Roseville man charged with stealing flowers says they were for estranged wife

Men are often encouraged to get women flowers, but the romantic gesture got a Roseville man in trouble with the law.

David D. Kaufman, 48, was charged Thursday with second- and third-degree burglary after he was caught attempting to steal from a greenhouse flowers he says were for his estranged wife.

According to the criminal complaint:

A little before 1 a.m. on June 25, police responded to an alarm at Linder's Flower Mart at the Knowlan's grocery store on Stillwater Road off Hwy. 120 in Maplewood. Officers found Kaufman inside the mart's temporary, enclosed structure. Kaufman was arrested, and police found a freshly cut hole in the south side of the structure. Kaufman had a folding knife with him.

Kaufman, who asked the officers for a break, said he was stealing flowers to give to his estranged wife. While Kaufman was in custody, his phone kept ringing. One of the officers answered it.

"Where are you?" a woman asked.

"I'm right here," the officer replied.

The officer told the woman that he was getting the plants and she hung up.

While Kaufman said that he hadn't been inside the Maplewood flower mart before, police found in his truck a modem that had been stolen from the mart during an earlier burglary.