Lion's Gate Plant Bandits Strike Again

The Lion's Gates at Fairy Chasm Road in Bayside have recently gotten a bit of a face-lift with new flowers planted at their base. However, while most people support and are appreciative of the green and flowering addition, someone else isn't.

Early in the morning on Sunday and Monday, officers discovered a couple dozen of the plants removed and laid delicately and precisely, side-by-side along the shoulder. Village Manager Andy Pederson said that because they were not tossed into the road, but laid carefully along the edge, the plants were able to be replanted.

"They're not being taken and thrown," Pederson said. "The whole thing is totally perplexing."

The village has been working on a total of five plantings at each of the entrances to the village, including Brown Deer Road, Port Washington Road (South of Brown Deer Road), County Line Road and Port Washington Road intersection, Lake Drive and Brown Deer Road intersection and at Lion's Gates.

While the Lion's Gates have been vandalized, no other plantings have any damage.

"It just looks like they were pulled out," Alex Henderson said, director of community and utility services. "People walked down into where they were planted and you can see some of them were stepped on."

Both officers and the village staff say they have yet to come up with any ideas as to who would be against the plantings, or have an interest in destroying them. Pederson said residents with abutting properties to the gates have been happy about the plantings.

"They want to see it beautified because it is sort of their front yard," he said.

Neither the village nor police have determined if they believe the vandals to be juveniles or adults because of the strange display of the plants.

"That's what's so perplexing and so frustrating," Pederson said. "It's very bizarre."