Offers roll in to replace stolen Carpentersville tree

Local nurseries, a big box store and even a resident have embraced the season of giving and offered to replace a spruce tree stolen from Carpenter Park in Carpentersville about two weeks ago.

Platt Hill Nursery and Home Depot in Carpentersville, Wilson Nurseries, Inc. in Hampshire and the Pineapple Acres Christmas tree farm in Huntley have reached out to the village and offered to donate trees after learning that an 8-foot-tall Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce was sawed off and taken from the park sometime after Thanksgiving.

Village officials suspect the thief took the spruce to use as a Christmas tree.

"I was heartbroken when I read that someone had pinched that tree," said Platt Hill, owner of the nursery on Randall Road in Carpentersville. "Like they said, someone probably took it to use for a Christmas tree. But the village puts in a lot of hard work to take care of the community, and when you hear something like this, it is demotivating when that kind of thing happens."

Graham Knott, who has sold Christmas trees from his Huntley farm for 21 years, said the village could take one of his trees.

"Sometimes trees grow too tall for some reason or another," Knott said. "People are still buying big ones, but I have quite a few that I don't need."

Any plantings would not take place until the spring as the ground is already frozen, Knott said.

The Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce is considered an ideal living Christmas tree because of its dense branching and pyramid shape. The stolen spruce tree was planted as part of the village's 2007 Arbor Day celebration.

Trustee Judy Sigwalt said an unidentified resident also called the village and offered a spruce tree from their own yard that the village could cut down and decorate.

Sigwalt, chairman of the village's park committee, said the support was "overwhelming,"

"I was not expecting this, it is very heartwarming," said Sigwalt, who first mentioned the missing tree at a village board meeting earlier this month. "Talk about a time of giving: this is what the season is about."