Thorp (WQOW) - Police in thorp hope the public can
catch a garden vandal. A community garden, designed to help feed those in need,
was all but destroyed.
"It was sadness for
me at first, followed by just shock. It's shocking, it's appalling," said
Thorp City Administrator Randy Reeg.
There's not much left of the
community garden in Thorp. Reeg cannot believe what he sees; plant after plant,
all destroyed.
"A few squash
plants, some pea plants, beans, some flowers...those were destroyed."
What makes it even worse is how it
happened.
"It just appears
that someone just went through and plant by plant, row by row, sprayed very
carefully onto each of these potato plants you know? All 100 plus of them,"
Reeg said.
Police believe someone used
herbicide, like Round-Up, but they don't know who did it.
"Without camera
footage, and without somebody coming and admitting that they did the act, it is
very difficult to prove," said Reeg.
The community garden was in its
first year in Thorp.
The boy scouts who were
in charge of this portion of the community garden here in Thorp had planned to
give all their potatoes away to a local food pantry.
"I just don't understand
why anyone would do that, especially when so much of it was going to be going
to the needy families throughout the area who might want some potatoes this fall
you know? During Christmas, Thanksgiving, just the fall…It would have been a
nice thing," Reeg said.
Thorp isn't alone. This week in Ladysmith,
there was a report of vegetables being stolen from a community garden as well.
