VIDEO: The sod snatched from her lawn, woman figures thieves were hard-up

Sandra Garcia would have understood if burglars had come into her home in Security and stolen her valuables. Heck, she could have made sense of it if they had broken into her car for her stereo.

But what thieves took Monday night left her scratching her head and made her a neighborhood curiosity.

They stole her sod. As in grass, for her lawn.

"Who steals sod?" she asked. "It's unfair, and it's such a silly thing to do."

Garcia said she was bummed earlier this summer when a notice from Colorado Springs Utilities alerted her that a crew would be digging up a patch of her lawn - and other patches of her neighbors' lawns - to repair a corroded water main.

Yet the crew kept to its word and replaced sod in the area that had been dug up. In fact, when the first piece of new sod was failing, someone came back and replaced it with a new green patch to ensure that Garcia was happy.

Garcia said the new piece was thriving. On Monday evening, the patch was perfectly green, it blended in well with her lawn, and the roots were beginning to take.

Tuesday morning, she stepped outside and noticed a bump in her yard where it had been sodded. Her green patch was gone and had been replaced by yellowing sod, left so quickly that the seam between the two rolls of grass was sticking up in the air.

"My piece was cut out so perfectly, they had gotten it out exactly right," she said. "Then they put two dead rolls in the place."

The two rolls of sod that replaced her green grass were dry.

The bottom of the pieces were covered with sand, and the roots were so packed that they would never be able to grow.

OK, but is she absolutely sure her sod didn't just go bad?

"I'm sure," she said. "Overnight, it turned from a beautiful green with roots to practically dead sod."

She thought about calling police, but then figured she would be laughed at. Also, the missing grass isn't the responsibility of Colorado Springs Utilities, she said.

"They went the extra mile to keep it green, and then someone took my green," she said.

She removed the yellowing sod and plans to reseed the patch. She also moved some of her potted plants to her backyard, just in case.

For now, her yard has a dirt hole that she and her adult daughter, Angela Carrizales, will tend to.

"I know times are bad, but, dang, they stole sod," Carrizales said.

"That's hard up," Garcia added.

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VIDEO: Check out Garcia at the scene of the crime.