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Ten of the 12 stolen plants have been returned to Wellington Botanic Gardens.
Wellington Botanic Gardens celebrate the return of stolen plants after more than two weeks out of their beds.
Ten of the 12 stolen plants were returned to the gardens for some TLC after being recovered by police from an address in Lower Hutt on Friday morning.
The plants, which were worth thousands of dollars, were seized in a raid on Begonia’s home on the night of October 12.
Some were one meter tall and were taken along with cuttings from other rare specimens.
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ROSA WOODS / Things
A dozen tropical plants worth thousands of dollars were stolen from the Wellington Botanical Garden on Monday night.
Police contacted gardens staff to identify the plants on Friday morning and, after the team sent a list and photographs, they returned them to their rightful owners.
Visitor Experience Manager Raydeen Cuffe said the team was happy to have them home. “The plants are unique and some are quite rare.”
They kept the exact species of the stolen plants secret, to avoid tempting more thieves.
They would have been sold for “crazy amounts,” Cuffe said. “They can cost thousands of dollars.”
A police spokesman confirmed that they had located several of the plants reported as stolen at an address in Lower Hutt, and a person was assisting with investigations.
There was hope that the last two missing plants could be found, Cuffe said.
