Topiaries made in memory of son stolen from garden in Poole

The two topiaries were stolen from Tony and Lynn Aldis's garden in the early hours of the morning on July 23.

The couple live in Ashley Cross in a block of flats on the ground floor. They have a small garden by their lounge and bedroom windows.

In the early hours of the morning on July 23, they had two of their three topiaries stolen worth approximately £1,000.

One was a helicopter and the other was a large sunflower.

The couple said nearly everyone who walks past the flats remarks on them and takes photos.

They have had them for over 11 years after they were planted in memory of their youngest son Scott, who died at the age of 19.

Tony Aldis said: “One of the topiaries is so unusual that if anybody saw it they might recognise it, it's a helicopter.

“I was a gardener, I’m retired now and I made the helicopter and everybody stopped to take photos of it.

“It's been outside our flat for 11 years and they dug it up in the night and they dug up our other sunflower topiaries.

“It’s terrible really to be honest because we lost our son in 2004 and that's when I actually started making them and we dedicated those topiaries to our youngest son.

“We couldn't believe it when we opened the blinds of our living room window and the two topiaries were missing. They left one which was a bird cage but they stole the other two.”

The couple have reported the incident to the police and at the time of writing, the topiaries have not been found.

A spokesperson from Dorset Police said: “We received a report at around 12pm on Saturday July 23 relating to the theft of topiary from a garden in the area of Station Road in Poole.

"It was reported to have occurred between 10.30pm on Friday July 22 and 6.30am on Saturday July 23 2022.

"Enquiries into the incident are ongoing. No arrests have been made."

Anyone with information about this incident can contact police via the usual channels, quoting the reference number - 55220119133.