Alleged Westport Egg Snatcher Gets Put on Blast

Michelle Costa is sick of it. She's been looking the other way for months while she says she watches a woman on surveillance video pull up to her egg stand, help herself to dozens of her farm-fresh eggs and leave without leaving a penny.

"Her and her passenger were laughing. She said 'the sign says fluffy eggs, they better be fresh!' She has been doing this at our home for months and around town (in Westport) for even longer.  We are only asking her to either stop (taking the eggs) or start paying for them," Costa wrote in a Facebook post seeking the identity of the alleged egg snatcher, photos of whom she also posted in a public Westport Facebook group. 

Not everyone agreed with Costa's methods.

Get our free mobile app

"She doesn't look like she thinks she's doing anything wrong," Ray Medeiros said of the woman in question. "I wouldn't have posted her picture. We could be judging a person and they could be sick. In this case it doesn't sound that way, but always try to give the benefit of the doubt."

Costa maintains that she can't afford to keep raising her chickens, feeding and caring for them, only to have someone stealing the eggs. She says if the stealing doesn't stop, she'll be forced to stop producing the eggs.

"The cost of feed and supplies have gone up," she said.

This isn't the first time roadside vendors using the honor system have turned to the internet to help stop pilfering.  In April of this year, Paskamansett Farms owner Bill Coutu sent Fun 107 footage of a family raiding his coolers on his Dartmouth property after it closed down for the night on Easter Sunday.  He said the farm hds been using the honor system for more than 30 years and that the looting disappointed him.

Last year, an Acushnet boy put out a plea to the public, "don't steal my wood," after he worked hard to split firewood and put it out for sale using the honor system.  The boy was selling the wood to save for a dirtbike, but thieves kept wiping him out, taking advantage of his faith in the public.