Low-Hanging Loot: Thieves Stole 50,000 Apples From an Indiana Orchard

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, one ambitious thief just stole enough to stay healthy for roughly 137 years.

Thrillist reports that somebody absconded with about 50,000 apples—an entire acre’s worth—from Williams Orchard in Indiana’s La Porte County last week. Though the orchard has been around for more than a century, this is the first year that its new owners, Jon and Robyn Drummond, are running it. They noticed the cleanly-picked trees on Saturday.

“Floored,” Jon Drummond told WSBT-TV. “Completely floored.” According to Drummond, the affected area was a valley toward the back of the orchard, which leads him to believe that the thieves (or thief) had carefully cased the joint.

“Someone knew this orchard really well,” Drummond told CNN. “They knew where to go, the portion of the orchard where they couldn’t be seen.”

Unfortunately, since the Drummonds hadn’t quite gotten around to installing locks on their gates, it was all too easy for the crooks to drive right onto the property. And because the surrounding grounds are suspiciously bare, they think the bandits placed tarps beneath the trees, shook the trees, and then collected the apples in bins. According to WSBT-TV, the sheriff’s office is looking for a pick-up truck or trailer that could accommodate such a massive haul of fruit.

Officials probably won’t, however, be looking for a listing of 50,000 apples on the black market of pie ingredients. Drummond believes the culprits might turn their takings into applesauce or apple cider.

Drummond estimates they lost out on $27,000—a devastating blow, considering they don’t have theft insurance. However, the orchard still boasts 134 other acres of apple trees ripe for the (legal) picking, and the couple is trying to maintain a positive outlook.

“We’re going to laugh about it because the only other option is to cry,” Drummond told CNN.

Helping them with that particular objective is Jimmy Fallon, who joked on The Tonight Show that “right now, some kingpin is screaming, ‘You idiots robbed the wrong Apple store!’”