PORTALES, N.M. — Thieves have picked clean a pumpkin patch that had been cultivated by New Mexico preschoolers.

Eastern New Mexico University’s Child Development Center said the Portales school’s pumpkin patch was raided sometime over the weekend after students had worked for months growing the pumpkins.

School officials found the pumpkins missing and vines destroyed Monday morning.

Lara Vaughan, the school’s master teacher, says the four full pumpkins were just about to turn orange. She says students had studied them, weeded the area and watered them since they were sprouts.

No arrests have been made.