'This is the most detrimental time of the season for this to happen': Farmer says crops suspiciously destroyed by pesticides
JONES, Okla. (KFOR) - Two local farmers are heartbroken and downright angry after they believe someone sabotaged their crops by spraying them with chemicals during harvest season.
"We've got several hundred cucumbers, peppers, sweet, hot you name it, we've got it in the ground. And it's almost 90-100 destination," said Michael Ruzycki.
"It's just really hard to see that somebody could have so much hate in their heart towards us," said Emily Ruzycki.
Tuesday morning, the Ruzycki's found their vegetables destroyed overnight.
"My apple tree is curled up with squash and zucchini, which once stood three feet tall. I mean, this was at one point standing like a tree. And now it's completely laid over and just complete devastation," Michael Ruzycki told News 4.
"These were pretty well loaded, they have quite a few squash on them," he said as he stood over dozens of squash plants.
"This was once standing straight up, these have just laid over and curled," he told News 4 as he knelt beside his tomato plants.
At first, Michael Ruzycki thought the problem was in the soil, but after inspecting his entire farm he realized the problem was much more devious.
"It was a chemical attack more than any other possibility," said Michael Ruzycki.
"It was like, what do we do?" Emily Ruzycki said tearfully.
The couple said this comes at the worst time, because it's harvest season.
"This is the most detrimental time of the season for this to happen," said Michael Ruzycki.
The couple called the police, who was investigating when News 4 arrived. However, the Ruzycki's have their own suspicions.
"This was uncalled for. And I just hope you know that there are a lot of people that were counting on this food that aren't going to get it now," said Michal Ruzycki to the suspect he hopes is watching.
Michael said customers put a lot of money into this community supported agriculture and market.
"Where customers buy into the season. They receive a weekly share, bounty of our produce that we harvest each week," Ruzycki explained. "We also have a on farm market on Sundays."
The Ruzycki's don't have insurance. Now they will discuss options with their customers/investors.
However, while News 4 was on scene, it didn't take long until a family brought in little reinforcements to help with the salvaging. The first thing the mother said after all her kids got out of the car was, "how can we help?"
"I think we're just going to have to rebuild," said Emily Ruzycki. "You can scare me a little bit, but you can't scare me away from doing what we love."