Farm calls cops on black couple with child, 7, ‘for stealing apples’

A tourist farm called police to report a black couple visiting with their seven-year-old child, accusing them of stealing six apples.

The couple, Manikka Bowman and Jeff Myers, blogged about the incident at Connors Farm in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Bowman and Myers, who are from Cambridge, Massachusetts, said they spent more than $100 on admission, food, drinks and apple picking. However, farm staff confronted them about six apples that they said they put in their child’s stroller because they did not fit in the pre-paid apple picking bag.

The couple said they placed the half-dozen apples in the stroller and intended to pay for them at the farm’s storm.

But Bowman, who serves as the city’s school committee vice chair, said that a security guard was summoned who searched her purse. The farm’s manager called cops when the couple asked for the owner of the property, according to Bowman.

The arriving officer accused the couple of ‘playing the race card’, they claim.

‘By jumping straight to an assumption of theft, Connors Farm created a scene, harassing us and causing our seven-year-old to burst into tears, anguish that lasted well into the evening,’ the couple wrote.

‘We are left wondering, was it ever about the apples?’

Who the owners and staffers were as well as their race was not immediately known.

After the blog post was published, the farm in a Facebook post apologized to the family and said it would make sure staffers ‘undergo diversity, equity and inclusion training’.

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