Man Destroys Hydrangea Outside UWS Buddhist Church: Video

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A caretaker of an Upper West Side Buddhist church is looking for a man who randomly destroyed a hydrangea plant in the building's garden.

Karl Palma, the caretaker of the New York Buddhist Church at 331 Riverside Drive, near West 105th and 106th Streets, captured the moments when a man removed the plant from its garden and discarded it across the street.

Palma told Patch that the church has dealt with people cutting down the shrubs for years and that he actually had to remove many because of the onslaught of plant killers.

"People are tense and crazy right now. We always had plants in front of this church, but people would always snip them," Palma said. "I had to get full cameras for the building because of this."

Palma provided a picture of the injured plant to Patch.

In terms of finding justice for the removed plants, Palma said the police told him they can't do anything until they get an estimate of how much it costs and if the plant will survive.

The caretaker is setting up a conversation with the Buddhist church's gardener to go over the two needed bits of information.

However, when asked about whether he thought the hydrangea plant would die, he wasn't optimistic.

"Yes. It looks terrible! I'm very upset about this," Palma said.

Police did not immediately confirm to Patch whether the plant's survival could play a part in the severity of punishment for the action.

Palma posted the video in the Facebook group Upper West Siders for Safer Streets, asking for help identifying the man in the video.

The New York Buddhist Church has served the community since 1938; more information about what the house of worship does is available on its website.