is located.
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