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They'll steal anything.
You wouldn't think thieves would bother stealing a few nuts but when you're talking about almonds, one of the top 5 California crops with sales over $2 billion dollars last year, it's a whole different story.
And the crooks know enough to steal them when they are already loaded on the trucks: For Scott Phippen, a third-generation almond man, the hole in his fence was the first sign of trouble. And sure enough, a quick once-over confirmed the worst: two of Mr. Phippen's trucks were missing.But the thieves were not after vehicles. They were after almonds. And at Mr. Phippen’s farm here in the Central Valley, they had hit the mother lode: 88,000 pounds of the nuts, with a street value of some $260,000.
Farmers estimate that they have lost $1.5 million so far this year.