A huge cheese heist has experts wondering where it will go

Thefts of food products are not uncommon, so it is not a huge surprise that someone would plan a heist of a commodity like cheese, which happened recently to Neal’s Yard Dairy, where over £300,000 worth of cheddar was stolen by swindle. What makes this theft unusual is the quality of the product, which will make it difficult to resell.

Usually when a big food theft is planned, the goods are a bulk commodity like olive oil, or maple syrup, which are all relatively easy to fence because it is not easy to determine their provenance. However, the raw milk cheddar from Neal’s Yard Dairy is easily recognizable by anyone in the know about cheese, making it more difficult to dispose of. The scenario surrounding the heist makes it seem likely that the thieves already had a buyer or buyers in mind or even were contracted to do the job.

This was a long con, starting back in July when Neal’s Yard received an email from an ostensibly reputable distributor that was allegedly providing the goods to a French supermarket. After months of building a relationship with co-owner of Neal’s Yard Sarah Stewart, the buyers absconded with 22 metric tons of cheese and Stewart was left with nothing but empty promises.

The stolen cheeses demand precise storage conditions, which makes it unlikely that the thieves were planning to sell the product by drips and drabs out of the back of a truck. A more likely scenario is that the thieves knew the buyers in advance, with Russia being a possible destination for the cheese. How the cheese is traveling to its intended resale location is also a mystery. The clock is ticking on the shelf life of the cheese, and some experts think much of it may end up rotting in a landfill.