Police responded to Mt. Auburn Cemetery on Oct. 1 at 9:20 a.m. for a report of larceny of tree burls—the latest in a spate of tree burl thefts in the Greater Boston area.
A burl is a growth on a tree that artists and crafters often use to make bowls. A caretaker at the cemetery told police that a large burl had been stolen from a sugar maple tree on the Coolidge Avenue side of the cemetery, said Lt. Michael Lawn of the Watertown Police Department.