DRAPER, Utah — In just a matter of minutes, those who help run Kuwahara’s Pumpkin Patch lost thousands of hours of work — work that they're going to have to make up in just a month and a half.
"It was like, that's a big part of my life that just got taken away. It sucks,” said Derek Henderson.
Henderson is a DJ and audio engineer for the Kuwahara Pumpkin Patch's Thriller Park. Last week, his laptop was stolen right from his car.
"It has like probably 20,000 hours of my personal stuff and probably 2,000 hours for Alex [Kuwahara],” said Henderson.
Henderson not only DJs at Thriller Park, but he also designs the ambient sounds that play throughout the park and the audio for the park's animatronics.
All of those files were on his laptop.
"I was here, I was programming an animatronic in this village right here and I literally just put it back in my truck. I thought I locked it, but I didn't,” said Henderson.
Alex Kuwahara, the owner of Kuwahara’s Pumpkin Patch, saw the people who stole Henderson’s laptop right before the theft.
"The crazy thing is, I actually talked to her,” said Kuwahara.
Kuwahara said the woman came into the park right before heading to the parking lot.
"When I was talking to her, I was just thinking, 'This feels really weird, it feels like you know when somebody's trying to pull a fast one on you,'” said Kuwahara.
And then two hours later, Henderson and Kuwahara realized the laptop and all of its files for Thriller Park was gone.
"It's a blow because we just have to redo stuff, and it's us doing it and we could be doing other stuff,” said Kuwahara.
With 50,000 people expected to attend over the 45 days Thriller Park is open, employees now have to work close to 20-hour days to try to replace what was taken.
"Try to put in an extra five hours a day for the next month and a half, and that extra time is gone, and we're already strapped,” said Kuwahara.
The Draper City Police Department is actively investigating the theft. They ask anyone who has information about the person who stole the laptop to contact them immediately.
