Farm Crime: Halloween Edition

Whether they are extra-large, painted pink, or even inflatable, thieves are snatching pumpkins at an alarming rate. The most recent haul by sticky-fingered pilferers was the theft of more than 600 pumpkins from a farm in Long Island.

More than 600 pumpkins (worth about $4,200) were stolen from Rottkamp’s Fox Hollow Farm in Calverton, New York.

According to Newsday, more than 600 pumpkins (worth about $4,200) were stolen from Rottkamp’s Fox Hollow Farm in Calverton, New York, in late September, just before harvest. The owner of the 250-acre farm told Newsday “somebody’s on a rampage” — her farm wasn’t the only one hit in the area. The pumpkins, and the malefactors, remain at large. Perhaps Riverhead police, the investigating agency, should be on the lookout for a massive pumpkin pie.

In an equally hard-to-fathom theft, in October 2012, a thief made off with a 300-pound pumpkin from an Illinois farm, ABC news reported. The owners of Hammer’s Farm Market in Peoria, Ill., last saw the giant pumpkin — a farm attraction — on a Sunday at 6:30 p.m. By the next morning at 10:30, it was gone.

The thieves had 16-hours to perform their impressive heist. Getting it to the farm had required a truck; then the behemoth had to be rolled onto a pallet with a tractor. The owner, Roger Hammer, told ABC news that he believed stealing the pumpkin must have required several people with a tractor or an SUV.

A West Knoxville, Tenn., woman recently had a dozen pumpkins stolen, according to WBIR.com. The woman intended to sell the pumpkins, which had been painted pink, at a cancer fundraiser. She had hoped to raise around $1,500. The pumpkins had been on display in front of her store and were stolen overnight Oct. 21. One pumpkin was found smashed on the sidewalk just down the street. The community rallied for the victim, with a local newscaster and an area artist both lending a hand. The fundraiser ended up making about $4,000 so far, twice the amount as the year before.

A security camera caught a man stealing an 8-foot-tall inflatable pumpkin from someone’s yard in West Babylon, New York

Apparently in Long Island, the pumpkin doesn’t even have to be real to catch the covetous eye of a crook. Earlier this month a security camera caught a man stealing an 8-foot-tall inflatable pumpkin from someone’s yard in West Babylon, New York. The homeowner told ABC News 12 that the family’s holiday was ruined after the decoration, worth more than $100, was stolen.

“I’m not happy,” Kevin Hoffman told the news crew. “I work hard and try to keep everything nice. To have someone ruin a holiday and take a pumpkin is pretty sad.”

A police report was filed, but Hoffman is hoping the thief returns the giant decoration of his own accord.

Perhaps Hoffman was hoping that his thief would take a page from the book of the bandit who recently returned a 9-year-old’s prized 100-pound pumpkin after stealing it off the front porch of a York, PA, home. The contrite miscreant even included an apology note, according to the York Dispatch.

The thief wrote: ‘I’m really sorry about taking your pumpkin. It was wrong of me. You earned the pumpkin. I didn’t think my actions through nor realize who they were affecting. Sincerest apologies.’

“I’m really sorry about taking your pumpkin. It was wrong of me. You earned the pumpkin. I didn’t think my actions through nor realize who they were affecting. Sincerest apologies,” the thief wrote.

Jaiden Newcomer was “very excited” to get back the pumpkin he had won at an area Oktoberfest celebration by correctly guessing its weight.

While some victims of pumpkin theft attempt to shame the criminals into submission, others rely on the police and courts to handle it.

In an October 2011 letter to the editor titled “Pumpkin theft was no joke” in Montana’s Valley Journal, the mother of a 4-year-old whose homegrown pumpkin was stolen from his garden went to bat for her child. She wrote that her son cried for an hour after discovering that his pumpkin had been stolen.

“I really hope the persons who did this will think long and hard about stealing again, and while they may think it is no big deal, it crushed the heart of a 4-year-old boy,” she wrote.

In New Mexico, law enforcement takes pumpkin theft seriously. Last year two college students caught pilfering two pumpkins from McCall’s Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty were cuffed by cops, tried and convicted of shoplifting an item worth $250 or less.

The two students told the court they believed the two small pumpkins, worth $10, were included in the price of admission, according to KOAT.com. They were wrong.

The judge, when determining the couple was guilty of shoplifting, told them it wasn’t the value of the items that mattered, rather it was the fact that they hadn’t paid for the pumpkins. The pair was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $73 in court fees.

Whether for spite, profit or sport, pumpkin nabbing continues to grow.

“Right is right, wrong is wrong and at the end of the day the truth will be out. And I feel the truth is out and the judge saw the truth,” Kevin McCall, the pumpkin patch owner, told KOAT, an ABC affiliate in Albuquerque.

Finally, we present a case where the police in Indiana, PA, caught a gang of pumpkin thieves, but couldn’t figure out who it was the men had stolen from.

The Tribune-Review reported that police busted a carload of teens Oct. 20 whose vehicle was stuffed with more than a dozen pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns that police believe were stolen from area homes.

Police stopped the seven teenage boys after an unsuccessful pumpkin theft from someone’s porch. The teens are expected to be cited for the alleged crimes.

Now police are asking anyone in town who had a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern stolen to contact them. They had better hurry before those big orange squashes rot.

Whether for spite, profit or sport, pumpkin nabbing continues to grow. In fact, there may even be some sort of underground gourd gang out there, working the nation’s streets. If someone approaches you with a pumpkin pie at a price that can’t be beat, we urge you to think twice before making the purchase. Pumpkin theft affects us all.

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