A happy ending to child’s vegetable stall theft

Tuesday 03 October 2017

Thieves who stole money from a child’s vegetable stall may have actually ended up doing the community a favour after the news inspired “overwhelming” acts of generosity from islanders.

The D’Orleans family were last week disappointed to learn that all of the money had been stolen from the honesty box of their St Ouen-based stand selling produce grown by five-year-old Winter and his grandparents using the Coop’s ‘Goodness Gang’ seeds.

Mum-of-two Adelina told Express that it wasn’t the stolen money that concerned the family, but “the trust lost in what has been a really positive experience for all of us.”

She said that she was worried about telling her aspiring grower son that “the world can be such a horrible place” and decided not to share with him what had happened.

Pictured: Winter (5), who sells the cucumbers, herbs, carrots, peppers and tomatoes he grows with his grandparents, at a stall in Grantez, St Ouen.

But now the lesson learned appears to be quite different. After sharing her upset over social media and with Express, numerous members of the local community got in touch offering to reimburse the stolen proceeds. The family say that any money received will be donated to Winter’s school, Les Landes.

Many islanders have since bought vegetable from the stand – including one of Winter’s teachers – while an anonymous good Samaritan left a little package including a £2 coin, note and copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Winter to read. 

The D’Orleans even enjoyed a visit from Co-operative’s CEO Colin Macleod and his two sons. They played with Winter and his sister Amelie (pictured above), and offered them some special Goodness Gang plush toys that aren’t yet on sale in Jersey and a whole box of seeds.

Those seeds were gifted yesterday morning to the school gardening club. “It was Winter’s choice to pass some on as we've been gifted so many by so many lovely people,” Adelina told Express.

Pictured: Winter was awarded a whole box of Goodness Gang seeds, which he has decided to share with Les Landes School's gardening club.

“Winter feels very special thanks to all of this and on Friday was awarded a Super Pebble at school for all his hard work with his planting and growing. A Super Pebble is a very special house point reward, and anyone who receives one gets to have afternoon tea with the Head Teacher and talk about the school and what they enjoy.

“It's a big honour, and Winter was so proud of himself,” she added. 

Adelina says that the experience has given Winter a platform to share his love of growing with others, while also teaching others to think twice before committing an act of theft in future. “There are people and families behind these veggie stalls,” she said.