—by Rob Gurwitt

Norwich, VT, 9/1/23

As if this summer’s challenging weather weren’t enough, three local farmstands are grappling with the aftermath of burglaries in late July and early August, and though police say the incidents don’t appear to be part of a larger farm-theft trend, they’ve left operators reckoning with the vulnerability that comes with running a business in an isolated, rustic setting.

“In Vermont,” says Phil Mason, who owns and runs Crossroad Farm, which is based in Post Mills, “we have a lot of farms and farmstands, and these stands are inherently hard to secure. They’re often three-season facilities without big doors, intended to be charming post-and-beam structures. They’re an easy target.”

In two cases—at Cedar Circle Farm in Thetford and Honey Field Farm in Norwich—a thief or thieves broke into the boxes that collect money from customers using the farms’ pick-your-own or self-service options. In Cedar Circle’s case, says executive director Eric Tadlock, “We expected to find $800 or $900 from weekend sales—that’s what we’d done the previous day.” Two break-ins at the Crossroad Farm stand on Route 5 in Norwich were more extensive, involving broken doors, a broken safe, upwards of $700 in cash, paychecks for employees, plus tools and, ironically, a security camera.

“It’s hard to put into words how difficult it has been to be a farmer, with the incredibly late devastating frost [in May] that wiped out 90 percent of the apple crop and hurt our early vegetables then 10-plus inches rain in June, in July, and then a rainy start to August,” says Mason. “Our yields are half to three quarters of what they should be, pretty much across the board.”

Now, Mason says, he and other farmers are also trying to figure out how to think about security—an issue they’ve mostly not had to confront before. “You know,” says Norwich’s interim police chief, Matthew Romei, “it’s just ugly. These folks are making their way in a very tough business and they trust the community and it’s worked well for them for so long.”

Each farm is taking a different approach. Honey Field’s Valerie Woodhouse writes in an email, “We've asked customers to pay with a debit/credit card,” though some customers still leave cash—which, she writes, has sometimes gone missing. “As a small family business it still is disheartening to think that we might be viewed as a target,” she adds. “At the end of the day, it's important to us to stay open and be accessible to our community and CSA members. We're working to make little improvements.”

At Cedar Circle, says Eric Tadlock, after the thief broke the hinges on a small shed containing the pay box for its pick-your-own blueberries, the farm started bringing cash in before nightfall, but took no other precautions. “The core of the issue we’re all facing,” he says, “is the lack of addiction support, recovery support, and mental health support. I’m not as worked up about losing the money as I am being faced with the reality that our community isn’t able to provide resources for people battling demons and addiction and needing to resort to stealing money. We’re a nonprofit with a social mission to support our community, and this is a challenge in the community, so we’re asking ourselves what we can do and how we can make positive contributions to address these issues.”

Meanwhile, after the first break-in at the Crossroad stand, Mason says, he had the doors fixed, installed security cameras—and stopped leaving any cash or checks in the building. But then came the second break-in a few nights later, when the thief—visible on security footage—spent a half hour inside rummaging around. Alerted by the security camera, Mason says he called the police. “There was no one on duty in Norwich [whose police department has been short-staffed], so I was transferred to Hartford Dispatch. They said that it would be state police territory, but the responding officers were at a car accident in Brookfield. They basically weren’t coming.”

Given the uncertainty about police staffing in Norwich, Mason adds, “we’re faced with this dilemma: It’s very likely that if we get broken into again, the police will not be in a position to respond. So what do we do with that knowledge? It’s made it difficult to deal with the issue…. We’ve taken the approach to leave lights on and shore things up—but be realistic that if a thief is going to break in, they’re going to break in and likely won’t get caught.”

For his part, Romei says he has spoken to farmstand owners about taking small precautions that can make it more difficult and less worthwhile for would-be burglars to target them. The incidents, he says, do not appear to be part of a widespread problem. “It doesn’t seem to be a big organized thing. I don’t get that feeling at all. I’m not seeing a pattern or anything like that, just a couple of little blips.  Hopefully we are not going to let this become a thing.”

Eric Francis contributed reporting to this story.