Thieves have stolen $25,000 of grapes from a Virginia winery during the night.
Almost the entire crop, grown across 3.5 acres at the Montgomery County’s Firefly Hill Vineyard, near Blacksburg, have been stolen.
‘We still can’t wrap our heads around this… We’re just in the grieving process,’ said co-owner Allison Dunkenberger said about the loss of her family’s grapes.
It comes just hours before she, her husband, friends and relatives were to trim the fruit from carefully tended vines.
Two to two-and-a-half tons of grapes were removed from 2,500 vines at a Virginia winery – and this is all that remains of the crop
Vineyard owner David Dunkenberger was upset by the brazen theft
Although the value of the fruit is about $25,000, if the time and materials used in caring for them is calculated, the loss is closer $50,000.
Worse still, the company’s insurance does not cover theft of the crop according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
Dunkenberger suspects that whoever took the grapes had to know something about the winery’s operations, especially since the grapes are not visible from the road.
Once the thieves were on the property, they managed to haul away an enormous amount of grapes amounting to two-and-a-half tons from 2,500 vines between sunset and dawn.
Husband David, let his thoughts be known in an outspoken Facebook post: ‘To the pieces of cowardly, human scum that came in the night and stole the grapes from my vines, I want to thank you for proving our society has hit rock bottom. May you die a slow and agonizingly painful death so that when you are writhing in pain someone will be kind enough to offer you a drink of wine so you know for what you suffer.’
Thieves worked throughout the night to steal almost the entire crop working from sunset
The family had posted about how they were about to harvest their crop on Facebook
The Dunkenbergers don’t live on the vineyard but Allison was at the winery during the day Monday and insists the grapes were still on the vines.
By Tuesday morning, just ahead of the harvest, the fruit was nearly all gone, she said.
The bandits would have needed one large truck or a number of smaller ones to carry the grapes away, she said.
The winery was left with less than 200 pounds of grapes.
The winery has now been forced to close until further notice. The total loss is estimated to be close to $50,000 when labor is factored into the cost
The family had planted the vines 12 years ago and gathered the grapes each year.
‘We’ll keep taking care of the vines,’ she said, and likely will resume operations sometime in the future but for now, Firefly Hill vineyard is closed.
‘What hurts the most is what they stole from my spirit and heart. The vineyard was a family experience. My daughters grew up in that vineyard. My family and friends helped me in that vineyard. Most importantly I spent time in that vineyard with my father. Cherished memories spoiled by a bunch of low life, no soul, heartless excuses for human beings,’ David wrote the heartbreaking Facebook post.
Investigator Don Link of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office asked that anyone with information about the theft call him at 540-382-6915, ext. 44421.