Richmond farmer Bill McKinney is perturbed because someone purloined his giant pumpkin.
The pumpkin, grown from an Atlantic Giant seed, weighed 90.2 kilograms, or 199 pounds.
"It was over a metre in diameter," said McKinney.
And it disappeared Sunday night off a trailer parked at the farm, which is at the corner of Finn and No. 4 roads.
"I'm a little dejected in human nature," said McKinney, 58. "Right now I'm perturbed.
"I'm ready to plow them under," he said of the rest of the pumpkins on his patch.
He's baffled about the theft.
"I've got no idea," said McKinney of a rationale. "Just for kicks, or whatever."
McKinney said he grew the pumpkin for fun. He didn't try to turn it into one of the truly massive specimens of the squash cultivar. The heaviest pumpkin, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, weighed 921.7 kilograms.
But McKinney enjoyed visitors coming to his patch and trying to guess the weight of his big pumpkin. If they paid a dollar and guessed right, they could take it home.
"I'm not in it for the money," he said. "I make a helluva lot less than the minimum wage at this.
"I feel embarrassed even talking about this. It's just so silly."
McKinney, whose family has farmed in the area for more than 100 years, had caught three people stealing pumpkins from his patch earlier this year. But he reported the giant pumpkin theft to the Richmond RCMP only because earlier he had batteries stolen out of some farm equipment and police asked him to report any subsequent thefts.
So, if you happen to see a really big pumpkin, please call police.
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