rockm

"I wouldn’t give a Corpse Plant’s stench about how you do things in the US at the moment… I don’t live there.
But it is good to know that you always get bad guys that do bad things...

I STRONGLY disagree with the needless statement of “Steeling something worth stealing” (WTF!!!).
I am of the "stupid" kind that do not ask a guy drowning what his profession is; what his criminal record is; how his family is and so forth before helping him to see if he is worth the efforts or not.
Your maybe missing the whole point here; it was a life… nothing less nothing more. The ways and goals are mixed up here I guess."

Seems I struck some kind of nerve here.

You seem to be conflicted about the morality of what you've done and seem intent on justfying it somehow. You knew what you were doing was wrong or you wouldn't have waited until 4:30 in the am to do it. Since I'm a lowly American I might have this wrong, but it might be a universal truth that anything you have to wait until 4:30 in the morning to do quickly, hoping not to be seen is most likely unsavory or possibly criminal. Replacing the tree would be a great thing to do.

As for steal something worth stealing and your "WTF." Don't ya get it dude? You say a life is a life, yet you have disregarded this tree's life because of some selfish fantasy about it, based on some emotional need to "save" it from something. The tree doesn't (or didn't) appear to be in any danger from the photo . Yeah, it's a scraggly looking yew that dogs pee on, but it appeared not to be really compromised. Yews are sometimes scraggly and trees get peed on sometimes. Doesn't mean they're near death. This tree doesn't appear to be near death.

You, however, have probably seriously compromised the tree's health by collecting it as you have done. Collecting a tree by yanking it out of the ground is the worst way to do it--you mention no tools in your collecting efforts, so I'm left to assume the primary method of collection was pulling the tree up by hand. That doesn't work very well. It destroys root systems pretty well though. The soil you have it planted in looks like mush--which will rot the roots. You have collected it out of season. It will probably not begin to heal itself until springtime, which leaves at least several weeks, possibly a couple of months for the roots to rot.

Your intentions may have been pure, but in practice they'll probably cost the tree it's life. Continuing rationalizations aside, if the tree dies in the coming weeks it is because of you and your actions.