Last week, a thief made a mistake: He wore a work T-shirt while stealing plants in South City.
Prosecutors yesterday charged Daniel Cotler, 42, with felony theft. According to the indictment, the Belleville, Illinois, native stole three plants valued at more than $750 from an address in the Marin Villas area two Mondays ago.
Police and prosecutors received some cooperation in the case from both the woman whose plants were stolen and the city’s LGBTQ community.
Sarah Ulrich said plants have been stolen multiple times from outside her home in the last week: A row of caladiums was stolen on Monday, and several upright elephant ears and hardy hibiscus were stolen on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The first one, I was going to give up, but people were like, ‘No, you shouldn’t give up, we have Tower Grove Park,'” she says.
Last month, photos of a partially empty botanical garden at South City Park made local news. Park managers wrote in a blog that about 200 plants are stolen each year, costing about $11,000 to replace. “The aesthetic of the park is impacted for six months,” Tower Grove Park Executive Director Bill Leininger told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s definitely an emotional strain on our team, as well as patrons.”
Ulrich echoes those sentiments: “I’m tired of nuisance crime,” she says.
She’s been an avid neighborhood gardener for 25 years, starting two community gardens, and the plants in her own yard have sparked countless neighborly friendships. When plants are stolen, she says, it hits her in a different way: “It’s not just the plants. It’s your time. It’s your energy. Some of these plants I’ve had for 30 years.”
Ulrich’s security camera footage captured the culprit in the act, and she posted a still image to Facebook. Eagle-eyed web sleuths identified the shirt the plant thief was wearing as one worn by a staff member at Club St. Louis, a gay sauna in Midtown.
That’s where Chris Andoh, editor in chief of Out in STL magazine, former society columnist for the Riverfront Times, SLM contributor, and friend of Ulrich’s, comes in. Andoh says that “within minutes” of posting about the plant theft, he received a tip that Kotler was the culprit.
“Our LGBTQ community is very good at policing itself, so when Sarah posted a photo of the suspected thief wearing a Club St. Louis shirt, we realized he was one of us and sprang into action and shared the photo on social media,” Ando said.
Ando said her husband, Cage Black, went to the sauna to make sure Ulrich’s plants hadn’t been taken there. They hadn’t, but Black was able to confirm that Kotler was a recent hire at the sauna. (Club St. Louis did not respond to a message seeking comment.) Ando said she and her husband were fired up after their garden was vandalized three years ago. “Any crime that threatens our quality of life is demoralizing, but when someone steals our plants or our park plants, it drives me crazy,” she said.
Ulrich provided information to police, who arrested Cotler on Tuesday and charged him with theft the next day.
Kotler was released on bail yesterday. He posted a lengthy, poetic apology to Facebook called “Just Say I’m Sorry.” (One line: “I never meant to hurt anyone by stealing flowers from your garden. It was my way of coping, bringing a smile where there was none, a moment of beauty in a dark, harsh world.”) His next court date is August 19th.
Ulrich stressed that she doesn’t want the fact that police have the cooperation of local residents to hinder their work, and that her neighborhood officers have a good track record of solving crimes that happen in her district.
“I know some people are unhappy with the police, but this is a good reason to advocate for cameras,” she said. “Without the cameras, this guy is a ghost.”
