Cape Coral City Council to hold compensation discussion meetingUS Senate passes legislation to ban TikTok; how will it impact you?
Avocados are pictured during harvest in Mexico on October 19, 2016. RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP/GETTY IMAGES OXNARD, Calif. (CBS) Three produce company workers have been arrested in the theft of up to $300,000 worth of avocados, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. Police are calling it “grand theft avocado.” Thirty-eight-year-old Joseph Valenzuela, 28-year-old Carlos Chavez and 30-year-old Rahim Leblanc were each charged with grand theft of fruit and were being held in jail on bail of $250,000 each. They were arrested Wednesday. It was unclear whether they have attorneys. Detectives began investigating the suspects in May after receiving a tip that they were conducting unauthorized cash sales of avocados from a ripening facility in the city of Oxnard owned by the Mission Produce company. The company estimated the avocado loss at about $300,000, the sheriff’s office said. “We take these kinds of thefts seriously. It’s a big product here and in California,” sheriff’s Sgt. John Franchi told the Los Angeles Times. “Everybody loves avocados.”