An Aitutaki farmer returned to over $600 of damage to his watermelon plantation on Tuesday last week.

Tukua Charlie described the scene as if someone had played “fruit ninja” with his watermelon and rock melon.

The watermelon and rock melon on his plantation had been sliced in half.

“We only had one more week to go before the watermelon was ready but unfortunately it didn’t happen,” Charlie said.

He said on the morning of the incident he checked on the fruit and everything was fine but after work at 4pm when he checked again someone had destroyed the melons.  

“We have not spoken to the police about the incident, however we did put in on Facebook to let the community know what happened in order to help others and hope this does not happen to anyone else,” he said.

“The feedback from Facebook and the community on the island was helpful and comforting to hear,” Charlie said.

He said people were concerned about how serious this was and that “it has affected us all”.