3,000 Sprinkler Heads Stolen From King City Vineyard

Over the course of three months, three thousand sprinkler heads are gone from one King City vineyard.

The harvest for the grapes is over, and Delicato Family Vineyards maintenance manager says that’s when thieves strike because they know the sprinklers aren’t being watched that closely.

The thieves us a wrench to unscrew the sprinklers and then stuff them in a backpack. They then bury the backpack in the middle of the vineyard and pick them up a different day, the maintenance manager said.

The reason they leave them behind, the maintenance manager says is so when they pick them up they can act like they just found a random bag.

Sheriff deputies say this is a huge problem across the Central Coast with thieves using the sprinkler heads for the valuable copper or brass material. Or they sell the heads to other farmers, the maintenance manager said.

Delicato Family Vineyards was able to absorb the blow of all the stolen property because they have sprinklers they aren’t using to replace them

But come next harvest it won’t be cheap. It will cost approximately $30,000 to get back to where they need to be, the vineyard said.

The Monterey County Sheriff Department is still investigating. They were able to obtain surveillance footage of the thieves in action.