Farm apologises to Black family whom they called the police over six ‘stolen’ apples
Apple picking in an orchard
(Picture: Getty Images)A Massachusetts-based tourist farm has apologised to a Black family after accusing them of stealing six apples from the orchard.
Rev. Manikka Bowman and her husband Jeff Myers spent more than $100 for themselves and their two children, a 7-year old and 18-month old child, to visit Connors Farm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this past weekend.
They went to celebrate Labor Day as a family unit, pick fruit and partake in other activities at the orchard.
In a blog post, Bowman and Meyers detailed how they planned to have a “last fun summer adventure” before the children went back to school and they “instantly loved it.”
But towards the end of their visit, things began to take “a turn for the worse.”
In the “apple-picking excitement,” the children got their hands on a “few more apples than fit in the bag.”
“I assumed we’d have a chance to pay for the extras in our final check-out. With families being primary customers, surely, we couldn’t be the first to have excitedly over-picked by a few apples—six in our case,” the blog post read.
Upon reaching the final check-out, they headed to the farm shop only to be halted by a security guard who confronted them for “having too many apples that were not in the designated apple bag.”
Outraged by accusations, the couple asked for the owner’s information. But instead of receiving that information, the police were called to the scene.
Once the family returned home, they realised that they ended up being overcharged for fruit not included in their apple bag.
“What would those six extra apples have cost? A total of about $4. We are left wondering, was it ever about the apples?” the post concluded.
In a report from the Associated Press, the farm eventually responded to the accusations from the family with a since-deleted Facebook post, in which it apologised to the family, mentioning it will ensure staff members will be subject to “diversity, equity and inclusion training.”
Hopefully, as more people detail their discrimination experiences, things like this can come to an end in America.
