Stealing olives

[olive]

I wasnt sure where to put this but we had a thread recently about olives in this section.

The theft of olives is on the increase. This isn’t opportunist theft of a trailer part full of olives or bags of olives left in a grove waiting collection . It is common practice to do this in our area. A neighbour has left a full sized empty trailer in a grove below us for at least four weeks. Soon he will use it for harvesting that particular area. In the UK it would have vanished already and have a new owner.

Regarding theft of olives, what is happening is that the gang turn up and just set to harvesting someone elses crop in broad daylight. Presumably they have knowledge of whos land it is and the likelyhood of being challenged. Also presumably they work quickly and just take the easy part of the crop.eg whatever falls off with a quick shake before moving nets on to the next tree.

We did a fag packet calculation and assuming a later start and earlier finish ( to avoid encountering anyone else nearby) three strong younger men could steal in a day about 2000 euros worth of olives. Must be an existing farmer with equipment, knowledge and own crop to be able to sell them to the co op. A friend has changed the order of harvesting to do his 400 trees that are very remote in the V. De Algaidas area.

[Enrique]

Hi olive,
Same up here in Jaén province...........
The locals have taken to bringing all equipment and olives in at end of the day even if they have'nt finished the plot, this adds more time to the harvest.
It's also difficult to check who is doing the plots locally as the older owners have retired and who is then entitled to the plot is unclear.
The local WhatsApp group often Posting sightings of unknown people in the area and sending a Member out to checkup.

[Pamela1]

Last year the neighbours crop of peaches were stolen, i felt really sorry for him, he is in his 70's and put a lot of work and time in just for some others to come along and steel them.

[BENIDORM]

Regretfully the crop stealing is rife and appears to be getting worse and what is a sad fact is that most of the thieves are most likely locals.
And why do they steal, because they are poor, because they need to feed their families ?, I doubt it, they are just greedy people who think that they can help themselves to other people's property.
The low life thieves are selfish and don't even consider other people and how they will probably cause hardship and heartache to others.
Life sucks sometimes.
Saludos,
Gordon.

[olive]

Agreed Benidorm.

We have a couple of wildlife trail cams and have captured images of wild boar etc. A couple of years ago we were experiencing diesel theft in our area. A common practice is/was leaving your tractor in the grove you were working in with canisters of diesel on the rack with a chain on them. Saved trips to the gasolinera.

Imagine our shock to see an image of a man with bolt croppers walk through our grove one night. Worse we figured out who he was! We decided after much soul searching not to do anything. Upsetting the village dynamic, individual existing on paro plus very occasional work. We have had two suicides in our aldea. (3% approx)

We have had two thefts. I got complacent and left our olive harvesting poles and nets out at night but not the me mechanised tree shaker. One morning our occasional use extra long 3 m pole had gone! The other theft was the chain welded onto a metal pole to bar scrambler bikes. Presumably twisted off. Minor stuff but a sign of the times.

[olive]

Exciting day today. Our village Whatsapp group lit up with a photo of a grey Berlingo van leaving the scene having been disturbed stealing olives from trees not far from us. The driver is very clearly captured in the photo as is the vehicle reg. You can imagine the subsequent posts, including speculation that they were Romanians. I still believe they are locals.

Someone contacted the Guardia. But what if anything will happen? Even if they were actually caught red handed which they weren’t.