Thieves swipe items from MI Farmers Market storage shed

Published 3:30 pm Monday, March 23, 2026

Sometime over the last few weeks or earlier, thieves broke into the Mercer Island Farmers Market storage shed and trashed the place — stealing copious crucial items, breaking objects and smashing its beloved gnome mascot, Milo.

Market manager Ange Garrett said she’s sad that the small nonprofit market is dealing with the theft and destruction of more than $10,000 worth of significant items. The items included music speakers and microphone stands, fire extinguishers, megaphones, communication radios, carts, fans and much more.

The place is a mess and it will take the market a long time to replace and fix things before the market’s season opens on May 31, Garrett said.

“It’s pretty discouraging. It just feels very unnecessary and impersonal that somebody would choose to vandalize our stuff. It’s hard,” said Garrett, adding that the shed is located behind Mercerdale Park near where the market takes place along Southeast 32nd Street and 77th Avenue Southeast. The market’s two staff members don’t visit the shed every day during the offseason and Garrett was recently notified of the break-in, during which thieves broke two locks to gain entrance.

Islanders have come forward in the fundraising realm and the market is a little more than halfway past its goal to replace items. Garrett notified the community about the situation on March 20 and posted information on the market site on that date.

“Donations are very important to make this happen, but also coming to the market is a way also to support us long-term and also the vendors long-term, for sure,” said Garrett, who’s excited that the community is rallying around the market during this tough time. People can make monetary donations at https://www.mifarmersmarket.org/.

The city of Mercer Island owns the shed and the parks department filed a police report, said Garrett, adding that the market shares the approximately 20-by-20-foot facility with the Mercer Island Thrift Shop. None of the thrift shop’s items were affected during the theft, according to the shop.

Garrett said that people have broken into the shed and vandalized it before and she hopes they can purchase WiFi and cameras for the area.

As for Milo the gnome, Garrett said the thieves also drew on the 16-inch mascot that they hide at different vendor booths each week during the market season.

“Kids come and they look for him. It’s kind of like a fun scavenger hunt that happens every single week at the market. If they find him, they’ll usually take a picture with him and then they’ll come back to the info booth and they get a prize,” Garrett said.

Garrett noted that people seem pretty upset about Milo’s condition.

“It’s not able to be put back together, but we can get another one,” she said. “We’re probably going to do some sort of fun contest over the next several weeks. Allowing people to kind of vote on the color of his new hat or something like that.”

Mercer Island Farmers Market husband-and-wife vendors Dane and Sarah McCormick of Burien’s McCormick Jam Co. have stepped up to donate 10% from their online sales to the market’s recovery at https://mccormickjamco.com/. As a bonus, Garrett said the McCormicks are looking into creating a special Mercer Island-only jam for this market season that attendees can purchase on site.

Dane said that he and Sarah have been discussing producing an heirloom blueberry rhubarb jam in honor of Milo.

“It’s a very supportive community. Ange is amazing. She sacrifices so much to make that show go on every week during the summer,” Dane said. “It’s like anytime something horrible happens, it’s amazing how many people step forward and offer their help. And it’s just nice that we get to be involved by doing that.”