Prize pumpkin pinched from Edmonton backyard

As pumpkins go, this was a beauty two feet in diameter and already over 30 pounds.

It was growing along the fence in Wendi Matthes's backyard in the Kensington neighbourhood.

The pumpkin went missing late Wednesday afternoon.

Matthes, who owns a security company, has the whole thing on video.

'But to take it like this unripe'

6 years ago

Duration 1:19

Wendi Matthes had her prize pumpkin taken from her garden which she had promised to her grandchildren.

It starts with two men walking down the back alley, eating apples.

"We could see the one guy kind of looked over, threw his apple out, grabbed my big pumpkin, ripped it off the vine and kept going down the alley," said Matthes.

Matthes said she has seen the two men walking around her neighbourhood before, though she doesn't know who they are.

Wants some public "shaming" of the men involved

Fed up with a rash of thefts in her neighbourhood, she contacted Edmonton police.

She said the officer who took her statement told her police would look at her footage to see if they recognized the men.

Matthes said she doesn't want to see the man charged with theft,though she's "not above a little public shaming."

She is recuperating from cancer and doesn't have a lot of energy to garden.

"It was a lot of work," she said. "The garden doesn't tend itself."

She was growing the pumpkin for her two grandchildren for Halloween.

The pumpkin was far from ripe and wasn't ready for eating.

"There's no sense in bringing it back," she said. "It's kind of a done deal."

Pumpkin is probably squash

Matthes suspects the pumpkin is squashed by now and was probably used just to throw at something.

She and her neighbours loved watching the pumpkin grow from a tiny blossom.

She would often see people admiring it on her fence.

"It takes a little bit of joy from me and my family and neighbours and especially from my grandchildren," she said.

"It just makes me sad. I hope that maybe he needed it more than I did."