LIHUE — Two weeks had gone by since Darrel Jarmusch visited the Shambala organic permaculture farm in Kapaa, a farm in which he had invested his life savings. When he drove his pickup through the gated subdivision last week, he
LIHUE — Two weeks had gone by since Darrel Jarmusch visited the Shambala organic permaculture farm in Kapaa, a farm in which he had invested his life savings.
When he drove his pickup through the gated subdivision last week, he noticed something strange.
“My heart fell out of my chest. I can’t believe what I am not seeing here. My tractor was gone,” he remembers thinking when he pulled up to one of the five sheds on his two-acre property, where he and his wife grow papayas and bananas.
Jarmusch had arrived Wednesday afternoon to discover his farm had been trashed and burglarized. Whoever had come by had stolen nearly $50,000 worth of farm equipment, Jarmusch said.
He and his wife of 28 years had not been to the farm since mid-October, he said. He had thrown out his back and couldn’t make the drive on the long, bumpy road.
Normally, Jarmusch said, he would park his tractor near one of his sheds and throw a tarp over it. But on Wednesday, he found the tarp was shredded and his Yanmar Cub Cadet tractor, which was worth about $15,000 alone and weighed as much as a small car, was gone.
“It had a flat tire,” he said. “I can’t imagine they could have driven it. I’m guessing they put it on a trailer.”
When Jarmusch said he explored the rest of his property, he discovered muddy tracks that led to the shed, which housed his kitchen, and into the gated subdivision. His kitchen was in shambles and the nice cabinets he had installed were ripped out and either strewn across the floor or missing, he said.
His feelings shifted dramatically, he said.
“At first, it was just shock and sadness,” he said. “Then I got really angry. Now I feel determination.”
Among other things that were stolen were solar panels, which Jarmusch and his wife used to generate electricity when they camped out overnight at Shambala Farms, he said.
Jarmusch’s wife, a web developer, would spend some days with her husband while he tended to the farm using the generator and the electricity from the solar panels, he said.
Now, because of the missing items, she can’t. She said she doesn’t even want to go to farm because she feels too much sadness there.
Jarmusch, who’s been a farmer on Kauai for nearly 20 years, said he is working with Kauai Police Department compiling a list of all the items that were stolen.
Now, he’s asking the public for help to recover his stolen farm equipment.
“Today, we found out we had been robbed, our yellow farm tractor was stolen, along with implements, plow, tiller, mower shredder, hay rake, weed whackers, solar panels and all the associated equipment, and copper wires, nearly all our tools, the generator we use to pump water to irrigate our crops, a white two-person kayak and many other things,” Jarmusch said in a Facebook post that has been shared across the island. “All told probably $50,000 worth of farm equipment. We have poured our life savings into our farm, and now we have lost nearly everything that could be carried away. Please help us find the missing items, especially the tractor.”
Jarmusch said he won’t stop until he recovers his missing items.
“I am determined to keep going,” he said. “How can you do this to a farmer? We’re organic farmers. We don’t even use organic pesticides. I think there is a special place in hell for people who would steal from a farmer.”
