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Cars, smartphones, jewelry and cash are among the many valuable items
most people expect thieves to target. However, would think to lock up
their Cheese, Maple syrup or Chicken wings. Yet, these everyday,
ordinary products are among the most commonly stolen goods.
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The thieves who made off with several thousands of
dollars worth of cheese
Cheese, and lots of it, was stolen from a truck parking lot in Oak
Creek, Wisconsin—and by "lots of it" we mean 20,000 pounds ($46,000
worth).
In June 2016, police received a call regarding the theft, and have been
actively looking for the white semi with no distinct markings on it
since. No word as to whether or not they were able to catch the
culprits, but this isn't the first time there's been a large-scale
cheese heist in the area. Six months earlier, $70,000 worth of cheese
stolen in Germantown was later recovered in Milwaukee and sent to a
landfill. And a week before that, $90,000 worth of parmesan was stolen
in Marshfield — that's 41,000 pounds! |
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The millions of dollars of maple syrup stolen from
the "OPEC of the maple syrup world"
Is it the greatest maple syrup robbery, or one of the greatest robberies
overall? In 2013, six million pounds of syrup—worth $18 million—was
stolen from the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, a cache managed by
the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
The Federation is a legal cartel, which oversees about 75% of the
world's maple syrup supply, maintaining large reserves to control global
syrup prices. Quebecois farmers need the approval of the Federation to
produce syrup to sell on the wholesale market. As a result, a black
market for syrup is thriving, and that's likely what led some
sticky-fingered thieves to siphon the Federation's supply.
How did they do it, you ask? The crafty criminals rented space in the
syrup warehouse and, over the course of a year, stealthily siphoned the
gooey goods while the guards were gone. 30 arrests were made in relation
to the heist and two-thirds of the stolen syrup was eventually
recovered. The rest disappeared into the marketplace. |
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The employees who stole thousands of pounds worth
of chicken wings
Chicken wings are a "hot" item on the black market and have been stolen
in large quantities on more than one occasion.
In 2015, a father and son, Paul Rojek, 56, and Joshua Rojek, 33, both of
Syracuse, stole more than $40,000 worth of wings from a New York
restaurant where they worked and sold them on the street, or to other
businesses. Both men were employed as cooks when they placed numerous
wing orders with the restaurant's wholesaler. Officials say the Rojeks
would later pick up the orders and resell them at a reduced price.
Two years earlier, Renaldo Jackson and Dewayne Patterson, of Gwinnett
County, Georgia, stole $65,000 in frozen Tyson chicken wings from Nordic
Cold Storage where they worked. One five-pound bag of frozen chicken
wings sells for about $12.50—if you do the math, that's about 26,000
pounds of wings. Maybe they were hosting a pretty big Super Bowl bash? |
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The woman who walked off with $2000 worth of
beauty supplies
Tierra Hughley, 27, stole $2000 worth of nail polish and false eyelashes
from a CVS in Hobe Sound, Florida. When the store clerk discovered she
hadn't paid for the goods, he met her at her car. She briefly struggled
with a sheriff's deputy and was charged with grand theft, driving
without a license and violently resisting arrest. It was a real
nail-biter! (Yes, we went there.) |
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The robbers who got away with 192 pumpkins
In October 2016, a van was caught on surveillance camera making three
trips to the Farms View pumpkin patch in Wayne, New Jersey. The thieves
inside absconded with 192 pumpkins.
The Kuehm Farm has operated in the area since 1894. Its stand and
pumpkin patch are a favorite local destination and feature “Happy Jack,”
an animated talking pumpkin, as well as seasonal treats such as apple
cider and apple cider donuts.
The purloined pumpkins picked up by the perpetrators were worth between
$2,500 and $3,000. A $1,000 reward has been offered for information
leading to an arrest.
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