The unidentified white van slowly and stealthily pulled up outside the million-dollar-plus homes under the cover of darkness, grainy surveillance footage showed.<\/p>\n
The thief or thieves parked on the street at such an angle that they were hidden from neighbors\u2019 doorbell surveillance cameras. Then they went to work.<\/p>\n
It was only in the morning\u2019s light that victims realized what was stolen.<\/p>\n
For the second time over a three-year period, someone had chopped off and carted away the waxy, 2- to 4-foot-long serrated leaves from picturesque agave plants lining homes in east Torrance.<\/p>\n
Homeowners and residents are baffled by the attacks upon their beautiful \u2014 but otherwise seemingly useless \u2014 plants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard Moore\u2019s hacked-up blue agave plant is the cornerpiece to the front landscaping at his Torrance home.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy on Earth would anybody steal these leaves?\u201d Torrance homeowner Steven Maier, 72, asked. \u201cA couple of years ago, another neighbor warned me about this agave, and I joked that I wasn\u2019t \u2018going to be protecting this with a gun or anything.\u2019 And then one day, \u2018poof,\u2019 it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maier, a retired doctor, said he arose that Sunday, Nov. 9, to grab his newspaper, only to find he\u2019d been hacked. <\/p>\n
His roughly 8-foot-tall, 7-foot-wide, 150-pound century plant had all but a few of its 35 spear-like leaves sliced off. The robust green plant was the centerpiece of a garden that includes smaller, greener Elephant\u2019s Trunk agaves, spiny South African bitter aloe, and the Madagascan Aloe imalotensis.<\/p>\n
Maier said the agave held sentimental value. He purchased it as a 15-gallon potted plant from a now-shuttered Ojai nursery in 2008. This is the second time his beloved arid succulent has been butchered, with the first incident taking place in 2022.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At least a handful of Torrance residents have had their front yard agave plants hacked up recently. <\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a special plant to me,\u201d Maier said, \u201cand for someone who has been gardening for close to 40 years, it\u2019s very sad for this thing to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted, however, that the plant only cost him \u201ca few bucks\u201d at the time \u2014 and he couldn\u2019t fathom what the \u201cvalue of leaves\u201d could be.<\/p>\n
Agave theft happens with some frequency.<\/p>\n
Full plants were nabbed outside homes throughout Crestview<\/a>, an upscale Beverly Hills-adjacent community, in 2022. Yards from San Diego<\/a> to Arizona<\/a> and even the famed Huntington botanical gardens<\/a> in San Marino have all been victimized by theft.<\/p>\n In the case of Crestview, the thefts were believed to be motivated by the harvesting<\/a> of the pi\u00f1a \u2014 the plant\u2019s hearty, pineapple-like center that can weigh 100 or more pounds and is used for tequila and mezcal. The other agave and succulent thefts were linked to suspected resale efforts.<\/p>\n What makes Torrance unique is that none of the plants was outright stolen, though they were left \u201cnearly unrecognizable,\u201d according to resident Gayle Moore.<\/p>\n The 75-year-old owns a 113-year-old corner Craftsman home once filmed for a TV episode of the teen supernatural cult classic \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard Moore, whose agave can be seen in the background, says the plant has been stripped of its leaves twice in the last three years.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n As happened with Maier, Moore\u2019s 7-foot-tall blue agave was slashed in 2022 and then again around 4 a.m. on Nov. 9.<\/p>\n \u201cLast time, they cut closer to the trunk, and I wasn\u2019t sure if the leaves would grow back,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThis time, the guy left 4 to 5 inches from the trunk.\u201d<\/p>\n Her plant, which previously resembled a mighty Greek phalanx in formation, was disfigured into a pincushion with a few jutting needles.<\/p>\n Moore said her agave is about 10 years old, and its roughly 25 leaves were hacked to three in 2022 and now six in November.<\/p>\n Moore said the early-morning hacker \u201chas a pattern\u201d in which he finds mature plants, cuts them, and then allows them to grow back again \u2014 prime for pruning.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plant was beautifully spread out,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt was gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n Torrance seems a perfect mark for an ambitious agave pruner.<\/p>\n A dozen foxtail agaves line the businesses adjacent to Torrance High School, while another dozen Elephant\u2019s Trunk agaves are across the way at the First United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n The surrounding streets could be mistaken for a botanical garden with yucca plants<\/a>, cabbage trees<\/a> and flat-flowered aloe<\/a> all around.<\/p>\n Yet, those plants aren\u2019t as coveted as the agaves, particularly the blue agave, the lone species used in tequila production.<\/p>\n Beyond the pi\u00f1a, however, opinions among botanical experts differ on the value of the leaves and their usage.<\/p>\n Staff members at the California Botanic Garden in Claremont don\u2019t believe the leaves are of any use in alcohol production. They believe the cutting may be the work of a conscientious gardener, trimming away leaves that are blocking sidewalk access.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not too unusual to prune such a plant in this way \u2014 partly for safety (though you can also just cut the tips of the leaves off),\u201d said Lucinda McDade, the garden\u2019s executive director, in an email. \u201cIt is sometimes referred to as \u2018pineappling\u2019 for obvious reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n Terry Huang, the director of living collections at the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, said she had heard of a similar hacking but had \u201cno idea\u201d of the value of the leaves.<\/p>\n She said she wouldn\u2019t classify the cutting as \u201cnecessarily good nor destructive\u201d for the plant.<\/p>\n \u201cThough unfortunate and not the most pleasant to look at, this likely won\u2019t hurt the plants since they look quite healthy,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cThere are enough leaves left for the plant to continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n The large, broad leaves \u2014 or pencas \u2014 of blue agaves, century plants and similar species have value, according to UC Davis professor Samuel Sandoval Solis, a water resource specialist.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this Western vision of agave fields where they\u2019re only used for tequila,\u201d Solis said. \u201cTraditionally, the plants and their leaves have been used for many centuries for other purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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