'The great pumpkin caper'

A West Kelowna man spent the summer growing two massive pumpkins in his front yard, with plans to take them to his grandsons in Nanaimo later this month. But Saturday afternoon, he found someone had stolen one of the pumpkins.

David Lindsey has been growing the pumpkins at his home on Anders Road in West Kelowna's Lakeview Heights area for several months, and he was dismayed to find the pumpkin was missing mere weeks before he planned to deliver it to his grandsons for Halloween.

While he's upset about the theft, Lindsey has kept his sense of humour about the situation, describing it as “The great pumpkin caper.”

“Somebody, probably in neighbourhood, somebody knows where it is,” Lindsey said. “It's like stealing candy from a kid ... I knew [the pumpkin] was vulnerable.”

He said he believes the theft occurred some time between Friday night and Saturday afternoon. He's hoping someone in the area knows where his pumpkin ended up.

“It's so large that I was going to host a little dinner for my buddies so they can come over and help me pick the damn thing up and put it in my truck,” Lindsey said with a laugh.

“I sit in my living room and I see people going by and standing by it and they're getting their pictures taken beside it and children are sitting on it and all that stuff, which has been very delightful. It's a well-known pumpkin.”

Lindsey said a man even knocked on his door recently and asked him if he could take some seeds from the pumpkin once Lindsey was done with it.

Lindsey's hoping that anyone who knows where his pumpkin ended up can leave a note in the mailbox outside the home on Anders Road with the pumpkins out front.

"You don't steal it unless you're going to go out and brag about it," Lindsey said.