SANBORN, N.Y. — For a lot of people, visiting the Sunflowers of Sanborn has become a must-do activity at the end of summer.
But the owner says that on Saturday night, several community members in some ways betrayed their trust.
When the property is open, visitors can take pictures, sift for seeds and even pick and take home their own sunflowers for just a dollar.
But on Saturday, mother nature had different plans.
"We had so much rain here that we just had to close the fields down. It wasn't safe for people to walk, let alone park," said owner Louise Brachmann.
Despite posting the closure on social media and even locking the gates, Brachmann says dozens of people jumped their fence, cut and stole flowers and even broke the chain off their exit.
Brachmann says the trespassers left them with a mess to clean up. The worst part, she says, is feeling disrespected after putting so much work into the fields.
"We have volunteers that come here to make this a great place, and it's very disheartening to see when people come out of their way to destroy what we have done," Brachmann said.
On Sunday morning, the owners shared their concerns on the Sunflowers of Sanborn Facebook page in hopes of sending a message to those who may have been involved.
"It's the principal of the whole thing. We do this for the community and it really saddens me that people would be this disrespectful," Brachmann said.
Already thousands of people have taken to the owners' defense on social media.
Brachmann said they know the majority of their customers respect the fields and the work that goes into them but they are looking into new security measures to keep the grounds from being tampered with in the future.
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