Kids at Calgary’s Belvedere Parkway School have been hard at work on their garden since they planted the seeds last spring, and they’ve been looking forward to a big harvest.
But that harvest is now quite a bit smaller, after the children say thieves hit the garden on Tuesday afternoon.
“We caught them,” 12-year-old Lily Cripps said. “We ran over and we saw them taking the stuff.”
A middle-aged man and woman were seen in the garden filling bags with carrots, potatoes and onions.
“We saw them getting ready to leave with their bags,” 11-year-old Ian Dyer said.
That’s when volunteer garden co-ordinator Carrie Erickson sprang into action.
“I came racing in with my phone blazing,” Erickson said.
“They drove and I ran beside and chased them taking pictures.
“I said ‘Shame on you! This is kids that put lots of hard work into this and they deserve to harvest. You don’t deserve to harvest.’”
Police came to investigate and talked with the thieves. The gardeners asked the officers not to press charges.
“They’re adults,” 10-year-old Riley Erickson said. “So they should know the rights and wrongs of life.”
The gardeners are trying to salvage what they recovered.
“We replanted them,” garden co-ordinator Leanne Cripps said. “Hopefully they’ll survive.”
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