Doylestown farmer says carjacking left van ransacked, thousands in produce and supplies lost
Hayday Farms owner Hank Whittenberg said the van is central to the business, always filled with fresh goods for farmers' markets.
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- A Doylestown farm owner says his small operation is scrambling after his worker was carjacked in Northeast Philadelphia, leaving their essential market van damaged and thousands of dollars in produce destroyed.
Hayday Farms owner Hank Whittenberg said the van is central to the business, always filled with fresh goods for farmers' markets.
"We're a tiny little farm. We don't have a huge team. We don't have a lot of equipment," he said.
Whittenberg said the farm spends months growing produce to sell.
"The farmers' markets are everything for us," he said.
But on Sunday, his employee never made it to the Philadelphia market as planned. Whittenberg said the van was carjacked with produce, food products and supplies inside. He said his worker described the incident "more as surreal than traumatic."
According to Whittenberg, the employee was stopped at a red light near Roosevelt Boulevard and Southampton Road when a barefoot man wearing scrubs jumped onto the back of the truck and began banging on the door. The driver pulled over, and a verbal argument followed.
Whittenberg said the man began hitting the backup camera.
"He knocked it off, and the person jumped down and hit the driver in the face," said Whittenberg.
The driver ended up with a black eye.
Whittenberg said the man then hopped in the van, drove off and threw the phone out the window.
Bensalem police recovered the van at the Inn of the Dove on Tuesday. Whittenberg said it was ransacked, with rotten produce scattered across the floor and major repairs are needed.
"Cash box is gone. Our honey supply was gone. They took our scales - big surprise with that," he said. "We probably lost 50 big cantaloupes, our watermelon, our corn, our speciality peppers."
Whittenberg estimated the loss at about $7,000 worth of produce and specialty goods. He joked that the thief may have expected a different haul.
"We're joking, thinking he probably thought it was an Amazon van full of goodies and toys of some sort. How disappointed was he when he found a bunch of corn, cantaloupe and watermelon. I'm just hoping he found my Carolina reaper peppers and he tried them."
Despite the setback, Whittenberg said community support has been overwhelming.
"It almost brings tears to my eyes the response that people did. It's just nice to be loved. As corny as it is to say, it's true," said Whittenberg.
He said more than $10,000 in donations have come in so far, and the farm is now working to fix and sanitize the van before returning it to the road.
