For many local students, parents and teachers involved in the agricultural departments of their respective high schools, July is one of the busiest — and most stressful — times of the year with fair season in full swing. The folks of the Hughson High School FFA program had extra emotional strain put upon them when it was discovered on Saturday that the truck and livestock trailer intended to transport pigs to the Stanislaus County Fair had been stolen.
Thanks to help from community members, the pigs ended up making their way to Turlock just in time for fair competitions and festivities while the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department was able to recover the vehicle and the trailer at separate locations in Ceres.
According to the school district, Hughson ag teacher Kelly Larson and her husband arrived at the high school’s ag building just before dawn on July 6 to take 21 pigs raised by students to the Stanislaus County Fair. It was then when they saw that the 2007 Ford 350 pickup and 24-foot livestock trailer they expected to use that had been parked on Seventh Street next to the campus was missing.
After confirming with teachers and administrators that the truck and trailer were indeed left on Seventh Street, the Larsons reached out to the Sheriff's Department, which provides police services in Hughson.
“I was in utter shock,” Larson said. “My husband said I handled it well. I was in shock for about 30 seconds, then I went into survival mode.”
HHS Assistant Principal Natalie Moring, whose daughter was coincidentally one of the FFA students who needed their pig transported to Turlock, looked at security video footage that showed the truck and trailer parked on Seventh Street and suspects performing the theft at roughly 5 a.m. that morning. The thieves are shown popping the door lock, using an object to jam into the ignition and then driving away.
The truck and trailer didn’t get too far. They were discovered later the same day in a neighborhood in Ceres. According to the Sheriff’s Department, there is camera footage from the neighborhood showing the suspect’s vehicle returning to Ceres in the afternoon to unhitch the trailer and take the truck again. The truck later was recovered in a different part of Ceres.
There have not been any arrests made in relation to the theft.
The Sheriff’s Department has said that thefts of tractor trailers, which falls under the category of cargo thefts, are on the rise as they are being used to be resold from outside of the area. According to CargoNet.com, a database tracking cargo theft nationwide, the state of California has the highest cargo theft rates in the United States. In total, there have been 771 cargo thefts across the nation in Q2 of 2024 — a 33% increase from this time a year ago.
As for the pigs and FFA students, they received a helping hand from the Burroughs family in nearby Denair. The family provided a trailer large enough to get all the pigs to the fairgrounds by the 8:10 a.m. weigh-in deadline.
“Within five minutes, we had offers to help,” Larson said. “The community response was just amazing. It’s definitely one for the history books. We won’t forget. It brought tears to our eyes that the response was so quick.
The Burroughs family also returned the next morning with the same trailer to haul sheep and goats to the fairgrounds.
“(The support) has been that way all week. Not just the community, but other people at the fair, saying, ‘Anything you need, just ask,’” Larson continued. “We are very fortunate at Hughson to have our community.”
Anybody with information regarding the theft is encouraged to leave a call the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department at (209) 525-7074 or leave an anonymous tip with the Stanislaus County Area Crime Stoppers at 1-866-602-6463 or by visiting their website at www.stancrimetips.org.
— The Hughson Unified School District contributed to this report.
