Police summoned in flower-picking caper

NICEVILLE – Police officers received the following complaints from Niceville residents in recent days:

- A man reported to Niceville Police that somebody stole his Stihl chainsaw, hedge trimmer and edger from his Reeves Street home. The case is pending.

- A couple who live on Riley Road called Niceville Police after the wife caught a passerby picking their flowers, according to an offense report. The couple told officers they had called the department in the past about people picking their flowers, and they’d even set up a video system to see if they could catch flowernappers in the act of plundering their bushes. The system hadn’t worked. The alleged flower-picker said she was out for a walk, taking pictures, and picking flowers. She said was an acquaintance of the husband and waved to him as she walked past their residence as he was getting into his car. He left the residence. Later, she returned to their property to take pictures of their flowers, and picked five blossoms off their bushes. At that point the garage door went up and the wife emerged, shouting for the alleged thief to stop. The woman returned and apologized, and the wife phoned her husband, then police officers.

- A man on Sugarcane Creek Run said somebody bashed his mailbox. There are no suspects.

- A man on Rhonda Drive reported the theft of his truck’s license plate.