When the average Joe thinks about the black grocery store , the images that often come to mind are liver being hustled through streets in styrofoam coolers or imitation Fendi purses fall off the back of boxful truck . But , in fact , all sort of poppycock finds itself on the illegal superhighway , include tons upon slews of edible contraband .

According toFreightWatch International , a spheric logistics company that go on track of these thing , food for thought and drinkable made up a whopping 22 % of all load thieving worldwide in 2015 ’s third quarter alone , accounting for nearly $ 800,000 in losses . Those ai n’t no small potatoes . So , why are people risking it all to boost a few bites ? Because it ’s damn lucrative , that ’s why . With tightly controlled dispersion cognitive process , federally govern husbandry practices , and widespread shortages , moving 140,000lbs of complimentary testicle is vouch cash money . And that ’s what makes the world go round , right ? ( Er – money , not nuts . )

Here ’s a brief rundown of the most impressive – and most ridiculous – culinary heists of all prison term . So remember , the next meter you drench your pancakes in some tasty Grade A Canadian maple sirup , you might just be an accomplice to a serious federal criminal offense .

food heist

Daniel Fishel/Thrillist

A rash of cheesy bandits

As it turn out , everybody ’s favorite coagulated dairy farm Cartesian product is one of the food chain of mountains ’s more oftentimes traffic items . Back in 2013 , a 34 - year - sometime Illinois man named Veniamin Balika attempt to truck 42,000lbs of stolen Muenster – that ’s about $ 200,000 , mind you – from Wisconsin to New Jersey , only to be pulled over and taken into custody during the last leg of his journey . The authorities who busted Mr. Balika reported that he was planning to sell the stuff on the cheap to vendor along the East Coast – yep , that have in mind the hot good might have wound up in your food shop sandwich .

These type of shenanigans even occur in France , a state whose love and admiration for tall mallow borders on consummate insanity . Just last year , a mysterious grouping of voleurs made off with over two ton of Comté worth roughly $ 43,000 USD , baffle restauranter in the cheese - know Goux - LE - Usiers region . But these stunts were child ’s play equate to the peachy Parmesan fiasco of 2015 , where a shady banding of robber swiped no less than $ 875,000 USD worth of the surd cheese over the course of two age . They terminate up getting get the following September , but holy havarti , that is some surreptitious work .

Honestly, who needs that much soup?

In October of 2013 , aFlorida Manlifted a big rig adulterate with   $ 75,000 in steal Campbell ’s soup lavatory , drove it onto the turnpike , and was stopped by main road patrol 30 mile later . The military personnel , hoping to avoid hitch and apparently having never seen a individual police drama , hopped a fence and attempt to to fly on foot . The bull nab him , of course , and later charged the idiot with two count of sublime stealing . The soup , of course , was returned to its lawful owner , a Central Florida truck stop grocery store storage that somehow had call for $ 75,000 worth of soup ( insert Mmm Mmm effective put-on here ) .

Canada’s stickiest fingers

Canada made headlines – I sleep together , a rare occurrence – when 6 million Ezra Pound of maple syrup were discovered miss from a single Quebec manufacturer on July 30th , 2012 . In a practice know topically as “ drum - pealing , ” sugar scoundrel had apparently drain about 10,000 barrels of syrup over the form of several months before head out to sell their unenviable reserve , deserving an estimated $ 18,000,000 USD . Mounties were able to find 70 % of the steal lading that next October , but the eternal sleep of the lot remained very much at orotund . By 2015 , all 25 suspect had been catch and , rumor has it , Sony purchased the rightfulness to the story shortly after . Stay tuned .

The Russian caviar capers

On New Year ’s Eve 2005 , a Russian brigand made in effect on his “ Champagne wishes and caviare dreams ” by sneaking into a guarded Moscow parking bunch , breaking the lock off a parked man of affairs ’s truck , and snap up $ 470,000 Charles Frederick Worth of prized carmine caviar . Caviar happens to be a raw material at well - to - do New Year ’s Eve parties throughout the land , so the holdup ’s timing was particularly damaging . Despite a untiring lookup and monolithic printing press coverage , all 845 cans of the fancy fish testicle were never seen again .

Whiskeygate 2013

In October 2013 , one of the humankind ’s most sought - after whisky found itself at the shopping centre ofa heist of unprecedented proportions . Sixty - five cases of Pappy Van Winkle Reserve 20 Year , an exceedingly rare bourbon that regularly run short for thousands upon one thousand of dollars on the resale mart , was rear from Kentucky ’s Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery . To put this into perspective , a single 23 - Imperial gallon Pappy barrel retail for $ 11,000 – and that ’s if you could make it through the three year wait listing . The distillers ab initio suspected an inner job , as the liquor disappear from the highly protected facility over several months . But when local legal philosophy enforcement finally caught up with the spirited swindlers , they were able-bodied to link the crime ringing to a handful of other Bourbon dynasty boosts date back to 2008 . After the dust settled , 17 wooden barrels , 20 cases of Pappy , and one gravid untainted steel of Eagle Rare were recovered – a mere fraction of the thieves ’ estimated $ 100,000 + worth of hijacked hootch .

Chock full of nuts

For reasons I do n’t fully translate , tree nut have become quite the pitch-black market place commodity in late years . This wacky phenomenon was cement in 2012 , when two plotter set out to swipe a cool $ 300,000 in walnuts from GoldRiver Orchards in Modesto , California . The dummies managed to hang up onto the wampum for a full calendar week before getting busted and charged with theft , and in the end , all 140,000lbs of the precious cancer - reducing nugget were return to the orchard .

Beer busts

Anybody remember the late-’70s blockbusterSmokey and the Bandit ? The one where a flog young Burt Reynolds bootlegs 400 cases of Coors Banquet across the South at the behest of two moneyed Texans with 80 one thousand to save ? Shit is tangible , turn out .

Example A : In 2004 , Moosehead Brewing , a successful Canadian ( yes , them again ) craft beer outfit lose cartroad of a Mexico - bound tractor drone ferry 50,400 cans of their flagship lager . When the law of nature finally apprehended the miss goodness in a New Brunswick McDonald ’s parking lot , they discovered that the 31 - year - old beer bandit had already distribute most of his hefty payload throughout the province .

Ten eld afterward , a burglar quietly ganked a articulated lorry hauling $ 32,000 worth of Miller High Life from an Orlando motortruck stop . The motortruck ’s number one wood , who had buy the semi just three weeks prior , was reduce to a blubbering mess at the loss . gratefully , it did n’t take long for Florida police to regain the military personnel ’s darling fomite , chilling in Miami , amply entire and still containing most of the 44,000lbs of lost brewage .

parmesan cheese

Flickr/Brian Boucheron

Then , just this past June , two flatbed backpack with a spoil $ 90,000 inSweetWaterbeer vanish from the Atlanta - found brewery . Using the trucks ’ Global Positioning System systems , it only bring one hr for police to situate 10 pallets deserving of the 80,000 renegade bottles , which had been stashed in a nearby warehouse . SweetWater hire a private researcher to hunt down the persist 30 pallet , and less than 24 hours later , the beer rejoin home safe and sound .

Sign up herefor our casual Thrillist email , and get your fixing of the best in intellectual nourishment / drinkable / fun .

pancakes with maple syrup

Flickr/Eugene Chan

pappy van winkle whiskey

Flickr/Edsel Little

beer kegs

Flickr/bill lapp