Paydirt

This week The Brooklyn Paper reported in its Police Blotter section that men, at least one armed, robbed unsuspecting gardeners in a Carroll Gardens community garden.

Here is the text:

November 3, 2007

Green thugs
By Ariella Cohen
The Brooklyn Paper
A gun-wielding trio of robbers busted into a community
garden on Henry Street near Fourth Place and held up three
gardeners on Oct. 22, police said.
The men entered the garden at 5:15 pm and flashed a silver handgun at the green thumbs, a
56-year-old woman, a 24-year-old man and a 29-year-old man.
“Give me your stuff,” one of the thugs barked, while another guarded the entrance to the green
space.
Apparently, money does grow on trees because the garden-robbing goons got away with $790
in cash, as well as a watch and two gold bracelets.
They fled west across the Cole Street footbridge to Red Hook, police said.
Hoodies
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

What are the chances your community gardeners are holding $250 dollars in cash each. A fenced in space with one exit seems an excellent target for two guys who think the chances are pretty good you got something. Its just that I wonder what tipped these guys off to its potential. Was it the garden? Did it say wealth to them? Was it the fact that gardeners are so often entranced in their work and might be easily surprised? Or that they were trusting and not wary of strangers in a community space? Was it the spatial scenario I described above that said easy pickins? I think the stereotype is that community garden says "people without means, without much money. " Yet, in a place like NYC, it may simply mean dirt for gardeners of all incomes. For these robbers, it meant paydirt. I hope this doesn't catch on.