The Great Tomato Heist of 2025

It always floors our friends when we tell them that we plant our tomatoes in November, soon after we arrive in Palm Springs. We each choose different types. I've been going for cherry tomatoes the last couple of years. My favorites are called "Rapunzels", that grow on cascading vines resembling Rapunzel's long hair from a favorite fairy tale.

Rapunzels

Doug chose one that promised bigger ones. In fact, it came with promising-looking baby tomatoes and there were blossoms that showed up, but never came to fruition.

One by one, we worked our way through the first four baseball sized tomatoes, only picking them when they fell off in our hand when touched. They lived up to that wonderful homegrown taste and made mouthwatering tomato sandwiches like my father-in-law used to make us from his Beefsteak tomatoes he was so proud of.

That last one though, didn't want to come off. Since Doug's daughter, Gracie was coming to visit, he decided that he would save it for her to ceremoniously pick it for a meal we'd have together.

The day after she arrived would be the day. She had coffee on the patio and took a photo of it in anticipation.

Later in the day, I watered the tomato planter with the hose, and then went for a walk, and when I came back, I noticed the ripe red tomato was gone!

"Gracie," I called, "I see you've picked the tomato!"

"What?? No! I haven't!" she cried.

We both looked around for it on the ground and under the table, thinking that it could have just fallen off, but there was no sign.

Disappointed, I posted a notice on the FaceBook page for our mobile home park, partly tongue in cheek.

"Ahem! I'd like to send out an APB for our missing tomato, which we have lovingly cared for, and were about to add to a salad tonight. Last seen today, at about 12:30 pm, still on its vine." (crying face)

The comments that were posted in response were:

"If you smell bacon, that might be a way to track it down. (laughing emoji) Seriously tho, how rude for someone to just help themselves!"

And, "Coulda been a squirrel or raccoon or a raven",

To which I replied, "There would have been a mess left behind.

this was definitely a clean pick." (red tomato emoji)

Someone else said, "That's awful Pat. Got to get cameras!"

Another, "Snidely Whiplash, evil doer of bad deeds!"

And providing me with my title, Mary said, "'The Great Tomato Heist', the stuff movies are made of! Sorry it happened to you!"

A neighbor said, "I'll kill um!" He had been watching it grow too.

As we wandered around our little village, our tomato had become a big topic of conversation. They all, surprisingly, wanted to know if there had been any news about our poor tomato. Someone thought that probably a person wandering through the park. maybe homeless, just picked it and ate it.

Another planned to donate her first ripe tomato to us to make up for "our loss".

A couple of days later though, I arrived home to find our lovely tomato had returned home. It was nestled in the dirt along the rim of the pot. I picked it up and brought it inside.

"Look! Our little tomato has come back!"

"You're kidding me!" said Gracie.

"Someone from our park must have felt really guilty, reading all of your posts!" commented Doug.

"I guess we'll forgive them", I said.

I had to report to our friends on FaceBook that the saga was over. I said:

"It's a miracle! Looks like our lovely tomato has returned! She has a little split in her side, but I bet she'll be yummy!" (tomato and smiley emoji)

Later we compared the tomato in my hand to the one in our photo, we discovered that ours had a split in her side too, so we believe that it is truly ours.

That night, our tomato all sliced up and arranged on one of my plates, I posted: "Look at that! Such a bounty! It really helped out our chicken sandwiches. Delicious! Thanks to whoever returned it." (tomato and heart emoji)

Folks have asked if we will plant another tomato, and I responded that we would. The nice thing about living in such a warm climate in January, is that tomatoes are always for sale in the nurseries.

So, we Will rebuild!! (smiley face, winking)