If you’re starting to think there’s been a lot of cheese crime going on lately—you are absolutely right. Just last week, French officials were brought in to apprehend thieves who got away with four tons of cheese at a value of over $43,000.
Apparently, this isn’t a rare occurrence either—a 2011 study from the U.K.'s Center for Retail Research revealed that cheese is actually the most stolen food product in the world.
This most recent case involved the theft of about 100 wheels of comté, a luxury cheese which can only be made in the Franche-Comté region and only using unpasteurized cow’s milk. With comté valued at over $43 a pound, officials have valued the total amount of product stolen at more than $43,000.
Breaking through a barbed-wire fence and into a back door with a crowbar, officials told L'Est Republican that these cheese smugglers will likely sell the goods on the black market. Who knew there was such a hot, underground market for what one expert referred to as, “dairy crack?”
According to news source Telegraph, the giant size of the haul has led police to look at recent thefts of large-sized vehicles in the area, but no leads have been revealed thus far.
