Gilroy
– Farmer Mike Chuck is the latest victim in an onslaught of
agricultural thefts in South County.
Last week, someone stole his tractor, worth $35,000, from a
field east of Gilroy.
Interestingly enough, in early summer, Chuck also was one of the
first recent theft victims.
Gilroy – Farmer Mike Chuck is the latest victim in an onslaught of agricultural thefts in South County.
Last week, someone stole his tractor, worth $35,000, from a field east of Gilroy.
Interestingly enough, in early summer, Chuck also was one of the first recent theft victims. One of the vegetable grower’s booster pumps – used to pump well water through sprinklers – worth $12,000 disappeared from a different East Gilroy field.
“There’s a monetary loss to us to replace them,” Chuck said, not to mention residual losses. “I haven’t felt the full impact of it at this time, in terms of insurance rates and premiums and such … but there’s the inconvenience, the ongoing increase in cost for the fact of securing the property as well as we can.”
The rash of agricultural thefts in South County is hitting the pocketbooks of other farmers, too, and leaves them wondering what they and law enforcement can do to protect valuable equipment, like irrigation pipes, tractors, forklifts and tools.
Three months ago, a booster pump was stolen from B&T Farms. The pump, in good condition but worth $10,000 maximum, must be replaced with a new one worth $25,000, Supervisor Paul Mirassou said.
On Sept. 3, someone stole a John Deere tractor valued at $15,000 from Uesugi Farms.
Louie Bonino, owner of LJB Farms, heard of that theft and worried for his own equipment. When his $5,000 forklift was taken shortly afterward and a $30,000 tractor taken a month later, he went from worried to upset.
“I reported it to the Sheriff’s office and never heard another word from them,” Bonino said. “It seems we’re not having much representation in South County.”
Deputy Dino Diaz, with the Sheriff’s Rural Crime Unit, was not available for comment as of press time. According to the county Farm Bureau, attempts to have Diaz meet with farmers went unanswered until this week. A meeting is now scheduled for Nov. 8.
“The reason for the meeting is to come up with solutions on how farmers and law enforcement can work together,” said deputy Terrance Helm, Sheriff’s spokesman. “Patrols are always stepped up (when thefts rise). When a crime occurs, we’re always looking for situations that fit the crimes.”
He provided the example of recent nursery thefts in which Sheriff’s deputies recovered many of the stolen plants.
Helm said he was not familiar with the recent farm equipment thefts, but suggested they might be from secluded properties that are difficult to patrol.
Chuck said his equipment was in a field east of Gilroy; the B&T pump was just east of the outlets; Bonino’s equipment was taken from near U.S. 101 and Fitzgerald Avenue; Uesugi Farms’ tractor was parked off busy Monterey Highway; and a 4-wheel-drive cart and tools were taken from Garden Accents, also near U.S.101 north of Gilroy.
“Even if we are patrolling, unless somebody’s calling me and saying, ‘Hey, my tractor got stolen five minutes ago, …’ it would be kind of hard to find out because the owner doesn’t know it’s stolen until the next day,” Helm said.
Some of the other farmers interviewed echoed Bonino’s thoughts, as well as farmers’ comments made to The Dispatch this spring that Diaz has largely been under the radar since taking over the Rural Crime Unit of the department in June 2003. Farmers have credited the unit with deterring what used to be rampant agricultural crimes before its implementation in 1992. But they remember having a close relationship with Diaz’s predecessor, not Diaz himself.
“He’s new, so I don’t have much contact with him,” said Jeannie Lopez, office manager for Uesugi. “The other ag officers that we had before him were much more visible and came around.”
Mirassou recalled thinking the previous ag deputy was, well, a pain, because he did his job so well.
“Now we want him back,” he said. “He was visible, we used to see him on everyone’s ranch, checking out people all the time.”
In a search for solutions, farmers say what little they can do – besides asking for South County residents to remain vigilant – will mean more money out of their pockets or time away from their crops. But that might be better than the “big cost” and “big inconvenience” of suffering more thefts, Mirassou said.
“Farming’s not real good right now anyway,” he said. “We have to be more aware of it and instead of having our tractors out on the field ready to go, we have to bring it back to near the house where there’s lights, a shed.”
Equipment thefts always seem to go in rashes, said Lopez of Uesugi Farms, which is missing one of the tractors.
“In this line of business, you have things missing all the time – small things,” she said. “Anything that’s not locked down.”
But with agricultural fields spread out over acres of land, she said, “you can’t keep things in a locked yard.” Other farmers agreed, saying it would be a huge operational expense.
Some farmers put identification numbers on their tractors, but nine times out of ten, Lopez said, a stolen tractor is never seen again.
Most farmers have stopped leaving keys in vehicles’ ignitions, but that is only a partial solution. One tractor key will fit all tractors, so even those without keys have gone missing. Now, farmers have started pulling out fuses or taking tires off vehicles at night.
“We’re just looking into more secure measures,” Chuck said.
At Garden Accents, north of Gilroy, those measures include better and more lighting, a private security guard and, possibly, guard dogs. A few weeks ago, an all-terrain vehicle and tools worth $12,000 were stolen, and thieves visited again a week later, taking cash from a vending machine kept behind locked gates.
“We’re concerned, as everybody is,” said Erin Gil, production manager. “It’s just part of living in the 21st century, I guess.”
