Posted on 06/03/2026 6:28:31 AM PDT by simpson96
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (FOX26) — A woman was arrested after an investigation near an orchard revealed stolen fruit and drug paraphernalia on Tuesday, deputies say.
A Fresno County Deputy was on patrol in the area between Kingsburg and Parlier, noticed a car pulling out of a nectarine orchard near the intersection of Zediker and Rose avenues around 2 a.m.
The deputy stopped the car and contacted the driver, 40-year-old Zulema Garcia Cruz.
Garcia Cruz was arrested for having outstanding warrants for drug possession and petty theft.
During a further search of the orchard, the deputy found a pickup truck with nobody inside.
The bed of the truck was full of nectarines that had been picked off nearby trees.
The deputy also checked the trunk of Garcia Cruz’s car and found a crate of nectarines.
Deputies said she was also in possession of a meth pipe.
Garcia Cruz was booked into the Fresno County Jail on her warrants and new charges related to grand theft of crops and possession of drug paraphernalia.
“I haven’t bought grocery store stone fruit in ages. It’s all rock-hard!”
Depends on where you are. Fruit in the grocery store is typically rock-hard because it is intentionally picked underripe. To survive long-distance shipping and weeks in cold storage without bruising or rotting, commercial produce is harvested early. Many of these fruits require a few days at room temperature to soften and sweeten before you eat them. The fruit we get here in Washington state if not grown here comes many times over ripe and/or spoils even in the refer within a couple of days. Too long to get here.
wy69
Good idea! We have wonderful fruit here in California, especially in Central California, right in the supermarket.
My next door neighbor has pomegranate trees - he carefully bagged each pomegranate then put mesh over the entire tree - the squirrels ripped apart the mesh and tore open the bags - he lost his entire crop.
I think he gave up after that...
I’m over on the SF Peninsula. I was infested with squirrels and got so frustrated losing my fruit to the rodents, that I bought a medium size Hav-a-Hart trap and baited it with peanut butter. Caught a squirrel right away. I did the humane thing and took the cute little guy 10 miles up into the Santa Cruz Mountains and released him into the wild.
Next squirrel I took 5 miles up the road. Squirrel #3 went 2 miles up the road. Then I stopped and thought “What the hell am I doing? This is costing me a couple bucks per squirrel in gas and all my time. They are probably getting eaten by coyotes and catamounts, anyway. Screw this.”
So I got out my big garden bucket, filled it with water and turned it into a squirrel swimming pool. I quit counting at 77 squirrels who had gone for their last swim. At long last, I got to eat my fresh, tree-ripened fruit!
After that, I started calculating all the hours tending my little orchard and figured each piece of fruit took about an hour of my time, so I said “Screw this” and went to the De Martini Orchard fruit stand.
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