Man Offers To Replace Concord Woman's Stolen Artificial Lawn
CONCORD (CBS SF) -- A man who saw a KPIX 5 report about thieves stealing an East Bay woman's artificial lawn last week on Monday generously offered to replace it for free.
The Concord resident, who only gave her name as Sandy, had her artificial turf lawn taken in the middle of the night.
When she woke up on Sunday, May 29, she found a gravel patch and a few nails sticking up where her lawn had been.
Sandy thought her artificial turf was the wisest solution during the drought.
"We have been here since 1972," Sandy told KPIX last week. "I've had to put in 4 to 5 lawns, so we decided to go with artificial."
Chad Vander Veen works for Purchase Green. He caught the newscast last Tuesday and decided he wanted to do something to help.
"I like to follow the news on artificial grass and I saw your news story, and I thought, 'Geez this is terrible,'" said Vander Veen.
KPIX 5 put him in touch with Sandra and was there when he extended his offer.
"We felt bad for you and wanted to offer you grass for free," said Vander Veen after being introduced. "Glad to give you free grass and install it for free."
When asked if she was surprised by the gesture of good will, Sandra said she was.
"I am, because it seems right now the United States is going to pot," she said. "And there are good people out there that are nice."
In the week since the theft, Sandra has been busy. She has a new alarm system and on Monday, surveillance cameras were being installed.
Her solution last week was to park her car on the lawn that wasn't stolen.
But on Monday, Vander Veen explained how to keep an expensive artificial grass investment from being stolen.
"At minimum, they would want to go every few feet with five inch nails all throughout the grass," he said.
As for the suspects, they took off in a Ford Bronco with a tire rack on the back.
Sandra's neighbors say despite the theft, a gesture of genuine goodwill emerged.
"It really is very nice people are looking out for Sandra and for everybody, said Sandras neighbor. You feel good. People are looking out for each other.
For her part, Sandra said she would be checking her homeowners insurance to see if the artificial lawn theft was covered before taking Vander Veen up on his offer.
