A large supply of smudge pots — heaters used for the past 100 years to prevent citrus from freezing on frosty nights — proved too enticing for a 29-year-old Calimesa man, authorities say, who is accused of stealing them repeatedly from farms in the Inland Empire.
It’s unlikely, however, experts say, that the man wanted them for his own groves.
Jacinto Farms and Buoye Farm in Mentone, and the UC Riverside Citrus Research Center were the victims, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and UCR police.
On Jan. 12, the man was seen on one of the Mentone properties loading the smudge pots into his pickup. Employees there tried to stop him, but he drove off with 100 heaters. Then on Jan. 24, the man’s truck was seen fleeing with 100 more, the Sheriff’s Department said.
On Jan. 28, the man drove off from the second farm in Mentone with more smudge pots. A witness followed him and was able to identify him to authorities.
At some point, two burglaries at UCR netted the suspect about 100 smudge pots with an estimated value of more than $10,000, UCR police said.
UCR police identified the thief as the same man wanted in the Mentone thefts and arrested him at his home in Calimesa, a police Facebook post said. He was booked on suspicion of grand theft and posted $100,000 bail. He is due to be arraigned in Superior Court in Riverside in June.
Peggy A. Mauk, director of agricultural operations and professor of subtropical horticulture at UCR, said thieves are known to sell the smudge pots for about $200 to recyclers or use them on camping trips to keep warm.
With the original smudge pots, farmers would light the oil inside, and the device would give off heat and put up a layer of smoke that would cover an orchard, trapping the heat inside. For some farmers, that technology gave way in the late 1930s to oil reservoirs and pumping systems that carried fuel to burners located between the trees.
UCR now keeps the citrus crops on its 450 acres of research land warm with wind machines and irrigation. Melting ice gives off heat, Mauk said.
It’s unclear whether UCR’s heaters are of the same variety that is still in use at the Mentone farms. Mauk described smudge pots as a “relic of the past” and that a different type of heater is now in use.
UCR heaters are in storage. Mauk said they are “illegal” because they pollute the air. The university still has them, she said, because it has been too expensive to remove the oily residue inside. They are not for sale, she added.
