Tahoe Crawfish Thief Strikes Again (And Again)

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. (CBS/AP) -- It's not that easy to catch crawfish in Lake Tahoe. Turns out, it's harder to keep them.

Tahoe Lobster Co. Owner Fred Jackson says someone's been stealing his traps ever since he launched Tahoe's first commercial crawfish harvest operation last year. Since fall, he says 160 traps have gone missing at a loss of more than $21,000.

Jackson suspects it's a disgruntled fisherman who fears the crawfish are a necessary food supply for trout and other sport fish. But he says the 4,500 pounds of crawfish he pulled from the lake last year put less than a 1 percent dent in Tahoe's overall population.

He tells the Tahoe Daily Tribune he sunk all his money into the business and doesn't know how long he can stick with it.

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