Tears of joy as stolen prize onion returns
A MYSTERY vegetable grabber has returned a gardener’s pride and joy – his giant onion.
Phil McManamon, 51, was growing the specimen for the village’s giant vegetable contest when it went missing. He was hoping it would reach 4lbs by the time of the weigh-in at the start of September.
He posted pictures on Facebook, filed a crime report and spread the word through the village in an effort to find it. His wife, Linda, then answered the door and a man handed the onion over. Mr McManamon said: “He said he found it outside and took it for safety. But then someone saw it in his van and told him ‘You’d better take that back, half the village is looking for that’.”
Mr McManamon had put the onion on the roof of a phone box across the road from his home in Hakin, Pembrokeshire, to get more sunshine. He said: “I’m just glad it is back. I’m glad he saw the light in the end.”
Onions, it is said, are among the trickiest vegetables to grow for exhibition. So little wonder that when one gardener had his prize effort stolen he was quick to muster an online posse to track down the perpetrators. Word spread rapidly among villagers in Hakin, on the Pembrokeshire coast, and soon enough Phil McManamon was reunited with his beloved bulb. In order to secure a sunny spot for his onion, Mr McManamon had placed it on top of a telephone box – a rare specimen indeed, given the rate that telephone boxes have been removed in recent years. Even as such much-loved totems disappear, however, it is comforting to know that the love of a prize vegetable endures – and that one can still count on one’s neighbours. It is enough to bring a tear to the eye.