BROOKFIELD - The owner of three upscale grocery stores is charged with buying stolen food from a delivery driver and then selling it to customers.

V. Richards in Brookfield is probably one of the last places you would expect a crime to occur, but prosecutors say one did. According to the criminal complaint store owner John Nehring and produce manager Angel Vasquez bought stolen produce and then sold it to customers.

The criminal complaint paints a picture of John Nehring and Angel Vasquez as grocery store employees trying to make a quick buck, thousands, actually, by selling stolen fruit that could have ended up in your kitchen.

The complaint says the two made illegal orders through a Tropic Banana delivery driver.

"It got to the point where they used to call him up, and order what they wanted, and not what he wanted to bring them,” Tropic Banana owner Tony D’Acquisto said.

Attorney John Schiro says V. Richards owner Nehring never bought any stolen fruit. Instead, Schiro claims Tropic Banana is trying to extort his client by demanding $20,000. That's how much Tropic Banana says the stolen pineapple, peaches and apples, are worth.

“A month later he received a demand for $20,000, or he would go to the authorities,” Schiro said.

Tropic Banana owner D'Acquisto says he did demand to get paid for the stolen fruit, but says it wasn't extortion. He's just angry V. Richards customers could have bought stolen fruit, eaten stolen goods, and not even known it.

“It was all our merchandise,” D’Acquisto said.

The driver who delivered that produce that was allegedly stolen has not been charged.