Fruit Picking Etiquette - What is OK & what isn't

[Hotzcatz]

Usually well behaved and mannerly folks will ask before taking fruit from a tree or even fruit fallen under a tree unless you post a sign saying it is okay to pick. Since you had left the fruit on that side of the tree those ill mannered folk were encouraged into bad behavior. It doesn't make what they did any better but had the fruit been picked off the tree, they would have not been as likely to misbehave. I sort of suspect with times getting hard they may be taking the fruit to the farmer's market to sell or selling it somewhere else.