It happened on October 18, when one Maryland Heights police officer was on his midnight watch. Suddenly the calls started coming in at around 1:40 AM, with people in the neighborhood saying their pumpkins had gone missing from their Halloween display.

As reported by TIME, in various subdivisions of suburban St. Louis, people had found their stoop displays were missing something; in fact, it turned out to be 49 items missing. To be exact, there were 48 pumpkins and one gourd missing from the area’s seasonal decorations.

Suspicious SUV found stuffed with pumpkins

Sgt. Jamie White was on duty at the time another resident called to describe a compact SUV driving around the neighborhood, which coincided with the disappearance of the first pumpkin. Heading off to the Brookside subdivision, White managed to track down a Subaru Forester which matched the description given by the caller.

As reported by the St Louis Post-Dispatch, White soon found he had nabbed his suspects when he discovered 48 pumpkins and one gourd stuffed into the vehicle, along with three teenage boys.

Maryland Heights police Capt. Scott Will described the appearance of the SUV, saying he had no idea how they all fit into the vehicle and that it was “top-to-bottom orange.” Will went on to say it was pretty easy to put the pieces together.

Police arrested the teens and luckily the pumpkins were all still in one piece.

Police make a pumpkin line up

Maryland Heights police lined up all the stolen pumpkins (and the gourd) against a white wall at their headquarters and posted a photo to social media. Officer Erica Stough said in the post that this was a “pumpkin lineup,” asking neighbors to contact her if they were missing any of the items on display.

Will went on to explain later that the pumpkin identifying process took pretty much a whole day. She said plenty of people turned up to identify their stolen pumpkins, adding that many people claimed they could actually recognize their property on sight. She went on to say they basically trusted everyone to be honest, adding that “a pumpkin is basically a pumpkin.” By Tuesday, police only had 13 left unclaimed, along with the lonely gourd.

As for the teenagers, two were 18 years of age and won't be enjoying Halloween after being booked on charges of misdemeanor stealing, while the third was a 16-year-old who is heading to juvenile court. Reportedly one of the pumpkin thieves told police that he couldn’t explain why they did it, with Will adding the teens had made a bad decision. He also added that it was pretty difficult to conceal that many stolen items in a compact SUV.
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