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Several of the stolen watermelon pallets that were recovered on the property of Stoller Farms . Winco retreived the stolen melons and pallets, but not for resale.
(Courtesy of Beaverton Police)
A man who was convicted of selling steroids to a Canby cop is now accused of stealing about $7,000 worth of watermelons from stores in Beaverton and Tigard.
Law enforcement say
, 42, of Canby, and an alleged accomplice, Brad A. Taylor, 40, of Molalla, hit two WinCo stores in the middle of the night on June 7. Traverso was arrested by Clackamas County Sheriff's deputies Tuesday evening at the Canby home of one of his parents in the 2900 block of South Needy Road. Beaverton police said officers will transport him to Washington County Jail. Taylor has still not been located by authorities.
Traverso and Taylor drove to the stores in a white truck, and using their own hand-held jack, hauled off 17 pallets of watermelons that were left outside in boxes for sale, police said.
They're accused of stealing 11 pallets of watermelons from the Tigard WinCo at 2:29 a.m. and then another six pallets of melons from the Beaverton WinCo around 3:40 a.m. on June 7, Beaverton Detective Jason Buelt said.
In all, the two got away with about five tons of watermelon, police estimate.
When an employee at the Beaverton WinCo confronted the two men, according to police, the suspects said they were removing the watermelons because they had black spots on them.
William "Billy" J. Traverso, 42
By the time the employee went to alert a manager, the two thieves, the truck and the load of watermelons were gone.
Buelt and a Tigard detective
, which caught the thieves in action, using a white truck that had the word "Marathon" in green on it.
WinCo loss prevention authorities alerted the respective police departments because the thieves looked "like they knew what they were doing," Buelt said.
In fact, that's what helped the detectives crack the case.
"According to a Canby police officer, everyone knows Brad Taylor as Watermelon Brad," Buelt said.
More than two years ago, Taylor had worked as a delivery truck driver for Canby's Dittner Melons and knew the routes.
"It's very bizarre, but it was a crime of opportunity," Buelt said. "It was easy for him. He knew the routine."
Both suspects, police say, were likely driven by an addiction to methamphetamine.
"They're trying to support their drug habit," Buelt said.
So what happened to the melons?
Buelt suspects the two sold the majority of the watermelons to small grocers in the Canby and Molalla area.
Some of the stolen boxes of watermelon recovered on farm property in Aurora.
Five of the stolen watermelon pallets, though, turned up on the property of the Stoller Farm off Northeast Stoller Place in Aurora, Buelt said.
About 1:30 a.m. on June 8, the suspects unloaded the five pallets beside the trailer of an 83-year-old man who lives on the property and had been in the business of selling watermelons years ago, the detective said.
The 83-year-old man, Jerry Black, told police Taylor had approached him about two months earlier to see if he’d purchase watermelons.
“I told him I might be interested,” Black said, in an interview with The Oregonian.
Brad A. Taylor, 40
Black, though, said Taylor showed up “out of the blue” on June 8, with five pallets of melons.
“I never bought more than one pallet of watermelon at a time” Black said, “so the five pellets surprised the heck out of me.”
No money was exchanged, and Paul Stoller of Stoller Farms alerted police. Back in the day, a full watermelon pallet would go for $150 to $175, Black said.
“Never very much money in watermelons anyway,” Black said. “It’s not a high profit piece of produce.''
For Buelt, a 14-year police veteran who investigates organized retail crime, this case is like no other he's handled.
"This is a first for me," he said, chuckling.
Traverso and Taylor will face allegations of first-degree theft and organized theft, Buelt said.
Detectives visited Taylor's last place of work, a machine shop in Newberg, with no success. Now, they're seeking the public's help in locating him.
If anyone has information on his location, you're asked to call Beaverton Police at 503-629-0111.
Earlier this year, a felony meth possession charge was dismissed against Traverso in Clackamas County because the state took too long to bring the case to trial. In 2010, Traverso admitted that he sold steroids and human growth hormone to former Canby police officer Jason Deason. Traverso then cooperated with FBI agents in their subsequent inquiry, which put Deason in jail and
. For his cooperation, Traverso received a relatively lenient 15-day jail sentence, followed by 30 days electronic home detention and 24 months probation.
--Maxine Bernstein