SAN ANTONIO – Volunteers on Monday night packed up items used for the annual Good News pumpkin patch, only to find those items were missing the next morning.
"The locks were here on this hinge. It looks like it was cut with a torch," said Larry Jackson, a pumpkin patch committee member.
Several tractors and lawnmowers that had been placed in a storage container and a barrel train and moon bounces that had been stored in a shed were missing the day after the season closed. All of the items had been used by the Good News Lutheran Church to host the fall event for people in the community.
"We're here for the people, and for this to happen, it's heartbreaking. It's really heartbreaking," Jackson said.
The patch was open every day for more than a month. Its mission was to provide good family fun at a reasonable price.
"Somebody knows what's happened. Somebody knows who did this," Jackson said.
The burglars repositioned lights that faced the storage facilities to avoid being seen. They did this sometime between the hours of 10 p.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday, which is when the items were discovered missing.
"Find it in your heart to do the right thing," Jackson said. "Give it back. Come forward. Be honest."
The estimated value of the stolen goods is anywhere between $10,000 and $15,000.
The people who run the pumpkin patch will now have to figure out how to rebuild for next year, if the 10th annual event takes place.
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information to call to its tip line at 210-335-8477.