TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The grape harvest season is here, and that means Central Valley farmers are gathering thousands of pounds of produce - but some also have to deal with thefts to their crops. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office is always patrolling rural farm areas, but on Wednesday, Nearly 500 pounds of stolen grapes were found in the back of an SUV. Just after 8 a.m. on Sept. 24, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office AG Detectives were made aware of a traffic stop that turned sour. “Patrol deputies were out driving in the area, patrolling the area of Kingsburg when they noticed a vehicle that had a moving violation,” Sergeant Joe Armstrong with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office Ag Crimes Unit said. Inside the stopped SUV, 480 lbs of unpackaged grapes. 47-year-old Juan Benjamin Ventura and 57-year-old Dionicio Sandoval were both inside the vehicle. Those grapes add up to a $700 market value. According to Sergeant Armstrong, an Ag theft totaling $250 or more is a felony. That’s different from Prop 47, which classifies thefts of $950 or more as a felony. “PC 4071a is specified for farm commodities, whether it be livestock, fruits, vegetables. If the items are $250 or more or more makes it a felony with the agricultural commodities,” Armstrong said. Ventura and Sandoval were booked under suspicion of grand theft, possession of stolen property, conspiracy and providing false names to deputies. But Ag thefts aren’t as uncommon as people may think. “We take them daily, we get phone calls from farmers and ranchers within the area. They're saying that they've noticed that people have been within their orchards or their fields stealing their products,” Sergeant Armstrong said. But even Armstrong admits he doesn’t remember the last time hundreds of pounds of grapes were stolen at once. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office takes Ag-related crimes seriously, and special schooling is provided to employees to deal with these cases. “There is an Ag crime school that we go to where the detectives learn nothing but what happens in the agricultural community. It's a 40-hour class. It's put on by the California Rural Crimes Prevention Task Force, which we're a member of,” Armstrong said. Since the grapes were picked before they were ready, Armstrong says the crops had to be destroyed.