A suspected avocado thief was charged with grand theft of fruit among other charges after he was caught with stolen avocados from a ranch in Goleta.
It happened May 8 near a ranch in the 6900 block of Cathedral Oaks Road.
According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, an officer found the suspect, 44-year-old Tim Rounds of Lompoc, walking near his car which was stopped on the shoulder of the road.
Rounds was wearing a headlamp on his forehead and holding a bucket of avocados, officials said.
During a search of the car, deputies discovered the trunk was full of avocados. The ranch's owner was contacted and informed authorities Rounds didn't have permission to harvest their avocados.
Additionally, authorities recovered a methamphetamine pipe and a bag of methamphetamine.
Rounds was arrested for grand theft of fruit (a felony), possession of a controlled substance (a misdemeanor), and possession of drug paraphernalia (a misdemeanor.)
He was booked at the Main Jail and released without bail.
The stolen avocados have since been returned to the ranch owner.
Rubberbabybuggybum on June 5th, 2022 at 16:58 UTC »
It was a drive by fruiting!!
MenyMoonz on June 5th, 2022 at 16:41 UTC »
There is actually a very interesting podcast called ‘nut jobs’. It touches on the theft of almond orchards mostly; but would tie in here as well.
Never knew just how lucrative (also debilitating for farmer) ‘food theft’ could be.
Edit: it is only available through Audible, looks like. At least when I searched it in my podcast app- it did t pull up. Could be wrong, but that is my assumption.
Scoobydoomed on June 5th, 2022 at 15:17 UTC »
They should make a game about this and call it "Grand Theft Avocado", or GTA for short.