Flower festival soiled by thieves (From Stroud News and Journal)

Flower festival soiled by thieves

STROUD in Bloom organisers saw red when they discovered their lovingly nurtured pink geraniums had been stolen from flower boxes in Merrywalks.

Hadyn Sutton, who is helping to organise the festival flower, has been so angered he has vowed to make a citizen's arrest if he spots the culprit in action.

And besides the stolen flowers, other floral displays have been vandalised.

The thieves struck near Merrywalks roundabout over the weekend, completely emptying three boxes of all their blooms.

Mr Sutton - who is also a councillor for Paganhill -branded the thieves 'selfish', pointing out that the flowers were supposed to be for the whole community to enjoy.

"This is obviously not children because they have taken the flowers cleanly out of the bed, probably so they could re-plant them in their own garden," he said.

"The culprits left a trail of soil leading up a nearby road."

According to Mr Sutton, a similar incident happened two years ago when another pink flower - the pink cavalier - was also stolen from boxes in the town.

As a result of these latest incidents, organises have vowed to keep watch for anyone acting suspiciously.

Stroud in Bloom boxes located under the four clocks tower in the town were also vandalised this weekend.

"They must not have realised but opposite the four clocks, where they vandalised the boxes, there are actually CCTV cameras so hopefully we will find out who it is," said Mr Sutton.