Deborah Jordan contacted the newsroom with a sad story of plant thievery. Someone stole a Japanese laceleaf maple from her South Tacoma yard last week. The tree burglar sauntered up and yanked it right out of a prominent garden bed. The real sting? It was a Mother's Day gift from her children.

"I have 9 million plants in my yard and they had to take that one," said Jordan when I talked to her about the theft.

She took matters into her own hands and posted an open letter, or a tree manifesto of sorts, for the thieves telling them what kind of care the Japanese maple requires (vitamin B and rich, organic soil) and she also included a snarky little message that the universe will most certainly give a fun little payback for thievery (so take that!).

"If they drive by, yelling at them is going to do nothing, maybe guilting them will do something," she said, laughing about the note she posted. Well, at least she has a good sense of humor about it.

I called Watson's Nursery to see if they had heard of any other Japanese maple thefts. Guess what? It's not unusual.

"It's a continuing problem," said Connie Skager who works at the nursery. "Japanese maples are stolen all the time. They’re kind of expensive. People like to put them in their front yard because they’re attractive and unusual. That just makes them susceptible to being stolen," she said.

She added, "Tacoma's had a real problem this year. Between the Japanese maples and fountains and bird baths that are stolen out of front yards, someone is doing a heck of a business out there."

Advice for how to protect an expensive tree? Plant it in the backyard, said Skager with a half laugh. Short of that, stake it or make it impossible to rip out. "If it's not established or staked down, it's easy to steal. If it's been growing there for a few years, it's harder to take out."

So has anyone else had plant thievery? Let us know.