LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — Workers at a Pasco County farm are asking the public for help in finding chickens they say were stolen from their coop last week.

What You Need To Know

  • Workers at Angeline Farm say six hens were stolen in the middle of the night last week

  • Farm staff say they got a call from café staff on-site saying chickens were running outside of their coop
  • Angeline Farm is the first agrihood in the Tampa Bay area, acting as an agriculture amenity to the community with its vegetables and flowers
  • Staff on the farm are asking the public for their help in bringing the hens home

Six hens were stolen in the middle of the night from Angeline Farm, and now farm staff members say they are hoping the hens return home. The coop holds a special place in the local community.

“You can see we have a summer squash here. These are growing super fast now, so we’re really harvesting these every day,” said lead farm educator Bobby Dileo.

Along a row of greens on Angeline Farm, Dileo plucks some of the fresh vegetables.

“This is a full-time job,” Dileo said. “We’re out here everyday weeding, planting, taking care of the chickens and also doing community events.”

It’s a full-time job that requires plenty of patience and care. But what happened at the farm's chicken coop was something completely unexpected.

“You can see right where they cut it,” said Dileo of the coop. “They cut it on three separate sides so it was almost like a door.”

Dileo said the hens were just days away from laying their first eggs.

“I got a call from one of the cafe staff members on-site saying the chickens were running loose out of the coop,” he said. “So I came up here and there were some out of the coop, but then we were also missing six hens.”

Angeline Farm is the first agrihood in the Tampa Bay area. Acting as an agriculture amenity to the community with its vegetables and flowers. Its produce stays local and is primarily used at the on-site cafe, including the eggs.

“It’s never going to be a major egg producer,” said Dileo. “It’s really more of just an educational aspect for the community. But it’s a really big part of the community. We have kids that come up here every day — they ride their bikes up here. We have retired people come up and walk their dogs. Everybody loves the chicken coup.”

As far as motive for the crime, Dileo said rising egg prices could have played a part.

“I know it’s hard for a lot of people to afford groceries these days, but I’m not really sure why someone would’ve come in and stolen just six chickens,” he said.