Sept. 18, 2015: In this photo, provided by Matthew Murraine, his daughter, Lilianna, poses next to a giant pumpkin that weighs about 100 pounds outside their home in Spearfish, S.D. The pumpkin was stolen later in the day in what the Murraine calls a heist that was carefully planned. (AP)
SPEARFISH, S.D. – Matthew Murraine wants to know who swiped his 100-pound pumpkin.
Murraine has been growing a type of large pumpkin at his home in Spearfish, South Dakota, this summer. Last Friday, someone stole the largest one in a heist Murraine believes was carefully planned.
"They backed right up to the house. That's pretty brazen," he told the Black Hills Pioneer. "They brought a saw. You could see on the stem where they had cut."
The pumpkin grew as much as 2 inches per day, which Murraine said was fascinating "in a nerdy pumpkin grower kind of way." It still had a month of growing time left and would have reached about 120 pounds, he estimated.
"It dwarfed my daughter, and she is 3," he said.
During the growing season, the pumpkin required 20 gallons of water every four days and a gallon of milk each week for calcium. Murraine said the pumpkin was worth about $200, but the value isn't what he considers most important.
"I want them to felt guilty about taking (it) from kids," he said.
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