As a private investigator here in Oregon, I get inquiries from all kinds of people asking me to investigate all kinds of “things.” I once had a client who was convinced that the Illuminati he was responsible for the murder of his girlfriend. The police had already investigated the case and several people confessed and were convicted. But this client told me an elaborate and strange story and wanted me to delve into the inner workings of the Illuminati and find the real killers.

I also had a client who was convinced that a former business associate ran a large human sex trafficking ring in various states. More than anything, this client had an ax to grind and wanted to “get the evidence” against his former business partner and turn it over to the police as a way to get back at him.

Then there was the woman who felt like she was being attacked by poisonous gas. And there was the case of a lady who was so paranoid that she only spoke to me by peeking out from under a blanket that she kept over her head and face at all times when we spoke. I also had a potential client who was convinced that his local police department was involved in widespread electronic surveillance of numerous citizens.

For the record: I accepted the Illuminati, sex trafficking, poison gas and spike-to-boo case, but referred the man with wiretapping concerns to someone who had more experience in electronic surveillance countermeasures.

With all the “unusual” research requests I get, I’m rarely surprised. But when a local farmer called me and told me that he had been the victim of a crop theft, I was intrigued. Crop theft? I’ve never thought about it before, tell me more.

Oregon has an ideal climate for growing high-quality hazelnuts and accounts for more than 90% of the hazelnuts grown in the US (the locals here call them Filberts). Hazelnuts grow on more than 30,000 acres here in Oregon and the annual harvest value is around $ 90 MILLION. My client was a hazelnut farmer who went to check his field to see if it was ready to harvest and found that unknown people had already harvested all the hazelnuts from this 18-steel plot!

Years ago when I was a police officer, I once arrested a man for stealing some plastic trash bags with grass clippings (yes, the stuff that comes out of his lawnmower when he mows!) * So I knew that thieves would steal almost everything. But he had never heard of someone who had gone through the strain of harvesting and stealing a farmer’s crop.

Part of the investigation for this case was educating myself on how hazelnuts are harvested, the equipment needed to harvest a crop, how the nuts are processed, and how they are typically sold. Along the way, I learned that crop theft, especially the theft of nuts like walnuts, almonds, and pistachios, is a growing (and very costly) problem. Have you been to the store lately and seen what a small packet of walnuts cost?

Crop theft is BIG theft!

Producers are generally not insured against loss and a trailer loaded with walnuts or a surreptitiously harvested crop can be valued between $ 150,000 and more than $ 500,000. This is a great TIME steal!

In 2015 grsteal almonds, pistachios, walnuts, cashews and, in my case, hazelnuts.

Crop theft takes many forms. In the US and Canada, grain theft is gaining momentum and there have been reports of pumpkin patches being cleared overnight and ower-picked berry fields in California reported the theft of pistachios worth $ 400,000. In this case, the thieves didn’t even bother to put in the work necessary to harvest the crop. They posed as a legitimate trucking company and showed up at a processing plant to pick up “their” cargo. Thieves don’t discriminate. They will be thieves. The thieves are unlikely to be doing the manual labor of collecting these crops themselves; thieves don’t like hard work. Instead, they hire unsuspecting farm workers who think they are working for the farmer or a labor contractor.

In states like Oregon, where growing marijuana is legal, marijuana growers are always concerned about crop theft and sabotage. The concern is so great that it has spawned an entirely new security industry.

SOLUTIONS

As in all security situations, there is no single “magic bullet” that completely solves the problem. Rather, it is a series of safety steps that, when taken together, can have an impact on the problem. Effective crop theft prevention begins with increased awareness and vigilance, protective security measures, supply chain controls, and robust investigation after the fact.

Awareness and vigilance

Rural fields are “easy crops” for crop thieves. In recent years, most growers did not think about stealing crops. In some areas that haven’t been hit hard by crop thieves, that’s still the case. Many growers have the attitude that crop theft is something that happens elsewhere and for someone else, not for them. The goal of safety awareness is to encourage farmers and farm workers to think about safety in virtually every decision they make. Only when security becomes second nature will it be truly effective.

To raise awareness and develop strategies to combat walnut theft, California growers conducted a Emergency Summit Against Walnut Theft to bring together producers, processors, trucking companies, insurers and law enforcement.

Protective security measures

Most farm fields are not fully fenced and often the roads into and out of the fields are not even closed. Fencing an entire field may not be practical or economically feasible, but major entry and exit roads must be closed with sturdy metal gates. Cost-effective technology should be used whenever possible. The doors can be equipped with relatively inexpensive sensors that can alert a producer via smartphone when a door is opened or forced open during an unusual time of day or night.

Surveillance cameras can serve as a deterrent, but keep in mind that surveillance cameras alone often have minimal deterrent value. Despite the limited deterrent value of security surveillance cameras, they are invaluable in an investigation if a theft occurs.

Supply chain controls

In an effort to deter shippers posing as legitimate trucking companies, some walnut processors in California are now inspecting shipping paperwork more closely and taking a fingerprint of drivers carrying loads. Some counties are also passing ordinances that require anyone who buys or sells walnuts in bulk to have a proof of ownership certificate stating where and when they obtained them.

To combat grain theft, a series of “confetti” products have been developed that can be mixed with the grain and provide positive information about the property. A product called Cropgard It consists of small squares of newsprint with code numbers that blend into the grain. According to the company, “these coded flakes serve as a theft deterrent and a marking agent for positive identification, protecting the grain from theft.”

Research

Catching and prosecuting crop thieves has a real deterrent effect. Some California sheriff’s departments have Agricultural Crimes Units with investigators dedicated to investigating agricultural thefts. And in some cases, the producers turn to private investigators like myself, who have a background in investigations and physical security. Private investigators who can combine their investigative skills with physical security expertise can investigate theft and can also assess security issues and make practical and cost-effective security recommendations.

* In the case of the stolen grass clippings, I was working as a Portland (Oregon) police patrol officer when I saw someone stop at an unattended Goodwill donation site. The person left three large garbage bags that I assumed contained clothing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, just someone making a charitable donation. A few minutes later, a man in a truck drove to the donation site and began rummaging through the items. He ended up taking the three plastic garbage bags without looking at what was inside.

As he walked away from the scene, I stopped him. He admitted to removing the bags from the donation site. When I opened the bags to see what he had just stolen, I was surprised to see that the first person I thought was a nice guy who made a charitable donation actually “donated” his grass clippings! And then this thief shows up and steals the grass clippings that the first man removed on the donation site! Like I said, thieves will steal almost everything.

As a side note, I arrested the grass clippings thief. After all, theft is theft. He pleaded not guilty and opted for a bench trial. At trial, the defendant’s attorney argued that the grass clippings were junk and had no value, so there was no legal theft of value. I suppose their argument was that one cannot be convicted of theft when the seized object is worthless. A kind of novel defense. The judge thought about this for a moment and rejected this argument. The judge told the defendant that since he stole the two bags, the bags had value to him. It was his bad luck that he ended up stealing someone else’s trash.