Farmer ‘feels sick’ after thieves steal bags of potatoes from ‘honesty box’ stall

Thieves suspected of stealing bags of potatoes from an honesty box stall are “not nice” the farmer who fell victim to the raid has said.

Lincolnshire farmer John Hardy, 71, said he was left “feeling sick” after more than 200 bags of potatoes were taken from his stall without any money being left.

A picture of the honesty box stall after the alleged theft shows a sign which reads: “Bags not paid for this time 218,” next to which is written the words “not nice”.

The un-manned stand near the entrance to his farm at Anton’s Gowt, near Boston, Lincolnshire, allows members of the public to buy potatoes in exchange for putting £2 in a cash tin.

It means Mr Hardy has lost out on more than £400. He said: “People need to have more of a conscience on them.”

He set up the stall five years ago and said he has always suffered some losses, but not on the scale he has encountered in recent months.

He may be “reluctantly” forced to shut the stall for good if things do not change, he added.

“I just hope people will see sense because I really don’t want to pack this up. But I’m afraid in this day and age we get people like this everywhere.

“It’s very frustrating that this is the culture we live in where people aren’t as honest and good as they used to be.

“It’s not a nice feeling doing all this work only for people to take them.”

Online appeal

One villager, Josephine Allen, 43, has created an online appeal to raise £436 to recover John’s loss and it’s already received £305 in donations.

She said the suspected thieves were “low lives” and she does not want to see the end of the traditional way of selling farm produce.

“I want to restore a bit of faith in humanity by supporting our British farmers – instead, they’re getting stolen from.”

On social media, Chris Slade said: “This is terrible – I always get my potatoes from there so it spoils it for us who do pay as he will just stop doing it and who could blame him.”

Another person said: “Absolutely disgusting behaviour – these people that live in our society are the scum of the earth”.

“This is disgraceful,” added another local. “They are lovely potatoes. It’s always been busy when I’ve driven past. I hope karma gets them big time. Some people are the lowest of the low.”