Cops Brace for a War on Avocado Rustlers

Nearly two months after a winter freeze killed much of the avocado harvest, Ventura County growers are facing another seasonal menace: avocado rustlers.

With the height of the harvest season fast approaching, growers are on the lookout for telltale signs of the desperadoes, such as tire tracks and trees missing clumps of pear-shaped Haas avocados.

Although the thieves also favor oranges, lemons and aluminum irrigation pipes, the primary target of agricultural bandits these days is avocados, authorities said.

Ventura County, which boasts an annual avocado harvest worth $55 million, the second largest in California, also ranks high in thefts, state avocado officials said. Even by conservative estimates, local growers stand to lose up to $1.5 million this year, they said.

Avocados are particularly susceptible to theft because of their durability, said Warren Currier, executive director for the Avocado Growers Assn.

“It’s packaged well for thieves,” Currier said of the avocado. “It can endure being without refrigeration for three or four days and still get into the Los Angeles area or the Bay Area without much trouble.”

Because of the Feb. 15 and 16 frosts, which killed millions of dollars’ worth of avocados, prices have increased this year to $1.20 a pound, making even several hundred pieces of fruit a tempting lure for thieves.

“When you’ve got a lot of acres and the fruit being stolen daily, it doesn’t take too long at $1 a pound to be hurt very quickly,” said Mark Affleck, president of the California Avocado Commission, which represents about 750 growers in Ventura County.

The commission two weeks ago agreed to spend about $743,000 to mount its first statewide anti-theft program, Affleck said.

About $52,000 will go to help Ventura County sheriff’s deputies beef up their surveillance efforts around the county, said Grant Garland, regional manager of Calavo Growers of California, an agricultural sales cooperative.

But with more than 16,000 acres of avocado orchards to watch in the county, sheriff’s deputies are spread thin.

Theft is a relatively easy operation that requires only a pickup truck and several hired hands, usually day laborers looking for a quick buck, said Sgt. Ken Cozzens, who works out of Fillmore, a town surrounded by citrus and avocado groves.

Deputies have found rustlers’ cars--often with the back seats removed and outfitted with heavy-duty shock absorbers--stuffed full of avocados.

Police are particularly suspicious of cars parked on the side of the road, and markers such as stones and ribbons, which can indicate a rendezvous spot for a car or truck driver to pick up fruit after it has been stripped from trees, Cozzens said.

Ranchers are increasingly fencing their orchards and using sophisticated alarm systems that trigger lights and bells, he said.

Despite the heavy dollar loss expected this year, the rate of avocado thefts has gone down dramatically since farmers began patrolling their own fields and cooperating with the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office to prosecute thieves, Cozzens said.

Although the Sheriff’s Department does not keep statistics on agricultural thefts, Cozzens keeps an unofficial list of his own. Since the beginning of 1989, Fillmore deputies have seen only about 15 thefts, contrasted with twice that number five years ago, he said.

Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Vince O’Neill said that in 1985, he prosecuted about 20 to 25 cases per year. But last year, that figure dropped to eight to 10.

Because the thefts are done in the dead of night, ranchers may not even know their orchards are being plundered. Even when cornered, thieves are difficult to capture without the help of dogs.

The Ventura County Farm Bureau paid for the purchase and training of a guard dog to help deputies chase down rustlers, said Rex Laird, the bureau’s executive director. The German shepherd cost $8,400 and was named Bosco. The Sheriff’s Department has its own German shepherd, named Falk, who works the avocado-theft detail.

Some growers and ranch workers sometimes manage to chase down thieves themselves. Last weekend, a worker at a Somis ranch followed some rustlers and called authorities over a mobile telephone.

Sheriff’s deputies chased the thieves, who drove a green Buick over several miles of back roads until authorities finally caught up with them near Highway 118 and Price Road. The car, officers found, was overflowing with stolen avocados--2,000 pounds in all.

The sedan had been jacked up like a pickup truck and was weighted down from floorboards to windows with stolen fruit, Detective Mike Colon said. The trunk, too, was stuffed full of the fruit. Three San Fernando Valley men were arrested in connection with the theft, Colon said.

Authorities suspected the men repeatedly raided the same ranch before being caught. The men became bolder with each plunder, raiding the ranch five or six times over the past two months and leaving only footprints and broken stems behind, Colon said.

Ten years ago, the problem was worse, grower Tom Pecht said. Pecht has slept in his groves on some nights when he suspected thieves would return to continue their plunder.

On one night, Pecht saw 10 acres of his 130-acre ranch near Oxnard stripped clean by a band of thieves.

“You’d see lots of stems where avocados used to be connected to them. There were thousands of stems that were bare,” Pecht said. “That’s when we decided to fence the ranch.”

But even fences and alarms have failed to prevent some hardy thieves. Some growers are now resorting to hiring security guards to keep vigil over their orchards.

“When the price is high, and you have a good crop, you have quite an investment in the field,” Pecht said.

Growers are also receiving help from the Ventura County Farm Bureau, which offers a $750 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Calavo offers a $500 reward, and the California Avocado Commission offers a $1,000 reward.

Stolen fruit often makes its way into flea markets and restaurants where few questions are asked about where it came from, authorities said.

The state Department of Food and Agriculture operates an inspection program that seizes avocados if the sellers cannot produce certification that details the fruit’s origin.

Purloined avocados can be detected because of the way stems are cut, Ventura County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Ken Weiss said.

Many of the contraband avocados are pulled or ripped from the branches so they have long stems or no stems at all. Legitimate avocados have stems that are about a quarter-inch long.

Despite the damage suffered by individual growers who are repeatedly targeted by the rustlers, Weiss said growers believe thefts have decreased.

Growers “felt they slowed it down some . . .,” Weiss said. “But there’s always someone new thinking of a way to make a fast buck. They catch one guy and stop him and one or more guys take his place.”