ENOUGH! Business Manager Tracks Thief and Sends Police To His Home

I love stories like this. With report after report of businesses being abused by thieves just walking in and helping themselves, it’s great to hear about someone doing something about it. 

Michael Sullivan, is the operations manager at Roger’s Garden Nursery, located in Newport Beach, California. Over a series of weeks, the nursery was burglarized several times. Included in the thief’s haul were plants, trees, a decorative fountain, pots, and even some pumpkins, including expensive items and, in some cases, heavy items. Some of the pots are valued at $300 and the fountain weighed in excess of 150 lbs. 

Even though the nursery was equipped with security cameras, including some in the parking lot, the robberies occurred at night and they were unable to clearly see the license plate. That made it even more frustrating, because they had video of the thief, but were unable to track him.

In a statement Sullivan stated that fact: "It was frustrating because we knew it was happening and we couldn't stop it due to the fact that our security cameras couldn't pick up the license plate."

The police attempted to stake out the nursery, but to no avail. That’s when Sullivan had his revelation. He placed eight Apple Air Tag Trackers on various items and in plants and shrubs. Sure enough, days later the thief struck again, taking a bench and other items.

A week later, he noticed movement and got a ping from a location in Irvine, CA. "I saw one of the Air Tags had moved to a location in Irvine, so I had the address at that point. I took a screenshot of it and I sent it to the detectives at 2 in the morning.” 

Police proceeded to the address and found what they described as "a sanctuary of stolen greenery." Many of the stolen items were found in the thief’s front yard. 

Sullivan described it this way: "Every single thing in his front yard was like our pots, our fountain, our plants. The entire front yard. A bench from out front. The entire front yard was - it was basically decorated with our stuff that we were missing."

Police reported that they recovered approximately $8,000 worth of stolen materials and proceeded to file four felony charges against 53-year-old Michael David Meek on suspicion of grand theft. 

Sullivan had a refreshing epitaph concerning the entire incident: "There seems to be a kind of apathy with a lot of retailers where they sort of like let it happen or look the other way or that's a cost of doing business. We disagree with that approach. We are going after anyone that takes something from us."

Bravo to Mr. Sullivan and to everyone at Roger’s Garden Nursery. Standing still and allowing thugs to do whatever they want solves nothing, and, in fact, emboldens the punks that do this type of thing. However, this is proof that retailers don’t have to accept this nonsense. 

The left actually promotes this “mostly peaceful” destruction of society. While enabling and defending robbery as a form of “equity,” they expect the hard-working owners of businesses to be immobilized and simply absorb and accept the losses and disrespect.

Enough is Enough! Robbery is a crime and it’s time to punish the narcissists that think they can take whatever they want. It is time to reinstate morality into everyday life. Stealing is wrong. The left acknowledges that, but certainly doesn’t act on it.