Indiana Heist Is The Thomas Crown Affair But With 50,000 Apples

Sometimes you come across a crime story that breaks your heart, but also leaves you a little bit impressed. Such is the case with the Great Apple Theft of LaPorte County, in which bandits somehow managed to remove 50,000 apples from Williams Orchards without anyone noticing.

In an interview with Indiana's WSBT, owner Jon Drummond stated that the apples had managed to vanish in a period of only a few days. The fleeced area was located in the back of the 135 acre orchard, and had been bountiful last week. While out surveying their land on Saturday, Drummond noticed over a full acre of trees were missing their fruit.

There weren't any apples to be found on the ground of the crime scene, leading Drummond and investigators to believe that the thieves covered the area in tarps, violently shook the trees so the apples would fall off of them, then cinched up the tarps and made their getaway. The area was fenced, though not locked, meaning that the apple burglars needed to navigate the obstacle to make their escape. Additionally, 50,000 apples is a lot of apples, so how they managed to get away with this haul without anyone noticing is rather incredible. The local sheriff is currently on the lookout for suspects who may own a pickup truck or trailer, which shouldn't be hard to find in that corner of Indiana.

Drummond says the stolen apples are best for making applesauce and apple cider, which raises questions of a black market applesauce situation I am not qualified enough to investigate. The stolen apples only make up 5% of the orchard's crop, but have a street value of $27,000 dollars, making this no small inconvenience to Drummond and his family. In the event you find yourself in Northwest Indiana, maybe head on over to Williams Orchard and do some apple picking, or maybe pick up a few gallons of freshly pressed cider. If their apples warranted a complicated heist, they're probably pretty damn special.