Cactus Crime Busters

 

Hidden security cameras monitor places where large numbers of the plants are located, and officials will start putting microchips in some cacti, so that stolen ones can be identified.

In the city of Palm Desert, Calif., the city’s visitor center has a desert garden filled with short, round, spiny plants that are the target of local thieves. These particular plants have been recovered, but $20,000 worth of golden barrel cacti have been stolen in the last six months. They are the latest, if somewhat unusual, victims of the economic slide. It started when the economy had peaked and was starting to slow down, says Mr. Spencer Wright, the city’s landscape manager. Thieves took the opportunity to take them and sell them… they have a high resale value. If you pay $100 for one at a wholesale nursery, then people can get $50 to $60 for it on the black market. Police are now taking a zero-tolerance approach. Get caught with a large stolen cactus and you could face up to four years in prison.

The high prices relate only to the small golden barrels that are six inches across. They grow up to two feet in diameter and can fetch up to $4,000. These cacti had served a real purpose. For many years lawns dominated the city’s roadsides and medians. But lush green grass isn’t practical in a place where the average rainfall is 17 days a year which is a serious concern given California’s current drought. To save water, city officials replaced the turf with native desert plants. Now species like cactus, agave, red bird of paradise and lantana line the roads. Of these, the slow-growing varieties, such as golden barrels and agaves, have been most targeted.