The six families who count on income from a Michigan orchard are at a loss after thieves made off with 7,000 pounds of apples harvested surreptitiously from five acres of land.
Matt Spicer, the harvest manager at Spicer Orchard in Fenton Township, told ABC 12 that sometime last week, the fruit thieves stripped hundreds of trees bare, leaving only a few apples at the very top of the trees.
“Basically, I was pretty upset about it, because it takes a whole year to grow apples,” Spicer said. “And losing something like that, that was our up and coming varieties. Evercrisp is one of our new ones out and was kind of excited to share that with people.”
The Genesee County Sheriff’s department is investigating the theft of the apples, which could be worth as much as $14,000. The apple burglars didn’t just take the ones ready for harvesting but also some that were still not ripe.
Neighbors and family members said they didn’t hear or see anything and guess that the heist was pulled off in the middle of the night.
“I don’t look out my window this way, and they didn’t come down the driveway, so I wouldn’t have heard anything,” said neighbor Mike Conway. “It’s behind the barn. I’m sure they used the barn for cover.”
Spicer said that plans were already being made to guard against future thefts, including the addition of fencing and increased surveillance cameras.
Although insurance covers losses due to weather, it doesn’t cover theft.
“Whomever took those apples, six families count on the income from this farm. And losing any of it, always, it will hurt somebody,” Spicer said.
