Man Who Stole Flowers For Mother's Day Replants Them 54 Years Later (VIDEO)

A Kentucky man who stole hydrangeas from Nashville's Centennial Park to give to his mother in 1958 has now replanted the flowers in her memory, using plants from the garden she started with her son's gift.

In 1958, Billy Teitleff was an 18-year-old newlywed who couldn't afford to buy flowers for Mother's Day, Nashville's 2 News reports. When a friend decided to "borrow" some hydrangeas from the park for his own mother, Teitleff did the same.

"As we came out on West End, I heard a siren," Teitleff, now 73, told Nashville's News 2. "I said to [my friend] Robert, 'There's a scarf in the back, get it and put it on, lean on my shoulder like we're boy and girl.'"

Teitleff escaped the police, but he couldn't escape his own conscience. According to WPLN News, the deed weighed on him for years, and when he wrote about it for a memoir project in 1973, a woman helping him put the book together made him promise to go back and make things right.

Now, Teitleff has finally followed through on that vow, and thanks the people of Nashville for accepting his apology.

"I knew it was wrong. I thought all along that I was borrowing them. But this stayed with me all this time," Teitleff told WSMV-TV Nashville. "Now it's been 54 years, and I've got the root and same flowers that they have accepted back now. This doesn't clear what I did. That's between me and him (points to the sky). But this is between me and the people here at the park, and they've accepted wholeheartedly."

The nikko blue flowers, brought all the way from his mother's farm in Joy, Kentucky, are the only hydrangeas in the park's garden.

Watch the original video report below:

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Comments

[kamran seo]

01:34 PM on 07/27/2012

This shows that Billy Teitleff is good person by nature, as after 54 years he still remember what he did wrong not for wrong purpose. Nice to read, thanks for sharing.

[cyclomatic411]

01:12 PM on 05/18/2012

Good fo him to show, it's never too late to do good! Yeah, it took him a while but it wan't a murder and I don't think they've been hunting him all this time. We can learn from the goodness in what was done, rather than being so cynical looking past it.

[psalmistforjesus]

06:29 PM on 05/15/2012

Isn't that nice the park has flowers, he has a clear conscience. Whatever the motive is it was a nice gesture. Many times I have thought of a sticker I stole and gave to my mom, no way I am going to admit that or repay that one, only God will ever know. If I were not so full of pride I would go back and return that one sticker.

[Brianna Cole]

03:51 AM on 05/15/2012

What a beautiful thing to do. If this was truly an act from the heart then I salute you sir. My mother loves these flowers too!

[raypoker79]

10:06 PM on 05/14/2012

what a crock,,,if he really wanted to relieve his burden this minor garbage story wouldnt be in the news,,,he just wants publicity

[c15stars]

07:25 PM on 05/14/2012

Pure BS

[belldn3]

06:47 PM on 05/14/2012

This is NOT a feel good story. It's just pathetic itis or should I say pathetic witis.

[mikesells4u]

06:12 PM on 05/14/2012

Wouldn't it have been nice to have known this man all these years? he must have led a good life if this was biggest thing he ever did wrong that he could go back and make right.

[Michael D OBrien]

06:09 PM on 05/14/2012

Geez, took him long enough!

[belldn3]

06:48 PM on 05/14/2012

He was unemployed all this time, he had to buy them in order to plant them.

[robhllnd2]

05:33 PM on 05/14/2012

They didn't even miss the damn flowers.

[Jean Anne]

05:47 PM on 05/14/2012

He didn't do it for them. He did it for himself.

[Michael D OBrien]

06:20 PM on 05/14/2012

Whether people want to admit it or not, we ALL do things for ourselves.
It just depends on what will fulfill your needs in life................
Some people's 'needs in life' will benefit others and 'humankind' in general, other's needs will ONLY benefit themselves!
This, in essence, is the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Yeah, even the RWers who 'claim' to believe in Jesus!

RWers, I look forward to your responses. Be forewarned you come to the battle, 'uninformed, self-centered and unarmed!'
Jesus approves these comments.
You know I'm right, you just can't give up your allegiance to 'money trumps all!'
More to follow............................

[belldn3]

06:50 PM on 05/14/2012

Apparently his conscience or ignorance got the better of him, and made him go back. Maybe he finally sobered up, who knows?

[emeathead45]

05:32 PM on 05/14/2012

If he worked for Wells Fargo, he would be fired.

[belldn3]

06:52 PM on 05/14/2012

Or promoted. It could go either way.

[robhllnd2]

05:30 PM on 05/14/2012

There will be no white people by 1250. Everyone will be the color of putty.

[blockcaptain007]

05:36 PM on 05/14/2012

good

[karmabites2011]

05:52 PM on 05/14/2012

Bad; then everyone will look the effin' same. No thanks.

[she343]

04:21 PM on 05/15/2012

so everyone who isn't white looks the same?

[allproinstall]

05:12 PM on 05/14/2012

Good thing the cop didn't pull him over when his friend was leaning on his shoulder. That would have looked odd in 1958.

[catwomencjk]

04:52 PM on 05/14/2012

Correction. Cortez was a Spaniard who stole all that land, and Spain gave it back. The same
Spaniards are here stealing America. Now in America we created an economy and a job
market. How's it going in your country, Mexico?

[hari balsaki]

05:16 PM on 05/14/2012

your post reminds me of this mexican chick who was lecturing me how evil us white people are with our "european" language. european language? hey idiot, SPANISH is a european language and YOU don't even know how to speak the indigenous language of central america.

[Isnt that special]

05:50 PM on 05/14/2012

That was really funny...

[catwomencjk]

06:06 PM on 05/14/2012

I guess I should be less hostile toward these incredibly backward people, but I lose it
a little listening to their constant insults to the locals. They come here with nothing,
take our jobs, brag they do better at it and we're less capable than they are. Those
are seriously fighting words. Compare America and Mexico for a point of reference.

[rrioa6027]

04:33 PM on 05/14/2012

I guess white folks borrowed all that land from Mexico. I wonder when they will be given it back?

[liesabouttown]

04:52 PM on 05/14/2012

I wish we could return everything we borrowed, including you.

[rrioa6027]

11:41 PM on 05/16/2012

SO when will you be leaving?

[hari balsaki]

05:21 PM on 05/14/2012

yes, let's start returning every "borrowed" land to it's prior "owners"... throughout all of history and back further to when the world was one land mass... until we're all, ulitmately all of the billions of people on the planet, standing in the same tiny cradle of civilization spot... including you mexicans and native americans who crossed over from siberia on a land bridge... until we're ALL STANDING ON TOP OF EACH OTHER. brilliant. oh... or do you mean just roll back the clock until YOU'RE satisfied and then we stop, right?

[Isnt that special]

05:58 PM on 05/14/2012

All these comments are funny, yeah we stole everything, lol- Native Americans were here first (how quickly we forget), we came here calling ourselves pilgrims talking about chewing some turkey and then never left... been borrowing ever since, lol