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The price of almonds and walnuts has risen so sharply that people are stealing them. The Associated Press says California nut growers have lost $1.5 million in nuts this year:

Almonds sell for about $3 a pound wholesale and twice that much in stores. The nuts are worth so much that thieves who drive away whole truckloads have been known to abandon the vehicles and keep just the almonds.

Almond prices jumped 70 cents a pound this summer, walnuts sell for three bucks a pound, and you pay twice that at the store.

Farm Thefts

The losses from farm thefts in California, Mississippi and South Carolina run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to estimates from law enforcement officers. But since only one of 10 farm crimes is reported, some say total annual losses are about $1 billion nationwide.

The Monitor explains why farmers are easy targets:

These days it's relatively easy to steal commodities without getting caught, Mr. [Bill] Yoshimoto, [the supervising attorney for a rural crimes task force in Tulare County, California,] says. For one, farms are bumping up against suburbs, shortening the time it takes potential crooks to get their hands on freestanding tanks of diesel, barrels of expensive fungicides, and rolls of copper wire. Oftentimes, thieves can operate in plain view since the heavy equipment and tractor-trailers they use to carry out their crimes are common in these parts. Internet trading has also cut down on paperwork, making scofflaws tougher to track down.

The story continues:

In Alabama, where pine forests cover an area nearly equivalent to all of New England, timber losses can be staggering, Mr. Yoshimoto says. Last year, Texas investigators recovered more than 5,000 stolen cattle worth more than $3.5 million. [...]

 

"You've got crews coming in and knocking down 10 acres of timber or 40 acres of prime plums, and then you have some on the other end receiving this timber and fruit and injecting it into the commercial stream somewhere," says Yoshimoto. "This level of sophistication has only become prominent in the last 10 years, and we've noticed it tremendously in the last five years."

The 14-county Agricultural Crime Technology Information and Operations Network (ACTION) in Visalia, Calif., has a collection of motion detectors and low-light cameras that farmers can borrow at no expense to try to catch thieves.

Some farmers are working on ways to brand individual vegetables such as artichokes to thwart theft.

I am seeing lots of copper-theft stories, like these from Minnesota, Hawaii and Michigan.

Bin Bandits

The California Farm Bureau Federation also reports another big-dollar, agriculture-theft racket -- fruit-bin thefts:

Bin theft has cost Fresno County fruit packer Mark Woods about $190,000 this year. San Diego County grower/packer Al Stehly puts his figure at more like $500,000. And experts say these losses represent just the tip of this illicit activity's iceberg.

Bin bandits -- or renegade harvesters, as many frustrated growers and packers call them -- are affecting agriculture throughout the state.

Many packers allege that renegade harvesters are stealing the plastic bins used to haul harvested fruit and vegetables to the packinghouses. The problem is not just one or two missing bins but thousands of bins, resulting in what packers say could amount to several hundred thousand dollars in losses for each packer affected.

"Growers are getting tired of it. Packers are getting tired of it," said Stehly, a Valley Center citrus and avocado grower and packer. "You've got renegade citrus and avocado harvesters out there that don't own their own bins and just use whoever's they can find. They call it borrowing. We call it theft.

"Our county sheriff's office and district attorney feel that some of the stolen bins are being used for avocado thefts," Stehly said. "Not only is this an issue for the packinghouses losing capital items, it is an issue for growers who might be losing fruit."

High-tech Hookers

I have heard this story from several cities, most recently from WSMV Nashville's Jeremy Finley. Hookers are using Craig's List, the free and popular online classified-advertising Web site to solicit customers. They even found a 17-year-old girl offering to hook up.

What Do You Have to Know to Work in an Online Newsroom?

The Online News Association and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism have a new survey [PDF] to help you figure out what you need to know to work in this new media world. It is interesting that the hard-core HTML and Flash skills do not appear as essential as attitudes and intangible qualities. E-Media Tidbits contributor Rich Gordon, an online news veteran who teaches at Medill, summarized the study in a Tidbits item earlier this month.

Be sure to check out the charts included in the PDF reflecting survey results in the three key areas: attitutdes and intanglibles; content creation; and online production tools.

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