Thetford boys devastated after theft of pumpkins

Published: 9:59 AM October 24, 2009 Updated: 9:34 AM October 11, 2020

TWO large pumpkins being cared for by a pair of young boys have been stolen from an allotment in Thetford.

The squashes were being grown in preparation for Halloween and were about three feet wide and taken three weeks ago.

Janet Smith Gibbons, who has owned her plot on Bury Road for four years, and whose young grandsons Toby and Alfie were looking after the pumpkins, said she also suspected other crops had been taken.

Mrs Smith Gibbons, 51, from Bury Road in Thetford, said: “It's just so frustrating; you love them and nurture them and then this happens. It's disappointing for my grandkids more than anything.

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“It's not as if you can tie them down or fence them in or anything but because they were grown against the edges of the plot they have started to go square so are pretty distinctive.”

She added: “I understand from speaking to other allotment holders that other people, too, have had things stolen. The path through the allotment used to be used as a short cut by the general public, and recently the town council put in a six foot fence around the Bury Road entrance, but unfortunately they only installed a wooden five bar gate which people just climb over so the fencing hasn't done much good.”