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Thieves steal 50,000 apples from Indiana orchard

(Provided Photo/CNN)

LAPORTE, Ind. (CNN) — Thieves stole a whole lot of apples from an orchard in Indiana recently — around 50,000 apples to be exact.

Trees that were just full of apples a few days ago are now empty.

“Floored. Completely floored,” said Jon Drummond, orchard owner.

Drummond says he was shocked to discover that amount of apples missing from his orchard.

“I mean, to be able to see an entire block of trees, nearly cleanly picked, when just days earlier there was thousands and thousands of apples on them, we just couldn’t even fathom it,” said Drummond.

The apples disappeared sometime last week. Drummond said he noticed it on Saturday when he went to check the fruit.

“Well we purchased and put up, installed a new fence, which was great. We just did it a couple weeks ago,” said Drummond. “Unfortunately, we hadn’t installed all the locks on the fence at that time.”

Drummond says the thieves targeted trees in a valley at the back of his orchard.

The sheriff’s office says whoever took the apples had to be able to transport them.

“So we’re looking for a pick-up truck or some sort of trailer that could pull this large of product,” said Capt. Derek Allen with the La Porte County Sheriff’s Office.

Drummond says he now has locks and cameras on the property, but as he looks at his rows of trees he’s thankful the amount stolen was only 5% of his crop.