Home Owner question regarding Variances or Right of way property

We own a property and recently while we were on vacation the road that backs up to our home, is being widened. WE have about 10 feet in back of our home that backs up to this road. On the property we planted 15 Eureka Palms years ago and these matured nicely over the years and were 8-10 foot tall creating a privacy fence and nearly hiding the entire home from the busy road. We were told before we left on vacation (1 week) that the trees would need to be moved back because of the widening and the drainage pipes going in. The City or County whoever was doing the work, said that they would move the trees back 5 ft to enable them to finish the work... We agreed to that. When we got home from our trip, our trees were gone... Totally. We were told later that the phone company had dug them up and left them by the busy road instead of contacting us or just leaving them up by the house so that they could be replanted. The phone company didn't contact us or try to as we checked our messages and caller ID. The trees that were taken out were left by the road and someone went by later on and loaded them into a van...(stole our trees)
WE think this is negligent as these trees were on our propery and have a worth over 1500.00 at this time. To leave them by the road, not contact a home owner and then allowing them to just be stolen later on is worth us filing a suit we feel. Question is what is the law regarding plants or trees or property even on a "right of Way" I always believed the homeowner must be notified and given some options on how to handle the removal and replantation of trees. Our next door neighbor is on the same property line and his trees were moved the 5 ft. not ripped out and left for others to steal.
We live in Palm Beach county Florida