A Sparks nursery is hoping police and the community can help catch the burglars responsible for stealing as much as $20,000 worth of goods. Creative Gardens was broken into, late Saturday night, when the perpetrators cut the lock on the front gate of the property. Surveillance video from a neighboring business shows a dark colored pick-up back into the nursery and leave with a full load of items. The truck is believed to be a Chevrolet or GMC that made three trips to the nursery before 4 a.m. on Sunday.
"Being a small, independent, local business, it's just devastating for somebody to come in and just take things form you, like that," CJ Sanders, owner of Creative Gardens said.
Most of the stolen items were yard decorations. Some ranged from small metal sculptures, wooden birdhouses and antique water pumps. Others were large concrete statues. One of them weighs about 400 pounds and costs $1,600.
"They definitely had a plan," Sanders said. "They took a lot of large items that required several people to be able to load these items."
Sanders says his shop is the only one in the area to sell some of these statues.
"They're unique and they would be easy to spot in a yard or if someone is trying to sell them," Lorrie Sanders, Manager of Creative Gardens said.
Sanders says the gift shop was also ransacked. But he says the most troubling item taken was a loaded 9 millimeter handgun that was locked in a cabinet. The business obtained a concealed carry permit in order to have a firearm on the premises.
"To have a criminal out there with another deadly firearm is definitely scary," Sanders said.
Sanders also lost some landscaping equipment, hydroponic fertilizers and grow systems. They say they hope something like this never happens again and hope the responsible party is caught. In the meantime, they are focused on their customers.
"They love coming in," Lorrie Sanders said. "They enjoy the nursery and for someone to come in and just violate it is wrong."
Creative Gardens is offering a $1,000 cash reward for information leading to an arrest of the perpetrators. If you have any information on this case, call Secret Witness at 322-4900. Your information will remain anonymous.Â
