When Dan Holly received a phone call while traveling on Monday, his friend said, “You’re not going to believe this.”

He was right.

Holly was amazed a thief had stolen seven bushes from his Carolina Road office and warehouse building, only a week after someone stole 11 of the shrubs.

“I said, ‘I can’t believe that,’” Holly said. He then told his friend that he was raising the reward for information leading to the arrest of the thief from $500 to $1,000.

“It was a joke at first, a halfway joke, but it’s gone beyond a joke now,” Holly said.

Holly first contacted the News-Herald last week, after 11 Old English Boxwoods disappeared from in front of his building at 665 Carolina Road.

“I don’t want them back, I just want the person caught,” Holly said last week.

The bushes cost $38 each, part of an overhaul to the building that included painting the roof, adding new vinyl siding, and replacing doors and windows.

“I’d like to catch that sucker,” he said last week.

This weekend, someone came to the building and took the remaining seven bushes that the last thief had left behind, Holly said.

Holly remains convinced that the thief knew what the shrubs were, and how valuable they were, and even suggested that it could have been a landscaper trying to save some money. He’s certain the bushes have been sold to a customer.

Holly added that one of the bushes has a characteristic he can identify if he sees it again, he said.

The situation still is ridiculous to Holly, he said.

“I went from $500 to $1,000, that’s how upset I am,” he said. “As many cars come by here, I’m surprised somebody hasn’t seen them.

The 18 shrubs are about 12 to 14 inches tall, Holly said.

To provide information about the case of the missing bushes, call 514-7915.