Nearly quarter million dollars of almonds stolen from Wasco firm
| Friday, Sep 03 2010 05:46 PM
Last Updated Friday, Sep 03 2010 05:46 PM
Truck drivers with what appeared to be appropriate paperwork stole nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of almonds from a Wasco distributor, according to a search warrant filed in Kern County Superior Court.
The two truck shipments of more than 88,000 pounds of almonds were insured, said Randy Bye, chief financial officer for the distribution firm, Sunny Gem in Wasco. The investigation is ongoing.
A third unrelated theft of a truckload of groceries connected to the same operation was also uncovered by Deputy Marvin Felli, who is heading up the investigation.
Bye said his firm has information to indicate different drivers were used in the two thefts.
The constant in the investigation is a trucking firm called C&E Transport of Scranton, Pa., but while that firm has a legitimate registration number, it appears to have been inactive for some time, Felli said Friday.
One of the telephone numbers the search warrant says was used in the operation is listed on a website for C&E, but the phone rang and rang without anyone answering Friday. No representative of the firm is listed on its website.
The first theft from Sunny Gem was April 19 with a load valued at more than $118,000 going to El Paso, Texas, and the second was May 4 with a load valued at nearly $115,000 going to Jersey City, N.J., the search warrant says.
In both cases, the driver of the truck came into Sunny Gem with paperwork that appeared to be proper, but which was later learned to have been obtained on invalid documents, Felli said.
In the May incident, a person cashed a $2,000 check in Glendale to pay for fuel for the trip, but all that person needed was a number, not identification, the deputy said.
Neither load reached its intended destination, the search warrant said.
The drivers used phone numbers to set up the transactions.
The search warrant is aimed at getting the calls for those numbers. The request was approved.
Felli said no arrests have yet been made and the investigation will take some time.
