CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – A brazen break-in was reported not once, but twice at TruHarvest Farms in Christiansburg.
“I was just devastated. I walked into the room that morning and I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” said John Straw, the farm’s general manager.
He said a thief stole dozens of pounds of smokable hemp, a CBD product, that unlike THC in marijuana, will not get you high.
All in all, it’s about a $250,000 loss.
“When we came into work that morning and saw the carnage left behind and our missing product, we immediately called the police,” said Straw.
The first break-in was caught on surveillance footage at the farm. It happened around 1 a.m. on January 4. The second break-in happened just before 2 a.m. on January 18.
Both times, Straw said that the suspect used a private driveway and walked across a 4-acre cornfield to sneak in and out of a back entrance.
“It’s definitely somebody who has inside information,” said Straw.
Once inside the facility, security footage shows the suspect stealing a crowbar from Straw’s toolbox and using it to break open doors to where the hemp was stored. Straw said the suspect then stole 111 bags of hemp in total, each weighing one pound.
“They didn’t look around. They didn’t wander around. They knew exactly what they wanted, where it was, where to go and how to get it,” said Straw.
Man or woman, former or current employee, Straw isn’t ruling anyone out.
TruHarvest is working with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to find the suspect. The farm is offering a $50,000 dollar reward for any information that leads to an arrest and a conviction.
“That’s our livelihood. That’s what we depend on,” said Straw. “And to have people just break in and steal what we’ve been working all year for is very disheartening, very devastating.”
If you have any information about the thefts, call the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at 540-382-6915. You can also call 276-698-0660.