A tip from an upset wedding guest and Facebook photos from the nuptials led police to a backyard in North Natomas where they found the rose trellis stolen from McKinley Park last week.
Pictures on social media showed the tall iron trellis being used in a backyard wedding Saturday with the bride and groom walking under it and male guests wearing red sneakers leaping into the air beside it.
A guest who?d been bothered by the stolen arch alerted the nonprofit group Friends of East Sacramento, which manages the venerable McKinley Park rose garden, and directed organizers to the Facebook photos, said Cecily Hastings, one of the group?s founders.
?The people at the wedding were bragging about the trellis being stolen the night before. He just felt this was wrong,? Hastings said.
The group sent the information to police, who uncovered where the photos were taken, she said. They drove around the neighborhood near Kenmar Road until they saw the 10 foot to 12 foot high fence poking over a 6-foot-tall wooden fence, Hastings said.
Sacramento Police spokesman Sgt. Bryce Heinlein said Thursday that no arrests had been made because police had yet to determine who stole the trellis. Detectives got the tip Wednesday where they might find it, he said.
Hastings said she thought a group must have been involved because the trellis weighs hundreds of pounds and was covered on one side with rose vines.
Facebook photos posted Saturday by Richard Gerritt Hengeveld, who identified himself as the uncle of bride Tabatha Yocham, show the arch in pieces on the back of a bike trailer with the note: ?Need. A truck to move this arch from brk to natomas. For my nieces wedding today.?
Hengeveld?s Facebook page says he?s from Yakima, Wash. He hasn?t been arrested, according to police.
In the meantime, the arch has been returned to McKinley Park where it has been locked up.
?Quick work by our Clunie facility manager Joe Pane insured that the trellis was trucked back to the park yesterday,? the Friends of East Sacramento posted on its Facebook page Friday. ?It is secured in a fenced area until we can re-install it hopefully next week. Thanks to Councilman Jeff Harris for reaching out the police about this stolen city property.?
Harris, who represents East Sacramento, said Friday he was pleased the arch had been returned and was considering measures that might prevent further crime at the park, including restricting entry at night and mounting cameras.
Park goers said they were aghast the trellis, one of 16 set up decades ago in the 1.5 acre rose garden, was taken and the roses hacked down.
?When I heard it was stolen I thought it was terrible and that somebody had taken it to sell in the scrap metal market,? said park walker Pat Minyard. ?The trellis is artwork.?
When told that it had been stolen for a wedding, Minyard said that he hoped ?the idiot who took it is in jail.?
The trellis was removed from an area behind the preschool at 33rd and H streets. Hastings, with Friends of East Sacramento, estimated the cost to replace it at $6,000.
The sad thing, she said, is that wedding parties can rent out the entire rose garden for three hours for less than $500. The cost is kept low so it?s affordable to many area residents, she said.
The rose garden is one of Sacramento?s most popular wedding spots. Brides and grooms say their ?I dos? under the trellises and robins build nests in the tangle of metal and thorns
Lynn Morgan said the trellises are a cherished and ?absolutely gorgeous? part of the garden. Thieves shouldn?t have removed one for the sake of backyard nuptials, she said.
?Have the wedding here,? Morgan said. ?Don?t take the trellises to the wedding.?
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