Tom Selleck’s California avocado farm is his pride and joy – but it’s not without drama.
The 79-year-old star recently revealed his heartbreak over years of drought destroying his trees.
However, long before his confession, Tom was fighting tooth and nail to protect his avocado trees and oaks and landed himself in hot water while doing so.
In 2015, Tom was accused of stealing water… and lots of it.
Tom accused of stealing
The Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County, California, pointed the finger at the Blue Bloods star and claimed he had stolen approximately 1.4 million gallons of water over a two-year period.
They said a tanker truck had been pilfering water from a local hydrant to water Tom’s ranch during a severe, four-year drought.
The district took legal action against Tom and even spent $22,000 hiring a private investigator to find out if he had taken the water illegally over district boundaries.
They claimed a white truck filled up at a Thousand Oaks hydrant on multiple occasions and delivered the water to his sprawling ranch.
He and his wife, Jillie – who was also named in the complaint – were not supposed to be taking water from a hydrant in a different water district.
At the time, a resources manager for the Calleguas Municipal Water District said: “Our 630,000 customers are ripping out their lawns, drastically cutting back on the water they use. The water that we have secured for them, that they have paid for, should remain in district boundaries.”
Tom’s heartbreak
Tom recently opened up about his life away from the cameras when he got candid about losing his 100-year-old trees to drought.
In a conversation with People, he said: “That just breaks your heart…But with the rain we’ve had, the sick ones are getting better, and they’re all sprouting a lot of healthy growth.”
He described his favorite activities on the ranch as reading the morning paper and driving around on his ATV to check on the wildflowers. “I’ve planted them for years and they bloom in cycles,” he said.
Will he be forced to move?
As the star wraps up his long-running role on Blue Bloods, he’s already mulling over his future and his home.
“You know, hopefully I keep working enough to hold onto the place,” he told CBS about living on his farm.
Correspondent Tracy Smith asked: “Seriously, that’s an issue? If you stopped working?”
To which Tom wistfully responded: “That’s always an issue. If I stopped working, yeah. Am I set for life? Yeah, but maybe not on a 63-acre ranch!”