The Widder Curry: Being Violated by the Mango Thieves

By Judi Curry

Feeling violated can be a horrible feeling.  And there are many different ways of being violated.  Rather than talk about some of them, I thought I would share the latest one that I just experienced.  It is sure different than the “violations” I felt when I was much younger, but still the feelings are still there – just in a different way.  Let me explain.

The house next door to me was for sale and purchased by a man that lives in San Jose for $1,300,000. He said that he bought it so that his grandson could continue his studies at Nazarene University on Pt. Loma. That was about 3 years ago.  His grandson graduated over a year ago and the house has been vacant since then.  Although I met his grandson – and the variety of people that he had living in the house with him, we were not friends and when I saw his graduation pictures on Face Book I wondered what would become of the house.

And the answer for the past 1 ½ year? Nothing.  It remained empty — until several months ago when I happened to see a prospectus for a new building on that very same spot.  That new design showed a two story home with a sundeck on the top of the 2nd story; and a 420 square foot ADU over the garage.  The estimated cost for the new building was close to $895,000.  I discussed this new building with neighbors, and at the time we were hopeful that Senate Bill 10 would not pass in San Diego because we were sure that if it did, this absentee owner would want to build more units that the proposed one I mentioned above.  The proposition failed, at least for the time being.   So… let’s move ahead.

About a month or so ago, we noticed that there were more trucks and people walking on the property. We knew that something was about to happen, but were not sure what.  Well… I can now tell you!

A demolition crew was formed by the construction company to tear down the existing home and garage. And so the work was going to begin.  But before the house came down, the crew needed to take down the fence and gate.  (I don’t quite understand why it had to come down in the first place.  Why couldn’t it just remain on the property instead of putting up another one made of chain link fence and canvas?) But that is not what happened, and this is the beginning of my story.

The crew came in and removed the existing fence that was on their property.  They also removed the side panels that kept animals and other people from entering MY property.  And then… and then they came onto my property and STOLE all of the almost ripe mangos on my tree.  They stole the large ones; the small ones, and the in-between ones.  One in particular we had been watching to see how big it would get.  Still on the tree it weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz.  They took it.

When I asked the construction company about it they said that the foreman knew that the crew had taken them, but did NOTHING about it.  The person I spoke to – and I won’t mention his name here but I do have it – was apologetic and said the foreman admitted he saw the workers with it but did nothing about it.  My estimate is that over 100 mangoes were taken.  The man I spoke to said he would go and buy me more.  I told him that he missed the point.  I didn’t want store-bought mangos.  I wanted MY mangos; mangos that I had carefully nurtured for the past 9 months.  Mangos that I fed, talked to, and promised a new life to them. He told me he’d bring me a “gift” on the following Monday to help make up for the theft.  I told him I didn’t want a gift, and, by the way, he didn’t bring me anything. [Editordude: this was the subject of the famous “Mango Caper” we published in late November.]

The fact that if 120 mangoes were taken, selling at the super-market for $2-3 each, I lost a lot of money.  The fact that I make jam out of those mangos and sell them for $8 a jar and probably would have had at least 75 jars of jam, means I lost a lot of money.

But the most important thing is that those crew members had absolutely no right to be in my yard.  For any purpose.  They were, pure and simply, stealing my fruit!  I am so thankful that I had already picked the avocados that were ripe 15 feet from the mango tree. They probably would have taken them also.  But the feeling of being violated is still strong.  What gave them the right to come onto my property?  What gave them the right to take even one mango off the tree without asking, let alone over 100?  And what repercussions did they get? My guess is that nothing happened to them; that they are still working for the same company; and no one suffered any consequences – except me.

And so… although it may be a small thing to many of you, it is a true violation for me.  It is akin of being robbed, which, in fact, I was.  I have 14 fruit trees that I make jam out of during the year.  It will take months for that monstrosity to be built next door.  How do I know that they won’t be back to see what else I have growing on the property?  That fence will have to be taken down eventually – who knows what else will be taken with it.

Isn’t it too bad that a person cannot feel safe on their own property; that if I had been asked for a few mangos I would have been glad to give them to the workers. Isn’t it too bad that the foreman, the man in charge, did nothing when the men working for him were stealing.  Isn’t it just too bad!!!!!