Pearl City resident Naz Deuibar is the eye witness Honolulu Police have been waiting for.
"I always watch my neighborhood, i lived here all my life, watch for," he says.
Early Friday morning he watched as an SUV pulled onto his street, and saw a woman begin to grab plants from his neighbors front yard.
"First I said ma’am try come, she told me no. I told her again ma’am try come, she told me no again. So I yelled for my wife, call the cops," recounts Deuibar.
The woman was loading up her car with a bucket-full of these Tillandsia or air-plants, which in total is worth upwards of $500.
"I said why you stealing from my neighbor for? Put all the plants back over there back in his yard and she went put them back," Deuibar says
The woman drove off, but not before Deuibar got her license plate number and police tracked her down a few blocks away.
35-year-old Dolly Caperon was arrested for third degree theft. Officers found several more plants inside her SUV. Sources believe Caperon was stealing the plants to then sell at the Kam Drive-In Swap Meet.
Orchid grower Jimmy Loo says it hurts small growers like him who work hard to make a profit off their own plants.
"People cannot do that, they do that it’s very bad," says Loo.
Police say Pearl City and Aiea residents have been reporting a rash of recent plant thefts for the past month.
"In the morning, you come out and say do I have a missing plant? No, I’m OK," says Lisa Shibata, Pearl City resident.
Shibata’s neighborhood has been targeted twice and she hopes yesterday was the last.
"You don’t go around stealing peoples plants, they work hard for them," she says. "You don’t do that."
Dolly Caperon was being held in police custody Saturday night for theft and two outstanding warrants. Her bail is set at $3,000.
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
