In this case, the crime was stealing two hydrangeas from Centennial Park in Nashville in May 1958. And the thief, 72-year-old Bill Teitleff of Livingston County, returned plants to the park on Thursday.
Teitliff told WSMV-TV in Nashville he took the flowering plant because he didn't have enough money at the time to buy a Mother's Day gift for his mother. At the time of the theft, Teitleff was 18-years-old and just married.
And now, a trip to Centennial Park comes without guilt, without shame and with a lesson to fix what you can.
"Nobody can do it for them. They have to be the first to go back and do it. Sometimes it hurts when we go back and ask somebody for forgiveness, but when we do, we feel better inside and that person thinks a lot more of us," Teitleff said.
Those hydrangeas he brought back Thursday are from the original root system on his mom's farm in Joy, KY. He did not go to a gardener or Lowe's, but rather he brought back exactly what he stole.
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