FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Ohio — What’s supposed to be a joyful fall tradition for families, picking pumpkins, filling wagons, and making memories, has taken a discouraging turn for some Ohio farmers this season.
What You Need To Know
Fairfield County farmer Terry Dunlap said someone stole 300 pumpkins from his Pickerington patch, one of several farm thefts reported across central Ohio this fall
Fairfield County Sheriff Alex Lape calls the crime rare but says greed and opportunity likely motivated the thieves
Despite the setback, Dunlap is choosing optimism, encouraging people who offered to donate to instead give to local food pantries and charities in their own communities
At Sam’s Pumpkin Patch in Pickerington, owner Terry Dunlap is still feeling the loss weeks after waking up to 300 pumpkins stolen from his field.
“Just no respect for anybody else’s property,” Dunlap said. “They just, you know, go in and steal.”
He’s not alone. Other farms have reported similar incidents, not just pumpkins, but apples too, vanishing from patches across central Ohio.
“It’s not common, but it’s starting to get prevalent recently,” Dunlap said. “I know there was some down by Circleville … and then some up along 37.”
Fairfield County Sheriff Alex Lape calls the theft rare, but said opportunity and greed may be behind it.
“I can’t tell you why people steal things, what motivates them to do it other than greed and some idea of some profit that they’re going to make,” Lape said. “In this case, 300 pumpkins, $20 a pop. That’s a pretty good theft.”
He said it’s unlike anything he’s seen in more than 30 years on the job, not the kind of crime that usually happens in Fairfield County fields.
“What I see is the idea that somebody thought they could make some money quick,” Lape said. “And so greed is motivating it. And quite frankly, people are lazy.”
For farmers like Dunlap, that kind of motive tests the honor system they depend on.
“Farms are open, and there’s not a garage door to close,” Dunlap said. “Sometimes people think when they’re lying out they’re free.”
But out of that loss something unexpected happened. Dunlap started getting calls from people across the country offering to donate to his farm.
“We had a lot of people call from all over the country,” Dunlap said. “And what we said was, we want you to double what you were going to give us and give it into your community, like your food pantry, or some charity in your community.”
It’s a response that turned a negative here into a positive somewhere else.
“It gives me goosebumps just talking about it,” he said.
After decades in business, Dunlap said that’s why he still believes in people, and why his patch isn’t going anywhere.
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating who stole the 300 pumpkins from Sam’s Patch. Lape said farmers worried about theft can add simple monitoring, cameras or trail cams, and keep checking their fields daily.