Sheriff
’s deputies caught three landscapers with nearly $1,900 worth of
plants stolen from three nurseries in San Martin and Gilroy.
Sheriff’s deputies caught three landscapers with nearly $1,900 worth of plants stolen from three nurseries in San Martin and Gilroy.
The three suspects were selling the stolen plants to their unsuspecting customers, deputies said.
“They were just fly-by-night landscapers,” Sheriff’s Detective Julian Quiñonez said. “They weren’t insured and didn’t have a license or anything.”
With a combination of luck and sharp-eyed awareness, Deputy John Porria and training Deputy Tim Furtado on Feb. 18 came across a disabled pickup on Croy Road west of Morgan Hill that was full of miniature trees – later verified as having been stolen from area nurseries.
Deputies arrested brothers Denny Holderfield, 39, and James Holderfield, 23, who claimed the trees. They later tracked down more stolen plants at the Church Avenue, San Martin home of Ronald McGee, 45.
All three men were booked into county jail on charges of possession of stolen property, a felony.
“The only thing is, I can’t connect any of them to the actual theft, but I’m continuing to conduct an investigation,” Quiñonez said.
Deputies recovered 135 trees and shrubs and returned them to their rightful owners, but the value of these is less than a third of the $6,000 worth of merchandise the three nurseries have reported stolen.
Diana Dufer and her husband, Ken, own the Nursery Outlet in San Martin, one of the theft victims. They got back about $760 worth of plants, mostly redwood trees. Dufer said they have seen about $3,000 worth stolen in incidents last summer, in the fall, around Christmas Eve and twice this year.
Dufer doesn’t expect to get any more plants back.
“At this point and time, we’re assuming they’re planted in somebody’s yard somewhere,” she said.
The West Side and Western Tree nurseries, both on Hecker Pass Highway west of Gilroy, were the other theft victims.
There were four grand-theft cases from these nurseries in a three-week period recently, and sheriff’s detectives were having little luck investigating until deputies Porria and Furtado spotted the Holderfields’ truck full of trees while checking out a noise complaint.
“I commend them for paying attention,” Quiñonez said of the deputies.
The trees were dwarf spruces in spiral shapes, and one of the deputies recognized them as like some reported stolen. They traced the truck’s license plate to the Holderfields, who live nearby and who are both on probation, Quiñonez said.
“They’ve had run-ins with us before; they’ve got a criminal history,” Quiñonez said.
More spiral spruces were freshly planted all over the Holderfields’ property, Quiñonez said. The brothers said they got them from McGee in exchange for some work they did for him.
The deputies called Quiñonez, who had representatives from the nurseries visit the Holderfields’ property. The nursery reps verified that the plants where were indeed the stolen trees, noting tags and special bedding soils tracing them to their own businesses. They said those particular trees were stolen before any could be sold.
After arresting the Holderfields, deputies went to McGee’s house and found more trees and shrubs identical to the stolen nursery stock. McGee claimed the Holderfields had given them to him as pay for work he had done for them, Quiñonez said. He, too, was arrested.
Like the Holderfields, McGee has a criminal history and was known to deputies, Quiñonez said.
McGee recently used the stolen flora to pay his rent. According to Dufer, McGee’s landlords “felt horrible” when they found out the plants they accepted in lieu of money had been stolen from their neighbors.
“Not only did they accept stolen plants, but now they’re out the rent money,” Dufer said.
Quiñonez said McGee was found to have been selling the stolen plants at discount prices. The spiral spruces normally go for $100 each, the detective said, but McGee was selling them for half that.
Dufer suspected McGee, at least, had been a customer at her business in the past. She hadn’t yet seen pictures of the Holderfields to see if she recognized them.
“McGee looked very familiar, and I know that West Side Nursery knew him,” Dufer said.
Dufer said she and other nursery owners are now looking into expensive steps to prevent future thefts.
“The next step is infrared,” Dufer said. “You have to get a security system, and that’s what we’re working on now.
“I would say for a decent security system, you’re looking at at least $10,000 … up to $25,000. … It’s a lot of money to protect yourself against people doing the things they are doing.”
Detective Quiñonez encourages anyone with more information about the nursery thefts to call him at 686-3661.
