On Wednesday, February 01, Anthony Shoels of Texas, age 48, plead no contest to a felony grand theft charge. He was immediately sentenced in Tulare County Court, Dinuba Division by the Honorable Stephen Drew on one count of grand theft, a violation of Penal Code Section 487. Judge Drew denied probation, and sentenced Shoels to 2 years state prison. In addition Shoels was ordered back to Texas to serve the remainder of a 10 year sentence for first degree burglary. Additionally he was ordered to pay restitution fines and restitution to the victim. This case was investigated by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, Agricultural Crimes Unit, and the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office Rural Crimes Unit. Ian Marty of the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office Agricultural Crimes Unit was the prosecutor on this case.

The case began when the victim, a local Dairy owner, called the Tulare County Sheriff’s office to report a theft. The victim relayed that he had given permission to two individuals to pick up scrap metal around his dairy. The victim stated that he had seen the men on and off throughout the day picking up the scrap as he had allowed them to do. He even conversed with them on several occasions during the course of their activities on his property. He said they were loading the scrap into a tan colored pickup truck. Finally, on January 11th 2006 the victim went to see if the men had taken all of the scrap metal. Upon going to check on the area, the victim noticed that he was also missing irrigation pipe and a 150 gallon stainless steel tank. He stated that these were valuable pieces of equipment which he had certainly not given the men permission to take. The victim immediately went to the local recycling facility, where he located his tank and pipes. It was at this time that he called the Sheriff’s office. A check at the recycling center confirmed that the defendant was the person who brought the tank and pipes in. The victim was able to identify the defendant from a photo line-up. The person at the recycling yard said he was very familiar with the defendant because he is always bringing in items. It was later learned that the defendant was a fugitive from justice because of a residential burglary in Texas.

Both the Sheriff’s Department Ag Crime Unit and the District Attorney’s Ag Crime Unit operate through the State funded Rural Crime Prevention Program administered by the Office of the Tulare County District Attorney. The Rural Crime Prevention program was developed by District Attorney Phil Cline to stop and prevent agricultural crime.

For more information on protecting agricultural operations contact the Rural Crime Prevention Unit at (559) 624-1054, the ACTION Project at (559) 624-1054 or the Sheriff’s Ag Crime Unit at (559) 740-4300. Information can be obtained on line at www.agcrime.net

Contact Person: William Yoshimoto, Supervising Attorney    624-1054