Bandit Makes Off With $2,700 Blueberry Bounty

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About 1,566 pounds of prized Michigan blueberries have vanished from a Geneva Township farm.

No, police in Van Buren County don’t suspect a herd of deer, a flock of birds, colonized rodents or any of the other usual suspects that nibble away at Michigan’s No. 1 fruit crop.

Rather, clues at the scene indicate a human blueberry bandit with access to a truck and trailer is behind the theft of nearly $2,700 worth of blueberries sometime overnight Tuesday or Wednesday morning, the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The farmer had divided the blueberries into 87 18-pound containers and prepared them for shipment to a customer, then stored them overnight in an unlocked building.

Investigators are seeking the public’s help in solving the theft of the blueberries, which were in containers marked with “Michigan Blueberry Growers Association” and a blueberry symbol. Anyone with information should call the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office at (269) 657-3101.

Michigan blueberry farmers produce more than one-third of the blueberries eaten in the United States. Some 600 family farms produce 72 million pounds of blueberries a year, contributing nearly $118.7 million to the state’s economy, according to information on the state of Michigan’s website.

Van Buren County is in the heart of Michigan’s blueberry growing region, along with Allegan, Berrien, Muskegon, Ottawa, and Van Buren counties comprise the state’s primary blueberry growing region.