MOULTRIE — Thieves seized a four-hour window of opportunity earlier in the month to swipe $24,629 worth of chemicals from a local produce shed. Lucky for the producer, most of it has been fished out of the river in Baker County and was returned Tuesday.
Law enforcement suspects the insecticides and fungicides were stolen for resale on the black market in the agricultural industry.
“In South Georgia, you see it happen about this time every year,” said Colquitt County Sheriff’s Investigator Shawn Bostick.
“It’s not uncommon. We always have chemical thefts,” said Sheriff Al Whittington. “It’s a lucrative business.”
This was the first time L&M; Produce on Smith Road had been targeted for theft. The chemicals had just been delivered and were stolen after being left alone at the facility for only four hours. Usually they are kept under lock and key.
“We were back at 6 p.m. to load them up, and they were gone,” said Brett Bennett, chemical manager of the local L&M; Produce operation. “... I’m just glad it floated.”
The chemicals still were in sealed boxes at L&M;, Bennett said, so somebody would have had to know what they were worth to take them.
“The average person wouldn’t know what to do with them. ... We use that much in a week’s time,” he said, explaining the chemicals are used on pepper, cantaloupe, watermelon, squash and cucumber.
About 45 jugs of pesticide and herbicide averaging 2.5 gallons each were stolen. Bennett pointed to a quart bottle of Tracer insecticide that cost $600.
A farmer spotted the white jugs floating in the Flint River in Baker County. The Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office worked with the Baker County Fire Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on this case. Law enforcement thinks the dumping site was the bridge near Newton, since they were found just south of it, Bostick said. Seventy percent of the stolen chemicals, about $15,000 worth, was tracked back to L&M; and returned. Also recovered was a bulk of shrink wrap plastic used in the produce industry. The shrink wrap had been ruined.
By the looks of the jugs recovered so far, no leakage of chemicals had occurred yet, Bennett said. The containers were still sealed, and some might be salvageable, he said.
“The best we can figure is somebody stole the chemicals, and we got too close to them and they panicked or something happened in their disposing of them and they evidently got scared,” Whittington said.
Bostick said Baker County officials would determine whether to send divers in an attempt to find the remaining chemicals.
Distribution of farming chemicals is monitored heavily, especially in this new age of terrorism. Buyers would have to know that the chemicals had been stolen, he said. Both buyers and sellers of commercial agricultural pesticides and herbicides are licensed or certified.
Local News
Related Photos
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From left, Brett Bennett of L&M Produce, Inv. Shawn Bostick and Jimmy Sellers also of L&M load up $15,000 worth of stolen produce chemicals Tuesday recovered earlier in Baker County. Lori Glenn/The Moultrie Observer
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