Watermelon Crime Syndicate Busted
Smith County is renowned for their watermelons. People from across The Valley, Mississippi, and even the Southeast love some Smith County watermelons. During the summer, you can always get a fresh Smith Co. watermelon from multiple people selling them out of the beds of their trucks on Hwy. 49 and other spots in The Valley.
Johnny Waterseed has been pedaling Smith Co. watermelons and other produce on Hwy. 49 for years. He is a founding member of the Hwy. 49 Produce Salesmen Union. Waterseed has developed relationships with his fellow union members over the years, and they all get along well. However, Waterseed and some of the other watermelon salesmen have noticed some newcomers along Hwy. 49 this summer. Waterseed hasn’t had a good feeling about these new guys. He said, “Something is off with these guys. We’ve been running 49 for years, and they think they can come in and take business from us? I thought they were shysters from the get go.”
The new kids on the watermelon block were undercutting Waterseed and his cohorts on price. They were advertising the melons as Smith Co. watermelons too. Waterseed suspected they were not actually Smith Co. melons. Waterseed got his son to buy a melon from one of the newcomers to do a taste test. Waterseed said, “I know how a Smith Co. watermelon tastes, and this melon was not from Smith Co. I was 100% sure.”
Waterseed wasn’t going to let these watermelon shysters get away with false advertisement. He paid his son to follow one of the newcomers home one day; his son then followed the man the next morning. Waterseed was correct. The man was buying watermelons in Louisiana, and then driving back to Hwy. 49 to sell them. Waterseed paid his son to repeat the process with another newcomer, and that salesman was doing the same thing. His son took multiples photos and videos of the men.
Waterseed contacted the Central MS Ag Crime Task Force about the false advertisement of his new competitors. Special Agent Peter Sellers took the case. He repeated the same process as Waterseed’s son, and he also took photos of the melon salesmen. Agent Sellers then questioned the two men, and the two men confessed to false advertisement. They also told agent Sellers 3 more men were in the new watermelon syndicate, and Sellers also got these 3 men to come clean also. The 5 newcomers were fined $250 each, and they all agreed to cease and desist selling watermelons on Hwy. 49. Sellers said, “We take fruit and vegetable false advertisement very seriously. I’ve worked on some pretty sophisticated food cases over the years, but this was not one. These guys were morons. This was my easiest investigation ever.”
Waterseed was pleased with the outcome of the investigation. “Us 49 watermelon salesmen are a brotherhood, and we’re not gonna let shysters take business from us. They’re lucky we contacted law enforcement; it wouldn’t have been good if we would’ve told the union bosses about this.”
Waterseed has had a great summer so far. He’s been selling out almost daily. I asked Waterseed to disclose his financials, but he declined to do so. He said, “The bottom line is the bottom line though, because Uncle Sam and the state ain’t getting jack.”