The thieves cut them carefully and quickly, Allison Dunkenberger said. While the Dunkenbergers planned to take several days to harvest, working with friends and family and pausing for processing, the thieves accomplished the job between sundown and dawn.

The Dunkenbergers live in Salem, but Allison Dunkenberger said she was at the winery during the day Monday and the grapes definitely were on the vines. When David Dunkenberger arrived early Tuesday morning ahead of the planned harvest, the fruit was nearly all gone, she said.

The bandits would have needed one large truck or a number of smaller ones to carry the grapes away, she said.

On the Firefly Hill’s Facebook page, a photo of six lugs — the plastic totes used to haul grapes — showed all that the winery said was left of its crop, less than 200 pounds of grapes.

Allison Dunkenberger said the value of the stolen fruit was about $20,000 or $25,000, but if the time and materials used in caring for them was included, the loss was closer to $50,000. Firefly Hill’s insurance does not cover theft of the crop, she said.

Dunkenberger said that the family planted the vines 12 years ago and gathered the grapes each year.