First, it was corn stolen from farmers. Next, it was a class of fifth graders learning the harsh lessons of life when someone swiped their entire onion crop. And now we’ve gotten to the sad, low point of some awful, horrible, no good very bad person or persons stealing all the pumpkins from a patch belonging to preschoolers. What’s next, stealing milk from babies?!?

Despite this morning’s cheery news that kindhearted folks have been stepping up to donate onions to the disappointed kids in Maine, more produce evil has been done to a preschool in New Mexico.

According to the Associated Press, the school’s pumpkin patch was struck over the weekend, with school officials finding destroyed vines and missing pumpkins when they arrived Monday morning.

It’s a big loss — four full pumpkins were just about ready to turn orange, after the school’s 26 students spent time studying them, weeding the patch and taking care of them since they were sprouts. If that doesn’t make you sad, I don’t know what will.

But the kids aren’t mad, the center’s director explains.

“They are more indignant in asking, `Why didn’t they just ask permission? We would have given them the pumpkins,'” she said.

There is a light at the end of this story as well — to combat the pumpkin loss, 10 pumpkins have already been donated to the school, some by drivers who heard the story on the radio and made a stop at the school to drop off replacements. Meanwhile, a local Boy Scout troop has pledged its help and a nearby radio station is organizing a pumpkin drive.

Stop this right now, villains of the world. Seriously.

THIEVES STEAL PUMPKINS GROWN BY PRESCHOOLERS [Associated Press]

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