Another pot-jacking incident in Vadodara

VADODARA: It seems that the pot-jacking driver isn’t the only one in Vadodara who has the strange habit of stealing potted plants. Three days after the said incident, another businessman has revealed being at the receiving end of a similar theft.On Monday, the owner of a restaurant located on Waghodia Road said that an unidentified woman had stolen a potted plant from his premises a month ago. In fact, the same woman stole potted plants twice from outside his restaurant in the last four months.“The first incident happened around four months ago. CCTV footage outside my restaurant showed that a woman arrived on a scooter and stopped the vehicle at some distance at about 5.30 am. She walked up to the entrance of the restaurant, picked up a potted bonsai plant and left,” said Falgun Patel, owner of an eatery located near Uma Crossroads.“About a month ago, the same woman arrived outside my restaurant early in the morning when it was closed. She picked up another potted plant, kept it on her two-wheeler and left. The number of her vehicle’s license plate wasn’t visible in the CCTV footage. It is strange as to why she is stealing potted plants from our eatery,” Patel told TOI. He said that he didn’t file any police complaint.When asked if he continues to keep potted plants outside his restaurant, Patel said that plants add to the beauty of the place so he has kept some of them at the entrance. Three days ago, a video of a man stealing a potted plant from a café on Old Padra Road had gone viral. The man, who was driving a SUV, stopped his vehicle outside the café for some time. He first talked on his phone and then walked towards the plants.He picked up one of the potted champa plants, kept it in his SUV and drove off. After the video of the theft went viral, the man approached the café owner and apologized to him for the theft. The café owner didn’t just accept his apology but also invited him for a cup of coffee and champa plant as the return gift.