Ontario orchard bans strollers, wagons and backpacks after some 500 pounds of apples stolen

The owners of an apple orchard in West Montrose, Ont., are fed up with people stealing the literal fruits of their labour.

Tim Shuh, operator of the pick-it-yourself Shuh Orchards near Kitchener, has introduced new rules for visitors this apple-picking season: banning them from bringing strollers, backpacks and wagons into the U-pick portion of the farm. 

After two highly busy weekends in a row, Shuh said he reluctantly implemented the rules as a response to the noticeable and growing issue of theft.

“We realized that with that many people on the farm, it was difficult to keep track of how many people were in the rows, where they were going, if they were bringing in their own bags, if they were putting apples into strollers, wagons, backpacks,” he said in an interview with CBC News.

Over the past 14 days, there were 7,500 customers at Shuh Orchards — 3,500 the first week and 4,000 the following week.

Shuh said he and his staff have watched as visitors have hidden fruit and tried to walk to their vehicles without paying. Some families were caught loading bushels into the trunks of their cars instead of the farm’s marked bags, and in one case, he said, he discovered customers had hidden apples under blankets in a stroller.

“Me myself, I’ve seized about 250 pounds of apples and my dad has reported a number of others stealing,” Shuh said.

“There’s no way with 4,000 people on our farm, the times I did check, that we were able to get even half the people that were stealing.”

Shuh estimated at least 500 pounds of apples have been stolen over the past two weeks, and that’s “erring on the extreme side of conservatism.”

At roughly $4 a pound, Shuh said,