A DeLeon Springs couple appeared in court on Wednesday, accused of cutting or trimming branches off more than 100 Magnolia trees along state roads to make holiday wreaths.
Kurt Cox, 40, and his wife, Rebecca, 30, were arrested Tuesday by the Florida Highway Patrol after a Department of Transportation maintenance engineer spotted several people loading tree limbs into a van on the side of state Road 9A near Baymeadows Road and called police.
The couple is accused of causing $230,000 worth of damage to trees.
A Florida DOT spokesman said at least 117 trees have been vandalized in the Jacksonville area since October.
"We had been aware of this problem for several months, and the difficulty is you literally have to catch somebody doing it. It's not for example that you can go by a wreath seller on the side of the road and say, 'Hey, I want to see where your leaves came from,'" said Mike Goldman, of the Department of Transportation.
The man and woman have been charged with criminal mischief in excess of $1,000 -- a third-degree felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
"It's a very serious deal. You can't degrade or deface state property such as that, and we had a van load full of these clippings from these trees," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson.
The theft is considered so serious that at their first-appearance hearing, a judge set bond for each at $15,000.
Anna Dooley, who runs a non-profit organization that plants trees, said some people take the "public" property tag too literally.
"They think they can help themselves, which is wrong and illegal," Dooley said.
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