OK, what A-hole stole the tree sweaters?

Since 2008, artist Laurie Russell has knit sweaters for trees in Park Slope (we previously wrote about them here and here). It all started when she screwed up a sweater originally intended for a person. Upon realizing that a subculture of crazy knitters exists, she decided to wrap the sweaters around trees rather than discard them. "It makes the dullest, coldest months seem warmer," she recently told The Brooklyn Daily.

Is her hobby a bit bizarre? Maybe. Do we here at FiPS love this craziness? Absolutely. But guess what? Yesterday some asshole stole the tree sweaters. We received this email from a friend of Laurie's:

I'm bringing this to your attention on behalf of our friend, Laurie Russell, who puts sweaters on the trees of 16th st. between 7th and 8th avenues every winter. Some antisocial individual stole all four of them this afternoon at around 3 PM. Anyone with any info should call 718-354-0282.

Who steals tree sweaters? Seriously. Just give the kid his lunch money back and stop being such a bully.