Around $50,000 worth of bull semen was stolen from a truck in Turlock, located in California’s Central Valley, reports say.
Nearly 3,500 tanks filled with the substance were stolen from the back of Anthony Reis’ truck late Sunday night, which is enough to potentially impregnate more than 1,000 cattle, CBS Sacramento reported.
$50,000 in bull semen was stolen in Turlock, and it could be trouble in the wrong hands. https://t.co/XgpZmaniVL pic.twitter.com/Cfr0uG6cXF
— CBS Sacramento CBS13 (@CBSSacramento) January 23, 2016
Tanks of Bull Semen valued at Nearly $50k stolen from the back of a truck in Turlock. Story on @CBSSacramento at 10! pic.twitter.com/WhkTaFbbxP
— Shirin Rajaee (@ShirinRajaee) January 23, 2016
Reis said he had spent months collecting it, saying it’s worth approximately $50,000.
“You’re trying to make a living … the loss of all those units of semen, and probably taken by someone who had no idea what they were stealing, is very frustrating,” he told CBS Sacramento.
Farm owner John Azevedo said that it’s so expensive because “the genetics that these Bulls have in them is out of the top 1 percent of the world population.”
Explaining further, Azevedo said, “Over 70 to 75 percent of all cattle in the U.S. is inseminated artificially.”
Reis added that the tanks could pose a danger to whoever had stolen them due to them also containing liquid nitrogen.
“If this liquid nitrogen is to touch their skin, their hands, their fingers, their eyes they could be blinded or get third degree burns. It is a very dangerous product,” he said, per CBS News.
The Turlock Police Department is currently investigating the matter.
A similar incident took place last year when around $70,000 worth of bull semen was stolen from a farm in Minnesota.
