🔒200 pumpkins stolen from family-friendly fundraiser in St. Johns County

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – What began arsenic a labor-intensive, family-friendly fundraiser has turned into a headache for the proprietor of a pumpkin spot who said the fundraising effort was impacted by thievery and vandalism.

Chandy Evans owns and runs the pumpkin spot called Happy Haunts. It’s a tiny enclosed country connected the spot of the Faith Community Church located connected State Road 210.

Evans and her household moved from Southern California to Florida 2 years agone and decided this twelvemonth they wanted to bash thing amusive earlier Halloween that could besides assistance rise wealth for a worthy cause.

“The full constituent of maine doing each this was to bring thing to the assemblage that was family-friendly and bully for kids due to the fact that there’s conscionable truly thing astir here, and we were besides donating immoderate of it to stateless vets,” Evans said.

Evans comes from a household of retired subject veterans, truthful she says she has a brushed spot successful her bosom for veterans who are homeless.

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“There are conscionable excessively galore that conflict with PTSD, being stateless and a batch of issues, truthful if we could bash thing to assistance them, whether if it’s conscionable giving them immoderate food, we conscionable wanted to bash thing to marque a difference,” Evans said.

People who donated nonperishable nutrient would get a escaped tiny pumpkin successful return. The remainder of the pumpkins wrong Happy Haunts are for sale, with immoderate of the wealth from those income paying for the outgo of operations and the remainder going to stateless veterans, on with the donated food. Also, a information of the wealth being raised is expected to spell toward the household of Tristyn Bailey, the 13-year-old miss who was found stabbed to decease this past spring not acold from the existent determination of the pumpkin patch.

But connected Monday day portion Happy Haunts was closed, Evans said, idiosyncratic broke done the beforehand gross and took an estimated 200 pumpkins, 10 of which were recovered smashed successful the religion parking lot.

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“They took pumpkins of each sizes, but aft damages and what they stole, it equates to astir $2,000,” Evans said.

In summation to pumpkins being stolen and damaged, galore of the Halloween props that took 30 days to enactment unneurotic were either torn down oregon damaged. Evans showed News4Jax an inflatable Halloween prop that was ripped and required pieces of portion to support aerial from escaping and causing the prop to deflate.

“My full household worked truly hard. We painted each prop. We chopped them. I mean, we did everything by hand, truthful it was decidedly upsetting to travel successful present and spot idiosyncratic had messed with it all,” Evans said.

Evans said she volition ne'er hide the infinitesimal erstwhile she arrived to unfastened Happy Haunts for concern Monday day and saw the unthinkable.

“I was truly shocked erstwhile I got here, but truly I was conscionable devastated that idiosyncratic successful the assemblage would bash that to us. When I archetypal got here, I noticed determination were pumpkins successful the parking batch — which I thought was weird. Then erstwhile I drove up here, I noticed my gross had been ripped unfastened and it looked similar idiosyncratic utilized the pumpkins arsenic shot balls. They were conscionable each implicit the place. Some were crushed. The instrumentality barrels were upside down. Everything was conscionable a mess,” Evans said.

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What’s adjacent much heartbreaking for Evans is the information that she and her household had to question a acold region to get the pumpkins owed to a nationwide pumpkin shortage that is greatly impacting definite areas of the country.

“We really picked them up successful North Carolina and drove them down present due to the fact that it’s truly hard to find pumpkins successful Florida and Georgia,” Evans said.

Evans wants the idiosyncratic oregon radical liable to afloat recognize the interaction of what they did.

“It’s not conscionable hurting maine and my business, it’s hurting our assemblage and it’s hurting the radical who wanted to travel present and enactment the vets, arsenic well,” Evans said.

Evans filed a ailment with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and it’s unclear if deputies person identified immoderate suspects.

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