A family whose Kapoho papaya farm was vandalized two years ago has been struck again.
Police said on Friday that about 100 papaya trees were cut down overnight Thursday at a farm off Highway 132 near the 4-mile marker. The victim, according to papaya grower and Hawaii Papaya Industry Association board member Peter Houle, is J.R. Bernardo. Bernardo is the son of Jimmy and Erlinda Bernardo of J and L Papaya Farm, who lost five acres to machete-wielding vandals in July 2011.
“He was very, very teary-eyed, his head down all day,” Houle said of J.R. Bernardo, who’s also a college student. Houle said that the young Bernardo has about three acres in production.
The trees were 3- to 4-feet tall and police put the damage estimate at $3,000.
Read the full, original story here: “Papaya trees vandalized in Kapoho”
