Countywide : Weekend Thefts of Avocados Reported

Avocado thieves struck three times during the weekend at Ventura County orchards, sheriff’s officials said Monday.

The first theft was reported late Friday at the Teague McKevett Ranch east of Santa Paula, said Sgt. Chris Godfrey of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Four or five thieves entered the orchard through the Santa Paula Creek bed, stuffed about 200 pounds of the fruit into bags and fled on foot, Godfrey said.

On Saturday, about 600 pounds of avocados were stolen from the Broome Ranch near Point Mugu, said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Merwyn Dowd, who heads the county’s avocado task force.

Deputies arrested Luis Juarez, 32, and Martin Ortega, 19, both of Oxnard, on suspicion of grand theft. Officers later found a load of avocados in a van that had been abandoned near Camarillo State Hospital, Dowd said.

Late Sunday, thieves conducted another midnight raid on the Teague McKevett Ranch, stealing an undetermined amount of avocados. Sheriff’s officials believe that the thieves again entered through the creek bed.

Godfrey said the same thieves may be responsible for both thefts, as well as for earlier thefts this year.

Avocados generate more thefts than any other fruit because of the high prices thieves can get for the Hass variety of avocado. Growers are getting about $1.45 a pound for Hass avocados, according to the California Avocado Commission.

The rash of thefts has activated the county’s avocado task force, a group made up of sheriff’s deputies, avocado growers and shippers, and the district attorney’s office, Dowd said. The task force has been watching orchards where avocados are about to be harvested.

Most of the thefts are being reported in the Santa Clara Valley and in the Santa Rosa Valley near Camarillo, Dowd said. Thieves have hit farms around the county on 16 other occasions, usually on nocturnal raids.