A Truckload of Evidence: 42,000 Pounds of Pistachios Are Stolen in California
A man who worked for a trucking contractor was charged with stealing 21 tons of nuts from a pistachio grower, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said.
A California pistachio company was conducting a routine audit when it noticed something suspicious: About 42,000 pounds of pistachios — nearly enough to fill a truck trailer — were missing.
Officials of the company, Touchstone Pistachio, called the agricultural crimes unit of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. Within days, after checking surveillance footage, sheriff’s deputies arrested 34-year-old Alberto Montemayor, who had been working for Montemayor Trucking, a family-owned business that the pistachio company had hired this year as a contractor, according to the authorities.
Sgt. Joseph England, who leads the agricultural crimes unit, said it was not uncommon for people to steal nuts in many of California’s rural counties, where farming drives the local economies. The product isn’t easily traced, he said.
Touchstone Pistachio, which has its headquarters in Terra Bella, Calif., north of Bakersfield in Tulare County, declined to comment.
