5 Deliciously Illegal Food Crimes

Last night, thieves in Scotland stole a trailer full of nearly 10 tons of Kellogg's breakfast cereal bars worth £45,000. The heist, according to Detective Constable Martin Lumsden, "obviously involved an element of planning. We are reviewing CCTV footage and want to hear from anyone who may have been in or around the area of the lorry park around the time of this theft, or indeed the hours and days prior to the theft as those responsible may have been in area carrying out some form of reconnaissance and planning."

Breakfast bars aren't the only tasty treats to fall victim to theft. Here are five other foods that thieves have targeted.

1. NUTELLA

In April 2013, thieves in Germany snatched 5 metric tons of Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread—estimated worth: $20,710—from a trailer parked in Bad Hersfeld. Reportedly, a load of energy drinks was also stolen from that location.

2. MAPLE SYRUP

Aunt Jemima would be horrified: In 2012, police in Quebec made three arrests in the theft of 6 million pounds of syrup from Canada’s strategic maple syrup reserve. The thieves rented a separate portion of the reserve’s Saint-Louis-de-Blandford warehouse, which contained 16,000 barrels, for an unrelated business—and when no one was around, they siphoned syrup from those barrels. They even filled some of the 54-gallon barrels with water to disguise their crime, which was eventually discovered during one of the facility’s biannual inspections.

The thieves sold the syrup themselves from a shop in nearby New Brunswick and shipped it to buyers in Ontario, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Approximately two-thirds of the stolen syrup has been located, and authorities are trying to seize it—but even if they don’t, the owners of the pilfered product won’t lose: The syrup is insured.

3. CHEESE

Research has shown that cheese is the most stolen food in the world. Even so, it’s weird to read the words “international cheese smuggling network.” But that’s exactly what three people (one current and one former Canadian police officer and an American accomplice) were busted for in 2012. They were charged with buying brick cheese—which is commonly used for pizza toppings—in the United States and transporting it to Canada hidden in their vehicles. Because cheese in the U.S. costs one-third of what it does in Canada, drivers were able to make $1000 to $2000 a trip, for a total profit of $165,000.

4. GARLIC

In January, Sweden issued arrest warrants for Brits suspected of illegally importing Chinese garlic into the European Union between 2009 and 2010. The EU has a 9.6 percent duty and an additional $1600 per tonne on imported garlic; to get around the tax, which would have amounted to more than $13 million, the criminals shipped their stinky loot to Norway by boat, where it entered duty-free, then drove it into Sweden on trucks. It’s not the first time this has happened, either: There were two garlic smuggling busts in the UK in 2012.

5. MUENSTER CHEESE

In March 2013, an Illinois man was busted in New Jersey driving an 18-wheeler loaded with 42,000 pounds of pilfered Muenster cheese worth an estimated $200,000. The 34-year-old reportedly provided false paperwork to K&K Cheese in Cashton, Wisc., to get his hands on the cheese, and planned to sell the loot well under market value to retailers along the east coast. If the cheese is deemed safe after inspection, it will be donated to charity.

This piece originally ran in 2013.