A young girl who had been running a flower stall with the help of her parents was deflated to find that some of the flowers she was selling had 'disappeared.'

Three year-old Elsie Richards, who alongside her parents Tom and Georgina, had set up a flower stall at the end of her driveway in Cripplesease, Penzance, was disappointed to find yesterday that the numbers of flowers left on her stall did not match the amount of money left in her honesty box.

Having started the stall as a family project during lockdown, Elsie had been helping her mum and dad planting seeds, watering the plants and taking the flowers up to her stall at the top of the family's drive.

Unfortunately, yesterday evening, as Elsie was checking her stall and the honesty box in which people pay for the flowers, she noticed that, while almost half of her flowers were gone, only 90p had been given.

Falmouth Packet: Elsie's Home-Grows are run by Elsie along with her parents Tom and Georgina.Elsie's Home-Grows are run by Elsie along with her parents Tom and Georgina.

In total, around £18 worth of Elsie's flowers had disappeared without being paid for, leaving the young girl confused and quite upset.

Elsie's dad, Tom, told The Packet: "It was the end of the day, and we went up to collect and bring back down all the leftover stuff and she saw that it was about half empty, and she got really excited.

"She ran up to the jar and she was very confused as there was only a couple of 20ps and a 50p in there pot."

Georgina added: "When this happened we were a bit shocked really, Elsie was a bit upset.

"Obviously a lot of the drive for it is through both of us, but she helps us do everything.

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Falmouth Packet: Elsie was confused and upset by the incident.Elsie was confused and upset by the incident.

"She puts her fingers in the soil and makes the holes to put the seeds in, then she comes out everyday to help us water, and then when they're grown, she's got a little wheelbarrow, and we put some in there and take it all the way up the drive.

"She just really loves it when she comes up and sees them gone, then goes to the honesty box and sees the money and she puts it in her little jar and saves it up over the course of the season.

"She calls it her treasure, like pirate treasure.

"She was just really deflated and really upset."

Understandably upset about the incident, Tom and Georgina left a post on Facebook, detailing what had happened, and were soon inundated with messages of support and offers of money to compensate Elsie.

Georgina continued: "The community response, we couldn't believe it, we only put a little post on to say 'remember, it is a three year old doing it,' obviously it's run by us but all the money is for her little jar.

"We were surprised at how many people mentioned money, we didn't put the post up for that."

Falmouth Packet: Elsie with dad Tom.Elsie with dad Tom.

Tom said: "We've had people saying 'we want to donate some money for it,' but it's not a business, we're not trying to make money."

Georgina added: "So we've said if they want to donate then seeds cost money, and if you've got any old pots or stuff like that, which has been quite nice.

"We didn't expect anything from this, but I can't believe how much its blown up overnight."

Tom said: The best thing we're going to take from it is we're not going to focus with Elsie on the fact they got taken, but the fact that there are so many good people out there that have offered to do the nice things for her and help out."

Elsie's stall is located opposite the minestack in Cripplesease, TR208NF

If you would like to keep up to date with Elsie's Home-Grows, you can follow the Facebook page at Elsies Home-Grows