A prominent man had several green apples in the trees in his back yard.  One morning, he walked into his back yard and discovered that all the apples were stolen.  During his investigation of the theft, the remains of the apples were found in an empty field nearby.

In spite of the fact that there was no evidence in the field or the back yard to connect anyone to the theft, the crime was solved and punishment was extracted.  How was it solved?

They got pesticide?

Was it a frog?

The wind blew it away?

Birds?

Hurricane?

Sorry, none of these are correct.

Was it a normal "field"? Or something different..? A mine field?

Normal.

Had the apples been eaten?

If so, was it a person or an animal?

Had the apples been eaten?  Yes.

If so, was it a person or an animal?  You're close when you say person.

Was it dek?

Or is that not close enough?

I never found out the name of anyone involved.

I want to answer more specifically, but without giving stuff away.  'Person' isn't the correct word.

Zombie?

Nothing non-real or non-human.

People (plural)?

Yes.

Is the number of people important?

No.  It was probably somewhere between 12 and 20.

were the apples unripe or just green?

is the colour of the apples important?

does the man's prominence have anything to do with why the apples were stolen?

A rugby field. They were eaten by a rugby team?

Were they taken by one person, sold to many people then eaten and left lying about?

Was it halloween? 'cause if so my guess is that there was some hardcore apple bobbing going on, and the people taking part forgot to bring their apples, so they took them from the next field over.

No, they were taken by more than one person.  There were probably a couple of bushels.

No holidays were involved.

Did the backyard belong to Thomas Lord?

Sorry - I just re-read the bit about being American.  Is this something like the George Washington Cherry tree incident? Would it help me to know the answer if I knew any American history?

Is the prominent man an American historical figure?

'Was it dek?"

HAhahahahahaha

If it's not chocolate pastries of some sort, I ain't interested

Was it Dek as she just realised that she hadn't eaten in 17 hours and she had this evil friend of hers tease her with chocolate scrolls until she went nuts and stole the apples from the prominent man (who may or may not have been an American historical figure)

That so wouldn't  be far from the truth....

This is a true story, but not a famous one.  I don't know the names of any of the people involved.

Now that I think about it, I do know something about rugby.  There's no way the players would eat green apples, though, they only eat human flesh.

HEY EVERYBODY - DEK IS STEALING APPLES FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON!

Did the prominent man know the theives?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Punter you're hillarious 

*scratching head*

george washington is still alive?? I last saw him in my wallet

Did the prominent man know the theives?  Yes, slightly.

would the apples have been stolen if they were not green?

Yes.

Were the theives in some form of uniform (ie troops of some type?)

Darn...thought it might be some sort of Adam & Eve related thing, but I don't think there were 12-20 people around then...

...unless they had some friends over.

ooohhh... nice one.. hmm, so is it a normal "garden" then tro?

They were troops.  It was a normal backyard.

were the troops punished?

is the method of punishment important?

Yes, they were punished.  The method is not important.

Does it have something to do with the civil war? (help me out, my history's more than black and white - it's fuzzy)

If it's the story I'm thinking of I can't find a direct reference to it at the moment - to early in the morning for me, but I can find an oblique reference to it.

The evidence given at the Court Martial provided an insight into the unseemly character of Custer. In addition to causing the death of his inexperienced, half starved, troops, it showed a complete disregard for their welfare, while pursuing his own personal interests. Leaving his post at Fort Wallace, Kansas, without approval, fully aware that the Fort may come under attack, he then travelled 275 miles to visit his wife Libbie. In doing so, he unlawfully used government property as transport for this purpose. This is the same officer who had ordered 25 lashes2 to hungry soldiers who had eaten stolen apples. The media attention at that time contrasts greatly with such coverage today. Such an offender today could expect the termination of his career. Custer was given sympathetic coverage, however, by the newspapers of the day. He remained at Fort Leavenworth for some weeks before returning to Michigan

I was trying to google the rest of this story and I came across this headline. lol

I hate to burst your bubble after that wonderful research, but there are no famous persons in this story.  It has nothing to do with the Civil War.

That's okay.  The research is half the fun.  I came across the story of the old "Cherrybottoms" the 11th hussars again as well.

D'oh.... Plan fail

St. Patrick ..... stole all green apples and made "Green Apple Martini" using clovers and got drunk like a skunk. In the field whoever was drunk was punished.

duh.. no holidays. I guess this is ruled out

Another , Jon Jackson, music album Green Apples, Many stole this from his home and were playing in their fields and were punished

OR people who stole green apples puked and were caught

No to all, except

OR people who stole green apples puked and were caught  Close. 

they pooped out the green apples?

was the crime solved immediately?

They were all dead with cyanide poisoning

Was it like snow white and the poisoned apple? were the dead people dwarfs?

Did they poop out the green apples in the field or the backyard?
And I can't believe I'm asking that question.

Actually just reminded me of a true story that I'd heard - some country folk (Southern Victorian Country) decided that due to a family argument they were going to go to a neighbours farm while he was away and torch a couple of buildings, turn cars over - you know, joyful high spirits.  Of course they were fairly drunk at the time, and part of the way through one of the guys needed to... well, it feeds back into my above question. Anyway, lacking any toilet paper her grabbed some paper's out of his car to wipe his backside with and chucked them with the rest of the poop.  Unfortunately one of the paper's happened to be his unemployment benefit fortnightly form, with his name and address on there.  There's a lot more about this story, but when I heard that I just imagined the copper who was attending the crime scene going through a pile of crap in order to find evidence...

so probably the people who stole green apples puked and had diarrhea (did I speel right?) and vommitted and had chronic shit problems and they all lined up near restroom taking shit all day non-stop after eatign those green apples and puking and shitting all day.(dissentry) .......ewwwwwww....sounds nasty. They grabbed all lined up near restroom and having stomach problems and punished them all without any stealing proof required.............awwwwwwwwwffffffuuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllllllllllllllllllllll stufffffffffffff

It wasn't quite that severe, but you did spell diarrhea correctly.  No one puked.

They didn't do this outdoors, and they weren't caught constantly going to the restroom.

Sounds like a moral tale.  It looks solved to me...

It isn't.  No one actually saw them going to the restroom a lot.  How was the crime solved?

Was there physical evidence where they vacated their bowels that led people to link it to the crime? (Ewww)

Thankfully, no.

There was no investigation of the waste material.

So the evidence was relating to the activities of the troops after the theft and subsequent disembowelling?  (I know it's not the right term, but it works!)

No, the evidence was created at the time of the 'evacuation'.  It wasn't discovered until later.

prominent man was God or Adam or king and from his garden of eden or back yard, green apples were there which would make a lady pregnant. Ladies or queens who had not concieved yet, stole apples, ate, dropped remains, became pregnant and started vomitting. Later on crime was solved based on who vomitted or had smell of vomit in their mouth.

No, nothing like that.  No vomit.  And this is a true story.

With regard to the word 'prominent', that I used:  I would consider the CEO of the company I work for to be a prominent man, but if I told you his name, it would mean nothing to you.

Ignoring hints.

The man lived on an isolated island with only one other person.

Good answer - doesn't fit in with the hints, but I like it.

people who stole apples their tongue/mouths were green......LOL

and they were caught.           EVERYBODY SAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   and take your tongue OUT

ROFL

No, sorry.

Same scenario as before, different ending?  (Please, don't ask me for detail...)

Several scenarios have been posited (even more graphically than I imagined), so I hesitate to say yes.. Nevertheless, given everything that has already been guessed in the thread, the ending is the only piece missing.

Let me rephrase same as this...

funlovingguy          2 days ago
and they were caught.           EVERYBODY SAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   and take your tongue OUT

But with a different END!

Ah.  No.

Had the apples been lying around for a while and started fermenting, so while no-one saw the troops do it, the fact they were walking around with a sheep under each arm and a traffic cone on their head kind of gave it away?

No.

I ate the apples. So there.

Now gimme a point! 

The troops were caught because when their clothes were washed evidence was found on their underwear (stains were left because of the diarrhea taking place in a field with no toilet paper...maybe green stains?)

Plus possibly; the owner of the apples is the one who washes the troops clothes, or is their senior?  The troops underwear all had the soldiers names on them?

No, it has nothing to do with clothing, but you're still red hot.

So they wouldn't have been caught if not for some particular attribute of the green apples?

The apples had some kind of worms in them, which the troops ingested while eating the apples. And then the worms grew in their tummies and grew and grew and *BOOM* exploded out of their tummies.

So they wouldn't have been caught if not for some particular attribute of the green apples?  Nothing more than the attribute already discussed in the thread.

 No worms.

So its a question of how the diarrhea was linked to the soldiers?

Not the actual material, but the fact that they suffered from it, yes.

Was it something to do with them being dehydrated from all the pooping?

No.

Did it turn out to be a couple of kids who now had nasty stomache aches?

Nope.

The prominent man was a doctor, thieves visit him next day for cure for diarrhea.

Ooh that's clever...

No, sorry.

The prominent man was an army officer, the thieves were his cadets (who he slightly knew) who didn't report for duty the next day. They remained in their barracks. Punishment involved pushups.

The prominent man was an army officer, Yes

the thieves were his cadets (who he slightly knew) Yes

who didn't report for duty the next day. No.

They remained in their barracks. No

Punishment involved pushups.  Don't know.

It's been a month.  Is it time for a hint?

It's been a month.  Is it time for a hint? No

The cadets had their early morning run during which they had a bout of diarrhoea.

No.

Did they just simply smell of diarrhea?

No.

Was it a symptom of the diarrhea that gave them away?

or maybe some action they took because of it?

did they use some copper based substance to try to cure it, which turned their tongues green?

No.

Was the action they took related to curing the diarrhea?

No.

Were they trying to hide that fact they were suffering from it?

I admire Sir M's persistence

Everyone else seems to have given up....you could be in with a chance of getting it.

Geez... I was like the first one to give up!

I really have no clue.

Were they drinking unusually large amounts of water, to combat dehydration?

Did their butts squeak where their cheeks were so tightly squeezed together?

Is what the prominent man is prominent for actually feature in the discovery of the criminals?
And how the hell is this still going?

Did their butts squeak where their cheeks were so tightly squeezed together?  While I've known people like that in my life, that is not the case here.

Is what the prominent man is prominent for actually feature in the discovery of the criminals? Not directly.  It was established earlier in the puzzle that he was a commanding officer.  There really isn't anything more to it than that.

And how the hell is this still going? Excellent question.  Perhaps you just have to think militarily.

ok, so the commanding officer has a house with a garden and some apple trees in the back? and his troops come by and eat the apples?

so does he live nearby the barracks? is it wartime? does it matter which country they're in?

he works out who ate the apples because of "something they did". did he see this "something" (as in, an object or situation left behind) or did he see the troops doing the 'something' later on?

did he work out it was his troops because all the toilet paper was gone at the barracks?

have we worked out why the apples gave them diarrhea?

"Diarrhea would be a beautiful name if it didn't mean diarrhea" - Sarah Silverman

did he work out it was his troops because all the toilet paper was gone at the barracks?

Yes.

Finally.

+1 Bard

Almost two months.  This riddle had a pretty good 'run', don't you think?

Hallelujah!!!

Geeez.... *slaps forehead* No wonder you didn't wanna give it up. So obvious in hindsight!

Ok, now someone else has to submit a riddle.  I'm pooped.

LOL!

Oh wow! I came in here and noticed it said 'solved' - I almost did a little wee of excitement!! LOL - no, not really...

Oh....simples really.....

Well done Bard.

i just wet myself

I know how you feel.  I'm getting on in years myself.

ROFL!!!