Workers at Meyers Family Farm in Capron, Illinois went looking for nine pumpkins to fill a customer order and instead found two entire rows stripped bare. Nearly 200 pumpkins, worth roughly $2,000, were stolen, wiping out much of the crop the farm was counting on for its very first fall harvest season.
The theft hit two 350-foot rows of unpicked pumpkins, according to NBC Chicago, which reported that around 95 percent of the farm's unpicked pumpkin crop was taken. The pumpkins were being used to fill customer orders, and the farm had also planned to offer pumpkin picking during the upcoming Boone County Farm Stroll on October 4, as WTVO reported.
That loss means Meyers Family Farm will not be able to offer pumpkin picking during its first year taking part in the stroll, per NBC Chicago's reporting. The farm, which also grows specialty pumpkins and a range of fruits and vegetables, had most of its unpicked pumpkin crop stolen.
A Pattern Beyond One Farm
Meyers Family Farm isn't alone. The farm says it knows of several other operations that have found people wandering their fields or have been hit by theft themselves, according to NBC Chicago.
Regional authorities have been alerted to suspects driving loaded pickup trucks through the affected farming areas, the same WTVO report noted. The losses come after a rough growing season: unpredictable summer weather across northern Illinois, with dry stretches followed by heavy rainfall, had already squeezed yields for small-scale growers before the thefts even began, according to 97ZOK.
Farm's Response and Community Support
Farm co-owner Tyler Meyers said the farm plans to install eight or nine security cameras covering its strawberry fields and pumpkin patches ahead of next season, WTVO reported. In a statement, the farm wrote that it was incredibly disappointed about the theft, but said the outpouring of support from customers and fellow farmers afterward has been absolutely incredible, according to NBC Chicago. The farm says it will contact anyone with existing pumpkin orders directly to arrange refunds.
The Boone County Farm Stroll, which Meyers Family Farm is joining for the first time this year, is a free, self-guided annual event that lets visitors tour regional family farms using event passports, according to the Belvidere Area Chamber of Commerce. Meyers was designated as one of two new participating farms for 2026.
Why Small Growers Feel the Hit Hardest
The theft lands at a moment when small operations like Meyers Family Farm depend heavily on direct customer visits to stay afloat. Small family operations increasingly rely on direct-to-consumer sales and agritourism to sustain revenue, according to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture as cited by the USDA Economic Research Service.
Illinois leads the nation in overall pumpkin production, having harvested 485.1 million pounds of pumpkins in 2024, roughly three times the output of second-ranked Indiana, per Investigate Midwest. But that dominance is largely driven by processing pumpkins grown for canned products near plants like those in Morton — the USDA Economic Research Service notes that nearly 70% of Illinois' pumpkin acreage goes toward processing. Small patches like Meyers Family Farm's fall squarely into that fresh-market category, meaning a theft like this one lands directly on the farm's bottom line rather than getting absorbed into a larger industrial supply chain.
Under Illinois law, theft of property valued between $500 and $10,000 that isn't taken directly from a person is a Class 3 felony, punishable by up to five years in state prison and fines up to $25,000, according to the Law Office of Steven Fine. Thefts under $500 are instead treated as Class A misdemeanors under the same statute.
