Chicago Pride flag stolen/vandalized for 4th time at Jefferson Park garden for the hungry 

by BRIAN NADIG

A Chicago Pride flag has been stolen or vandalized four times since 2018 at the Olive’s Neighborhood Garden for the Hungry in Jefferson Park — with the latest incident involving a man who climbs the flagpole as rush-hour traffic drives by.

Surveillance footage shows a man exiting a car that parks near the Ainslie-Laramie intersection and walks over to the garden, where he climbs the pole and takes the flag down. He then takes the flag with him and drives away. He appears to be a passenger in the car.

The Pride flag was quickly replaced, thanks to a donation from Rep Chi, 4425 N. Milwaukee Ave., according to Bill Zelenka, the garden’s volunteer curator.

The approximately 3,000-square-foot-garden, located at the intersection’s southwest corner, was installed 19 years ago as part of an Eagle Scout Project, and it provides a total of 300 pounds of fresh produce a week to food pantries at the Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity Church and Northwest Church of Christ. 

The main flagpole was installed in the garden in 2018.

In an incident last year, a group of men can be seen on surveillance footage pulling on the flagpole rope, and they apparently rip off the pride flag and damage the POW/MIA flag during that process.

One of the men then throws the pride flag over the fence, and the flag lands on the roof of the garden’s greenhouse before falling to the ground.

A Ukraine flag was stolen from the garden about two months and has been replaced, Zelenka said.

Full Video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m51AemwMKPI

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