A rumor on Facebook said a farmer was giving away his potatoes. By sunrise, 150 tons of his hard-earned work had disappeared.
The farmer, identified only as Piotr from Dąbrowica in Poland’s Podkarpacie region, had just finished harvesting and storing his crop when the rumor took off online. The post said he couldn’t find buyers and wanted locals to help themselves. By the time he returned to his field, the ground was nearly bare.
“I was shocked. I’m 68 years old and I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life,” Piotr told Nowiny24. “It’s like a nightmare straight out of a Bareja movie.” He said the fake story spread quickly, bringing crowds from nearby villages with bags, buckets, and even farm trailers. Some took small amounts. Others loaded up to 60 tons at a time.
In a video shared on social media (now removed), a man filming from Piotr’s field can be heard saying, “A farmer dumped out 150 tons of potatoes that he couldn’t sell. He told anyone to take them for free.” That single clip sent hundreds of people rushing to the farm, convinced they were helping themselves to leftovers.
Farmer Loses 150 Tons of Potatoes After Viral Post Claims He Was Giving Them Away
Piotr wasn’t even in town when it happened. He had spent the weekend at a family gathering, unaware that strangers were cleaning out his field. When he returned on Monday, only scraps of the harvest remained.
“One man came and said he took two bags because he went crazy when he saw the crowd,” Piotr said. “He apologized, and everything was fine. But there are also those who took dozens of tons.”
The story has since gone viral in Poland, with some social media users joking about the country’s new “potato gold rush,” while others expressed disbelief that such a massive theft could happen in broad daylight.
Piotr, who has farmed in Dąbrowica for 25 years, has not yet filed a police report. He says he still hopes some of the potatoes will be returned. “I’ve already had about 70 calls, including 15 from journalists,” he said.
For now, he’s left with an empty field and a hard lesson in how fast one false post can turn into real-world damage.