This story has been updated from a previous version to indicate the suspect has been arrested.
Howell — The farm economy here depends on the honor system. Everywhere you go in the summer and fall, you’ll see vegetable stands with a cashbox attached.
Take what you want, add up the cost, and leave your cash in the box.
But some idiot in a black Jeep Cherokee has put it all at risk.
Livingston County social media was buzzing last week after a post from Bentley Lake Farms, a Howell-area business that operates many of the honor-system vegetable stands in the county. Their stand at the Mugg & Bopps gas station in Howell had been robbed, and they posted photos of the alleged guilty party.
The cashbox is affixed to the stand, but he supposedly used a wire hanger to fish out some of the bills inside.
The farm owners were asking Livingston County’s internet sleuths to do their thing. FIND THIS MAN. “Not just for us farm stand owners but also people in general,” they posted. “Someone like this is capable of anything, and I would encourage everyone to keep an eye out.”
According to Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy, they caught their man on Sunday. They arrested Kenneth Allen Green, 62, a convicted sex offender and felon who has multiple convictions dating back to the 1990s, and charged him with the vegetable-stand theft. Murphy said that Green is also awaiting similar charges in Ingham County.
“He’s a frequent flyer,” Murphy said. He was on probation when deputies arrested him on Sunday. Green is currently lodged in the Livingston County Jail.
It’s also interesting to note that the Facebook mob says the Cherokee Bandit has also been pulling off other cashbox jobs in Livingston County, including at a firewood stand in Howell. “Pulled up to my wood stand and pried open my money box and tried to steal the money out of it at the end of my driveway. Luckily, it was empty,” the owner wrote.
Another post said the man tried to steal the cash from a mum sale put on by the Howell Wrestling Club.
A woman I spoke to at Bentley Lake Farms said the cashbox theft in Howell has shaken them a bit. “We have stands all over the county,” she said. “It’s too bad you can’t trust everyone.”
She said that 99.9% of people are honest to a fault. They’ve had people get home and realize they took five melons instead of four and come back the next day to pay for it.
One bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch, though, and I’m hoping that doesn’t happen here. I’m thankful they have a suspect in custody, and I’m hoping that Bentley Lake Farms and the other places don’t change the way they do business.
As Livingston County increasingly becomes just another part of Metro Detroit, one of the things that’s helped us hold on to our small-town roots is the honor system. You can come here any time and buy some corn or pumpkins, and the farmer will trust you to just leave your cash in the box.
Honor-system vegetable stands and firewood places are commonplace in rural Michigan, but you don’t see them much near the big cities.
Let’s hope that doesn’t change. That idiot got a few bucks from a vegetable stand. Let’s hope he doesn’t steal our community’s soul, too.
Buddy Moorehouse teaches documentary filmmaking at Hillsdale College.
