Pecan Thief In Old Fourth Ward? Well That's Just Nuts

We've heard of peeping Toms here at East Atlanta Patch, but pecan stealing peeps?

And so it is in the Old Fourth Ward which issued a warning to residents alerting them to a pecan thief going into yards and stealing them, Creative Loafing reports.

Don't laugh, there's money in those nuts, which is a $300 million industry in Georgia, one of the nation's leading pecan producers.

Still, there's a shortage of those nuts because a severe drought in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, which also are big producers, Janice Dees, executive director of the Tifton-based Georgia Pecan Growers Association.

The United States Department of Agriculture forecast 375 million pounds of pecans to be harvested but thanks to the drought, the yield is likely to be closer to 271 million pounds.

At the same time, China has developed a huge appetite for pecans pushing demand — and prices up.

Depending on quality and pecan type, the nuts can wholesale for $1 to $3.50 per pound, Dees said.

It explains why police all over Georgia have been getting calls about pecan thefts, she said. In past years, owners wouldn't make a fuss.

"At most, they (thieves)would take a pound, but now it's gotten out of hand; they're taking hundreds of pounds," Dees said.

"There's no other way to say it: It's stealing."