Last month, we reported that chocolate theft was rising in the UK. In fact, it’s getting so bad that it’s becoming the second most commonly stolen item. The most common? Alcohol. Economic hardship is causing certain items to rise in price, and chocolate is among them. Thieves can steal chocolate and then resell it at their own price to make a pretty penny.
We’re not sure if that’s the motivation behind this theft, but how else do you explain stealing 12 tons of KitKat bars?
The Heist
Last week, a truck going along its route from central Italy to Poland was stolen along with its contents. Those contents happened to be 413,793 KitKat bars. This largely goes against the old ad slogan of “give me a break.” You can’t give anyone a break when you take all of the bars like that. Oh, it’s also theft and goes against the law.
As of the time of this writing, the truck and its contents are unaccounted for. That being said, the bars do have corresponding batch numbers that have been cataloged as stolen. So, in theory, if the thief or thieves did attempt to sell the bars, a quick look-up could catch them with the stolen goods. Naturally, the solution to this is just to eat all the bars without selling them. One would imagine the health risks of that would be just as bad, if not worse than the prison time, though.
Because the people responsible have not been identified or detained, we also don’t know if it was their intent to steal these bars or if that’s just the luck of the draw from stealing this truck. It also needs to be said that whoever the spokesperson for KitKat is has been taking this crime with an extreme sense of lightheartedness.
The Response
“We’ve always encouraged people to have a break with KITKAT – but it seems thieves have taken the message too literally and made a break with more than 12 tonnes of our chocolate. Whilst we appreciate the criminals’ exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes.”
Well said. This is the kind of crime that, if it impacted a smaller business, could absolutely decimate them. It’s in that spirit that we hope whoever’s responsible does the right thing and surrenders the chocolate and themselves. It’s coming up on Easter after all. Now’s the time, more than ever, for new beginnings, let alone chocolate!
