A Polish farmer says he lost his entire harvest overnight after a viral social media post falsely claimed he was giving away free potatoes.
According to Brussels Signal, the mix-up happened in the southern Polish village of Dąbrowica, where a rumor spread online that a farmer was offering his potatoes to anyone who wanted them. By the next morning, around 150 tonnes of crops, worth roughly €15,000 ($16,200), had vanished.
Distillery owner Piotr Gryta told Polsat News that he had purchased the potatoes only the day before and left them temporarily in his field. When he returned, he found locals loading their cars, tractors, and trucks with the crop. “If someone took a sack — fine, maybe they needed it. But tractors? They’d better come talk to me,” he said. “If this isn’t resolved voluntarily, the prosecutor will have to step in.”
Viral “free potato” rumor costs farmer thousands
Local official Tadeusz Łapka said he also received a call claiming the potatoes were free, and when he arrived, he witnessed “cars, tractors and people filling their bags.” Some residents reportedly returned what they had taken once they learned the rumor was fake.
The story has since gone viral across Polish and international social media, with users comparing it to a “real-life heist.”
Poland’s agriculture minister Stefan Krajewski later acknowledged the incident amid wider concerns about oversupply and low crop prices. He said his ministry had asked consumer protection authorities to investigate potential price-fixing in the agricultural market.
For now, Gryta says he hopes those who took his potatoes will return them before legal action is taken.
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