A community farm in Newton, Massachusetts, was left stunned after a thief stole hundreds of vegetables planted in the ground and trays of seedlings from a greenhouse.
It happened at the Newton Community Farm last week. Executive Director Sue Bottino tells us they believe it happened sometime between 7:30 p.m. Thursday and and 7 a.m. Friday.
"We were in disbelief and then we were angry and we were very sad that someone did this to the farm and this community," said Bottino.
She says the manager of the farm went out to irrigate the crops on Friday morning and first discovered the basil plants were missing.
"They walked around and saw that the thieves had taken some onions first, then some leeks, looking for the scallions," she said. "Then when they found the scallions, they cleared out the rest of the bed."
She says they thieves stole about 10 trays of cucumber, tomato and kale seedlings, along with eggplants, cucumbers and scallions planted in the ground.
The Newton Community Farm is a nonprofit organization that donates a portion of what it grows to local food pantries.
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"My message to the people who did this is you didn't have to do this," she said. "If you were in desperate straits and you needed food or help, or you needed seedlings, you could've talked to us or could've talked to any community farm, we're here to help."
Bottino says the farm plans to increase security in light of this incident.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Newton Police Department.
