That’s just plain daffy!
Sisters who picked 27 flowers from verge for Mother’s Day have daffodils seized by police
‘They’re not rare or endangered’
FOR most of us, getting flowers for Mother’s Day means a trip to the florist.
But for a busy father-of-two, the sight of row upon row of golden daffodils bathed in spring sunshine at the roadside was too much to resist.
After all, who would miss a handful when there were so many?
So David Taylor and his two young girls set to work to gather enough for their mother as well as for his own – only for a passing policewoman to inform him he was breaking the law and to confiscate all 27 of them.
Mr Taylor, 31, pulled out his smartphone and began filming the exchange with the officer, who was apparently unmoved by his protestations that she was upsetting his daughters. The Mother’s Day confrontation happened near Berryhill Park in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, when Mr Taylor was driving Rosemary, ten, and five-year-old Emily to see their grandmother.
In the two-minute clip which was posted online, he says: ‘We were picking flowers for Mother’s Day, not bothering anybody. It’s public land, but this police officer decided to take them off my children.’
When the officer claims David has ‘committed a criminal offence’, he replies: ‘Have I really? Picking flowers off of public land? They’re not endangered, they’re not rare.’
The officer then says: ‘If everybody else picked flowers on Mother’s Day from the side of the road…’
But Mr Taylor interrupts: ‘I think you’re disgusting, taking flowers off children while they’re picking them… I pay my taxes, and her [the officer’s] wages. Go and catch some real criminals.’ But the officer points at the remaining daffodils and says: ‘I’m paying my taxes for those as well, aren’t I?’
Yesterday Mr Taylor, a carpenter from Nottingham, said his daughters had asked to pick the daffodils for their mother and grandmother. He complained they had been ‘criminalised for doing something that everyone does’. However, he was labelled a cheapskate on social media. Commentators said he should have left them for all to enjoy – and that supermarkets sell bunches for as little as £1.
‘I told the girls not to pick too many,’ Mr Taylor said. ‘I said I understood where the officer was coming from, but there are hundreds by the road there. She explained it was illegal and then took the flowers off the girls which upset them.’
Mr Taylor, who is separated from the girls’ mother, added: ‘I respect the police but I feel like it could have been dealt with with some common sense. It ruined Mother’s Day for the girls. It was a bit of a waste of police time.’
Nottinghamshire Police confirmed an officer confiscated the flowers. A spokesman said: ‘The officer provided the family with some advice about picking flowers. A bunch of 27 were taken to a nearby care home so they did not go to waste.’