ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – Two catalytic converters were stolen from the delivery vans at George’s Flowers Thursday.
Employees showed up to work on December 5 with 99 flower orders to deliver, only to find half their fleet was out of commission. Founder and President George Clements says they had to cut their orders down to 42 that day, delivering only the time-sensitive bouquets. Security camera footage shows the suspects pull up in the back lot of the store just after 5 a.m., however their headlights obscured their license plate, says Clements.
“It takes them a total of eight minutes to do this job,” he said.
That video was shared with Roanoke Police.
Catalytic converters are typically stolen so the metal can be sold.
“This ends up costing us thousands of dollars and yes we have insurance, but we have deductibles,” Clements said. “There are certain things that won’t be covered, we now have to beef up security even more, we’ve installed additional cameras.”
He says December ranks as the first or second busiest time of year for the 43-year-old flower business.
“I love my employees here, they work very, very hard and everybody just knows, hey we gotta get the job done,” he said. “Yes, we’re down two vans, so we gotta take care of our clients, that’s the priority but it is stressful because when you are facing 100 deliveries with four vehicles – do the math. Facing a hundred deliveries with two vehicles – it becomes quite challenging.”
Clements said they were able to rent a van to get them through the holidays.
If you know anything about the incident you’re asked to reach out to Roanoke Police.