On Thursday March 13, staff at Prestige Nursing and Care in Northgate, Sleaford, arrived to find planted troughs outside their office windows had been removed and hurled towards the ATM at Lloyds Bank around the corner on Market Street.
Bosses posted images of the damaged planters on their Facebook page saying: “It's such a shame when you try and have nice things outside your office to brighten the days with pretty flowers.”
Sleaford branch manager, Charlotte Walton-Gollop, said, according to CCTV in the area, the incident happened between 11pm and midnight on Wednesday, March 12 and police are investigating.
"We had two planters down the alleyway – long troughs that fill the window sill,” she explained. “Wendy, one of our members of staff in the branch is a keen gardener and she looks after them and replaces the plants, so she was quite disheartened by the damage done.
"They picked them up and launched them at the ATM. They were only plastic, so they have broken.”
They promised to get it cleaned up and apologised if it caused anyone any inconvenience trying to access the cash points.
On Tuesday (March 18), they updated customers who had expressed their annoyance and sympathy, adding: “Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone that has reached out regarding my last post, I know it is only a minor issue we have had to deal with but it's still disheartening when our aim is always to make our office and our surroundings brighter with flowers outside.
"We will be replacing the planters and have had so many kind offers from local companies offering to pay for these. We are very grateful and blessed to have so many wonderful kind people in our community, kindness first always.”
Charlotte explained: “We have had a couple of calls from local businesses who said they had heard the news and offered to pay for replacements, which is really nice.”
With police investigations ongoing, she said they would wait until later to replace the window boxes.” But she commented: “We have a lovely community spirit here.”
1. planters prestige nursing 2.jpg
The planters were too damaged to be reused. Photo: supplied