Border Police officers from the Coastal District arrested two suspects accused of stealing more than a ton of watermelons from an agricultural plot near Ein HaMifratz. Police said one of the suspects is an illegal resident of Israel and that indictments were filed against both men on Tuesday morning.
The incident began last week after a farmer reported that suspects had entered his land with a flock of sheep, damaging his crops. Border Police settlement forces from the Coastal District were dispatched to the area and established surveillance.
Shortly afterward, officers spotted two suspects picking watermelons and loading them into a vehicle. A flock of approximately 300 sheep was also found on the property and was allegedly brought there by one of the suspects.
The officers arrested the two suspects at the scene. A search of their vehicle uncovered a large quantity of watermelons believed to have been stolen from the field. A subsequent weighing determined that the watermelons had a combined weight of 1,014.5 kilograms.
An identity check found that one of the suspects was an illegal resident from the Palestinian Authority. The second suspect is accused of employing and transporting him, as well as bringing the flock onto the agricultural land, damaging the crops and stealing produce.
Police estimated the damage to the agricultural property at thousands of shekels. An administrative fine of 150,000 shekels was issued to the owner of the flock over its alleged trespassing onto the land, while the vehicle believed to have been used in the offenses was seized.
The suspects were taken to the Coastal District Border Police Central Unit for questioning and were subsequently detained. Following the completion of the investigation, indictments were filed against the two men on Tuesday morning.