‘Avocado Cops’ to Rustle Up Thieves

They strike by day and by night in the secluded, hilly groves of northern San Diego County, stealthily carting off their pebbly, green booty by the truckload.

Only later does the unsuspecting rancher realize he has been victimized yet again by that most Californian of criminals: the avocado thief.

One rancher says the only way an urban dweller could begin to understand the same sense of shock and loss would be if his paychecks grew on trees, and one day he went out to pick a year’s worth and found the tree stripped bare.

Depending on what the fruit is fetching in the always volatile market in any given year, Southern California avocado growers, who produce 94% of the nation’s crop, lose between $2 million and $10 million a year to thieves.

Now, ranchers in northern San Diego County, where 50% of the nation’s crop is grown, have teamed up with the Sheriff’s Department for the toughest counterattack to date: an all-volunteer force of “avo cops.”

Starting Sunday, 25 reserve deputies on off-road motorbikes will cruise the county’s 26,000 acres of avocados, working in staggered shifts in a search-and-deter mission to put the fear of law enforcement into the heart of avocado thieves.

“The message we want to get across is this: If you’re a potential crook, this is not a wise thing, a safe thing, to do,” said Lt. Dave Herbert of the Fallbrook substation in the heart of avocado country.

“This is not a program,” said Acting Assistant Sheriff Myron Klippert. “This is a philosophic statement.”

Program or philosophy, the dispatching of deputies in two-man patrols, announced Thursday, is welcome news to avocado ranchers who have been picked to death for years.

“I couldn’t be more pleased if they were my own sons,” Highland Valley grower Dorothy Wood said of the avo cops.

Tom Bellamore, senior vice president of the Orange County-based California Avocado Commission, hailed the patrol, saying it has the potential to solve a chronic problem.

“As a group, avocado growers are not a particularly aggressive bunch,” Bellamore said. “But it’s infuriating to be the victim of a crime like this. You put your time, sweat and equity into a crop and then it’s gone.”

A crop that doesn’t take much day-to-day tending, avocados are particularly vulnerable to theft because they often are grown in isolated canyons, gullies and steep hillsides.

Ranchers from Ventura to San Diego have complained for years that avocado theft is one of the state’s biggest, least understood, and least punished crimes. The long harvest season that, weather willing, lasts from December to September also increases the window of opportunity for thieves.

When the price of avocados soars, so too does the thievery. Avocado theft hit an all-time high several years ago when the price exceeded $1 each. The current price for Hass avocados is between 50 and 80 cents each.

“It leaves you devastated and feeling helpless,” said Al Stehly, a grower from the Valley Center who used the paycheck-on-trees analogy. “You have all your bills waiting to be paid and suddenly you’re out of money.”

Rustlers probably are not lone criminals snatching a fruit or two from a tree for a meal, authorities say. Instead, they usually operate in organized rings, stealing tons of the fruit each year.

After years of disappearing revenue, California growers have turned to fences, private guards and anti-theft education campaigns. One Escondido grower hired a plane to fly over his grove and look for rustlers.

Other growers have patrolled orchards with shotguns and cellular phones, although law enforcement agencies try to discourage such vigilantism.

The California Avocado Commission and various farm bureaus and growers have offered rewards for tips leading to arrests. There have been 33 felony prosecutions in recent years in Southern California. The state Department of Food and Agriculture periodically raids farmers markets and roadside vendors looking for hot avocados.

But still the illicit picking continues, particularly in northern San Diego County, where last year’s avocado crop topped 61 tons and $104 million. With that much fruit within reach using a medium-height ladder, the temptation is considerable.

“We’ve found the thieves are literally everybody from neighbors to professionals,” said David Owen of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

Thievery is particularly nettlesome to small growers, Owen said. A majority of growers in San Diego County have nine or fewer acres.

“For them, a $2,000 loss can make the difference between staying in business or not,” Owen said.

The stolen fruit is thought to be fenced through small markets, roadside stands and farmers markets, authorities said.

One difficulty in catching avocado thieves has been navigating the groves. But the avo cops are fully trained, fully equipped off-road deputies experienced at chasing miscreants through difficult terrain.

“Part of what we do in off-road riding is to contact people who are trying to run away,” said Reserve Deputy Dean Taylor. “We have methods to corral them.”