LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Deputies in Florida say an 81-year-old man picked thousands of tangerines — 11 truckloads worth — and then sold the stolen bounty at a nearby market.
Herman Southall was charged Wednesday with 11 counts of transporting citrus without a certificate, grand theft of more than 2,000 pieces of citrus and trespassing. He is being held at the Polk County Jail on an $8,500 bond.
Southall and another man were found by deputies Wednesday picking fruit in a Dundee grove after a Sheriff’s Office helicopter pilot saw them. It’s unclear if he has retained an attorney.
Deputies say the two had picked more than four rows of Sunburst tangerines. The report said they were preparing to load the fruit into Southall’s truck.
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