Most thieves go after cash, electronics, or expensive merchandise. One woman, however, apparently had her sights set on something much different: decorative flowers growing outside a Kansas antique mall.
Surveillance video, as reported by KCTV5, recently captured a woman pulling up colorful coleus plants from large planters outside the Shawnee Antique Mall. According to employees, it wasn’t the first time flowers—or even the planters themselves—had mysteriously disappeared.
Instead of simply asking, “Who steals flowers?” employees now ask a different question: “How far will someone go just to take them?” And employees say this wasn’t a one-time incident. Last year, someone they believed was the same woman walked away with entire flower planters sitting outside the store. Wanting to keep their landscaping where it belonged, employees replaced the containers and secured them with zip ties.
That worked — for a while. But according to staff, the zip ties were eventually cut, and the planters disappeared again. So this year they stepped things up. Instead of relying on plastic ties, they chained the planter boxes to the building. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop whoever wanted the flowers. The suspect simply left the heavy containers behind and dug the plants out by hand before driving away.
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These Weren’t Just Store Decorations
For employee Jaxon Nilges, the missing plants represented much more than landscaping.
He said he personally purchased the coleus plants with his own money after finding them at a Shawnee Mission Northwest plant sale. Since then, employees have spent months watering them every other day and regularly fertilizing them to keep the entrance colorful for customers.
That’s part of what makes the theft so frustrating. Replacing a few flowers isn’t just about the cost of the plants themselves. It’s also about the time, effort, and pride small business owners invest in making their storefront inviting.
Nilges admitted he’s still trying to understand the motivation behind it all. Of all the things someone could steal, why flowers?
Decorative Plants Keep Disappearing
It might sound unusual, but landscaping theft isn’t unheard of. Businesses and homeowners across the country have reported everything from flowers and shrubs to hanging baskets, decorative trees, and even entire planters disappearing overnight.
Some plants can be surprisingly expensive once they’re mature, while others are simply easy to transplant into a home garden. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating for the people who spent weeks—or months—caring for them.
Facebook Had Plenty to Say
As surveillance images spread online, social media users wasted little time offering their opinions. Many joked that “even the plants aren’t safe anymore,” while others pointed out that the surveillance image was so clear that “somebody has to know who she is.”
Others sympathized with the employee who had personally purchased and cared for the flowers, saying it was disappointing to see someone’s hard work disappear over something that could have been purchased at a local nursery or grown from inexpensive seeds.
For now, Shawnee police say the investigation remains active as they work to identify the woman shown in the surveillance footage. Whether she was after the flowers, the challenge, or simply thought nobody would notice, one thing is clear: employees weren’t expecting to spend their summer defending flower beds instead of helping customers.