Bride’s uncle arrested in theft of park trellis

The man who sought help on Facebook to deliver a stolen McKinley Park trellis to his niece’s wedding was arrested Tuesday on grand theft charges.

Richard Gerritt Hengeveld, 53, was arrested by detectives on the new charges while he was already in jail for an unrelated charge, according to the Sacramento Police Department. He has been in jail since Saturday for a parole violation and is ineligible for bail, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department website.

Sacramento police said the McKinley Park rose garden trellis was stolen sometime overnight between April 29 and April 30. Police said they learned from tipsters that the trellis had been used in a backyard gathering at a house in North Natomas. Detectives last week recovered the trellis in the backyard, where it remained days after a wedding that was held April 30, based on social media accounts from the bride’s family.

On the morning of April 30, Hengeveld posted a Facebook picture of the broken-down trellis on a bike trailer and solicited help to transport the large metal structure via truck from Broderick to Natomas.

Hengeveld’s sister, Wendy Poirier Barnes, said her brother arrived at his niece’s wedding April 30 toting the 12-foot-tall ornate iron trellis. Family members didn’t know it was stolen from the McKinley Park rose garden, she said.

“My brother was an idiot,” Barnes said last week. “He thought he was doing a nice gesture for his niece. He didn’t think about the consequences.”

Hengeveld didn’t want to discuss the trellis during a brief interview Monday at the downtown Sacramento jail.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Bride’s uncle arrested in theft of park trellis."