Runaway tractor destroys crops worth thousands in Fresno County

FIREBAUGH, Calif. (KFSN) -- On Wednesday Joe Del Bosque showed us a trail of damaged crops between his farm in Firebaugh and a canal, six miles away.

"It's a miracle that more damage wasn't done."

It was a slow speed destruction caused by his rented, New Holland tractor. He said a key was left in it and someone stole it, put it into creeper mode and let it go.

"It's just like sending a tractor off for a joy ride with nobody on it," said Del Bosque.

The tractor plowed through rows of young pistachio trees, asparagus, tomatoes, and cotton at about one mile per hour. The tractor even crossed a road before running into a dry canal and that's where it was found on the 16th.

"It went very slow and a tractor of this size in a creeper gear is a very powerful machine and not very many things will stop that tractor," said Del Bosque.

A couple hours later, and not too far away, Tony Botti with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said a second runaway tractor was found with front end damage and it was likely stolen by the same person or people.

"We don't know what's behind this but we do know we want to put a stop to it so nobody else has their property destroyed."

Del Bosque said the pistachio trees should be fine since they were small and limber enough to take the hits.

"Looks like all the trees are back up, which is a good thing."

And the farmer who owns them was able to repair them.