Thieves Uprooting Small Palms for Large Profits

Marie Bunnell awoke Monday morning to the sight of a gaping hole in the front yard of her Yorba Linda home. Down the street, Andree Noeppe stepped outside to discover a similar hole in his front yard.

Someone had made off with their miniature palm trees during the night.

The thefts of the sago palms are just the latest to hit Yorba Linda. In the last month, dozens of the small palms have been stolen, police said.

Police and landscapers say the trees are an attractive target because they sell for between $500 and $15,000, depending on their height. The small palms grow so slowly--about an inch a year--that mature trees are considered a prized addition to the garden.

“I always warn the people who want to plant them in the front yard that it is better to plant them in the back yard where they can keep them under lock and key,” said Gary Huddleston, manager of the Country Garden Nursery in Placentia.

Sago palm thefts also have been reported in Cypress, Fullerton and Garden Grove in Orange County over the last year. In Los Angeles County, sheriff’s deputies report that a number of the small palms were uprooted and stolen in the Santa Clarita Valley about two months ago. Sago palms have also disappeared in the San Gabriel Valley and around Whittier, nursery owners there say.

Until a month ago, police in Yorba Linda would receive the occasional report of a stolen sago, said Lt. Chester Panique of the Brea Police Department, which provides police protection for adjoining Yorba Linda.

Nowadays, “we might get seven or eight taken in one night,” Panique said. Police and local nursery owners estimate that several dozen of the palms have been snatched from Yorba Linda residences.

In almost all cases, Panique and other police officials around the region said, the palms are taken from residential areas, where homeowners like to show them off in their front gardens. Having shallow roots and standing no higher than about 5 feet, the trees are easily uprooted and carted away, officials said.