Farmers’ anger at ‘rampant’ crooks as broccoli thief jailed

Agricultural land is being routinely plundered by crooks out to make a quick buck, according to farmers.

The warning comes as 38-year-old Vernon Symonds was jailed for 30 days at Magistrates’ Court yesterday for stealing 24lb of broccoli from
one of Junior Hill’s Southampton plots.

But it seems Symonds’ brazen crime is the norm rather than the exception plaguing the island’s agricultural community.

Farmers told the Bermuda Sun that theft of produce is a daily problem faced by the industry that has increased due to tougher economic times.

Tom Wadson said: “This kind of activity is a big problem for us now, especially.

“It’s a brutal problem and it has become rampant.

“It’s happening 24/7 and if it’s not bolted down you’re likely to lose it in these current economic times.”

While Carlos Amaral added: ”We have had fields that have been completely stripped by guys looking to make a quick buck.

“It’s not just 20 or 30lb of broccoli being stolen — we are talking 100 or 150lb of the stuff.

“It’s very frustrating because it is not people stealing to feed their hungry families or anything like that it is people trying to make money off our hard work.

“And there is very little you can do unless you catch them in the act.

“We started marking all our pumpkins with Amaral last year but still a lot of them were stolen.

“It’s wholesale robbery in my mind and it is messing up our whole operation.”

In court yesterday Symonds pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to serve 30 days in prison.

He was caught picking broccoli from the Hog Bay level farm and putting it in a large blue bag at 1:45pm on January 28.

During yesterday’s hearing Symonds claimed he didn’t steal anything but just took the broccoli to sell it.

He added: “I didn’t kill anybody, I just got a couple of heads of broccoli. I didn’t steal it, I took it.”

Describing the defendant as ‘stupid and ardent’ Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said: “There are struggling farmers around Bermuda that we hear complaining about the prevalence of these offences that is affecting their livelihood.

“In some societies, you get your hand cut off. Of course, we are a sophisticated society and we don’t allow those kinds of punishments.

“You can’t go and steal people’s crops and sell them.

“Your case is annoying because of your arrogance. You steal these to sell them.”