Post #128443 by dogbytes on Wed, Dec 1, 2004 11:11 PM

Not in My Back Yard.. neighbors in Maine evidently did not appreciate the 18' flashing yellow palm tree ~ full story below, or see it at Tree Napping

particularly noteworthy is the sister-in-law who monitors supernatural events in her yard via a tape recorder.

HARRISON - How hard can this be? A bright yellow, fully illuminated coconut palm tree gets stolen from Beverly and Nicholas Maxfield's front yard and police investigators so far are, how shall we say . . . stumped?

"To me, it's got to be a prank," Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion said Wednesday. "There's no black market in simulated palm trees - at least I don't think there is."

This much we know: Early Monday morning, as a coastal storm pounded Maine and the Maxfields slept inside their perennially tropical home on Naples Road, a pack of thieves backed a truck up into the front yard, broke out their tools and got to work.

By dawn, the 18-foot palm tree - the crowning touch to Beverly Maxfield's eclectic collection of all things Florida - was gone. And Beverly was fuming.

"I just feel so violated," she said, looking out at the three anchor bolts and the cluster of electrical wires still sprouting from the small cement slab. "I can't believe someone would do something like this."

She is, by her own admission, not your typical Mainer. The stained-glass window on her front door features a palm tree. So does the screen saver on her computer. The bird feeder outside the kitchen door resembles a pink flamingo. The license plates on the family's two cars read "LARGOFL" and "FLORIDA.""I like really weird things," Beverly explained as she pointed to the artificial palm still standing in the back yard. "I've always been described as being really eccentric."

Thus it made perfect sense last summer when Nicholas, wanting to do something special for his wife's 50th birthday, ordered the eye-popping coconut palm during one of the family's many trips to Florida. Three weeks and almost $3,000 later, it stood proudly outside the Maxfield home for all the world to see. Especially at night.

"It had a remote control so you could set the lights at stationary, then moving, then moving really fast," Beverly said. "I liked the moving really fast best."

It wasn't long, of course, before folks throughout this town on the northern end of Long Lake started talking. And gawking. A few even made snide remarks. But Beverly, who works as a secretary at the town office, knew deep down that they were just jealous. When they asked where she got it, she'd change the subject.

Sunday evening, as the rain came down in sheets and the wind howled, Beverly looked outside and decided not to turn on the lights. She remembers waking up around 3:30 a.m. and hearing a thumping noise but decided it was nothing and went back to sleep.

"Then in the morning, I just sensed something was wrong," she said. "And I walked straight to this window and saw (the palm tree) was gone. I stood right here thinking, 'Holy crap!' "

She called the police, then the insurance company - patiently repeating her story until she convinced them that, yes, she was calling from Harrison, Maine, and yes, she said palm tree. She talked with all of the neighbors and nobody saw anything suspicious - although her sister-in-law Renee Carter, who lives next door, sort of heard something, too.

This is where it gets interesting.

Renee, it turns out, is a firm believer in the paranormal. So much so that she frequently sets out a tape recorder to detect any spirits that might be out and about on any given night. Early Monday morning, her recorder picked up the palm tree rustlers.

"It happened at 3:03 a.m.," Beverly said. "You can hear noises . . . and then you can hear someone calling a name."

Back at headquarters, Sheriff Dion confirmed that detectives - so far two are working the case - have Renee's tape and what they think is a name worth checking out. They also have other clues - including the care the thieves took to cover the still-live wires coming out of the ground to prevent any after-the-fact electrocutions.

"So at least they were quasi-intelligent," Dion said.

What investigators don't have - at least not yet - is a motive.

Contacted in Florida, the folks at http://www.BuyPalmTrees.com, who sold the Maxfields their tree, said they'd never heard of one of their palms getting lifted.

"In the course of human history, this is the first time it's happened," said owner Mo Hadi. "We are the biggest distributor of these trees in the country . . . and this makes history."

Not to mention a criminal investigation that could make or break the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. Find the tree and Dion's detectives will be at the top of their game. Don't find it and . . . well, we are talking about a bright yellow palm tree in Maine in December. (Perhaps they should drive around Cumberland County hitting the tree's remote.)

Dion said it wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't just given his buddies over at the Gorham Police Department a hard time about their inability to recover the SpongeBob SquarePants stolen last month from atop the local Burger King.

"Now I'm looking for a yellow palm tree," Dion muttered. "How come we can't get real crimes like (Portland Police Chief Mike) Chitwood?"

Because this is Harrison - not Portland.

It's a jungle out here.