Generous community donation of apples comes from big truck crash

If the old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” rings true, there will be many doctors in the Pahrump Valley with a lot of time on their hands this month.

Last Tuesday, the Nevada Highway Patrol responded to a single-vehicle rollover crash of a big rig hauling a full load of apples on U.S Highway 95 between Lathrop Wells and the community of Beatty.

Pahrump’s Two Star Towing was summoned to the scene.

Owner Bobby Woods said the overturned semi spilled some of its load along the highway as a result of the crash.

“When we got up there, the truck and trailer were both destroyed and it was carrying 40,000 pounds of apples,” he said. “We brought them in and after talking with the trucking company, we were told that they can’t sell the apples even though most of them were not damaged and in pristine condition.”

The following day, Woods received a phone call from NHP with a suggestion on what to do with all of the apples which were the Red Delicious variety from Washington State.

The trucking firm’s insurance company is expected to cover the loss.

“They called us and told us not to sell the apples, but we could just give them away for free,” he said. “We decided that we would offload the good apples and we had Pahrump Valley Disposal bring in some dumpsters and we disposed of the bad apples. We figured there were roughly a thousand 45-pound boxes of apples that were left over. We lost about 150 to 200 boxes of apples that were damaged. I told my employee that we needed to get rid of the good apples somehow.”

Woods said he then reached out to area agencies who could possibly benefit from the donation.

“We first donated the apples to local food banks and churches as well as the Pahrump Senior Center, and after that, we decided to open it up to the public, so we posted it on Facebook. With some of the damaged apples, we figured that maybe some local residents who had horses, pigs are other livestock could use it for feed.”

As a result, the social media posting got the attention of hundreds of area residents, as the response was overwhelming at the 2190 West Charleston Park location.

“People kept coming here to get some apples and it seemed like it was nonstop,” Woods said. “We told others who were waiting to come back the next day at 10 a.m., and they were lined up at the front gate. We have pretty much given all of them away, other than what we have saved for some of our employees and a few close friends. We also took some cases and delivered them to some of our loyal customers and the different shops that we work with here in town.”

Woods said all of the recipients were beyond grateful for the altruistic gesture.

“We didn’t want anything out of it and I certainly did not want the apples to spoil where we had to waste them and throw them all away,” he said. We just wanted to see some of the great organizations in town benefit from the offering.”

Additionally, Woods said he is grateful that the driver of the big rig escaped serious injury after the crash.

“That big rig flipped over several times but the driver was out walking around right after the accident,” he recalled. “The driver had a few scratches and cuts but other than that, he was walking around so he was okay.”

As Two Star Towing routinely responds to motor vehicle collisions at the request of law enforcement, Woods said from time to time the mishaps involve big rigs hauling various products.

“We had a big rig carrying a load of onions a couple weeks ago, where the people abandoned it with us,” he said. “To make a long story short, the onions went bad and really stunk the joint up. On previous incidents, we have had lumber trucks and beer trucks as well as those onions.”

Pahrump’s Two Star Towing, with five full-time and one part-time employee, is now in its 33rd year of doing business in the Pahrump Valley.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes