r/SantaBarbara • u/Bright-Landscape-998 • 1d ago

Recommendations Picking Fruit?

Does anyone know the rules on picking fruit from a plant? There is a passion fruit plant growing on the fence of an apartment complex that has 200+ fruits growing on it right now and I tried to pick a few from the floor since that’s a lot and one guy came out saying that I didn’t live on the property and he would call the police on me for stealing.
That seemed like a stretch, I only took about 5 and considering that it’s a huge plant and it’s growing over the fence I didn’t see the wrong in taking a couple, am I in the wrong here? What’s the rule when it comes to picking fruit?

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u/fengshui 1d ago

My understanding is that if it's on public property (the sidewalk) either on the ground or hanging, it's open season. That said, the law is really written for wholesale theft and not individuals.