Cheese crime alert, cheese crime alert! More than £300,000 (about $389,100) worth of rare, award-winning English and Welsh cheddar has been stolen. The con went down like this: London-based retailer Neal’s Yard Dairy was contacted by purported agents of a French supermarket, but they were actually thieves who absconded with the hefty load. The order placed was a huge windfall for the cheese-purveyor: 950 wheels (I’m imagining big drums like the Parmesan the Italian Olympian gymnast posed with this summer) totaling 22 tons of Hafod, Westcombe, and Pitchfork cheddar, and Neal’s Yard is such a stand up dairy that they still paid their local suppliers. But this isn’t right and it cannot stand! The Metropolitan Police are on the case, and chef Jamie Oliver took to Instagram (he captioned it “The Grate Cheese Robbery,” nyuck nyuck) to ask cheese lovers far and wide to be on the lookout for “lorryloads of very posh cheese.” There you have it, folks. The call has been issued — will YOU help to stop this case of major cheese crime?
[From The Guardian]The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has encouraged cheese lovers to help police catch scammers who defrauded a London dairy out of more than £300,000 worth of English and Welsh cheddar.
Neal’s Yard Dairy, a distributor and retailer of British artisan cheese, delivered 22 tonnes of award-winning clothbound cheddar to the alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a large French retailer before realising it had been duped.
Oliver, 49, described the incident involving more than 950 wheels of cheddar as a “brazen heist of shocking proportions”.
He told followers on Instagram to be alert if they heard anything about “lorryloads of very posh cheese” being offered “for cheap”, adding that the cheddar would have originally been worth about £300,000.
The stolen cheeses were Hafod Welsh organic cheddar, Westcombe cheddar, and Pitchfork cheddar, which have won a number of awards and are among “the most sought-after artisan cheeses in the UK”, Neal’s Yard Dairy has said.
It said it had still paid Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork, the small-scale producers of the stolen products, so they would not have to bear the cost.
The three cheeses sell for between £7.15 and £12.90 for a small piece weighing 250-300g.
Neal’s Yard Dairy added it was working with the Metropolitan police to identify the perpetrators.
The dairy is calling on cheesemongers around the world to contact them if they suspect they have been sold the stolen cheese, particularly clothbound cheddars in a 10kg or 24 kg format with the tags detached.
On Friday, the Met said in a statement it was investigating a “report of the theft of a large quantity of cheese” from a London outlet.
Bless the Met media contact who confirmed they were investigating a “report of the theft of a large quantity of cheese.” Was it part of a daily press brief? I wonder how cheese crime stands up against the average car theft, but I digress… Meanwhile, BBC News spoke with one of the suppliers, Patrick Holden, whose Hafod Welsh cheddar was among the stolen lactose loot:
Truckles of Patrick Holden’s Hafod Welsh Cheddar were among the £300,000 worth of product stolen in a scam on 21 October.
Mr Holden said he believed the con was “sophisticated” and the cheese could have been taken to Russia or the Middle East.
Did you catch that? He called the crime “sophisticated.” I don’t know about you, but when I hear “sophisticated” and “cheddar” put together in two stories in the span of a week, something smells fishy to me. Forget Sherlock Holmes, I think I cracked the case! Goldfish just rebranded their classic cheddar crackers as Chilean Sea Bass, promoting it as an adult, “sophisticated” version of the snack that’s usually associated with kids. But what if that whole marketing stunt was to distract from the fact that Goldfish is behind the large-scale theft of British cheddar! And they thought they could pull the cheesecloth over on us, ha! Of course, I hope Neal’s Yard Dairy recovers from their loss. Following that, I look forward to the eventual, inevitable Netflix documentary on this stinkiest of all heists.
Cheese responsibly, people! Your conscience will never forgive you, even if your gut will.
photos credit: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
I feel bad for the yard to get tricked like that, that’s a lot of money to be out!
There is a thing I never knew.
Rare cheese?
Oh yeah. There is one made in Oregon (Rogue River Blue, wrapped in grape leaves and soaked in pear juice) that is $80usd per 18oz, only a limited number made globally annually. Total heaven for blue cheese lovers.
Pear juice? Never heard of it, but I would definitely try it. Love a blue, especially Cashel (local to my home city) or Shropshire Blue.
Hard to find, usually only available three or so months a year. Neal’s Yard would probably get it. I get in Australia from The Essential Ingredient.
Will keep an eye out for Cashel and Shropshire, always love a good blue.
I’ve been to the Neal’s Yard location by Borough Market and the staff and cheese are fantastic. Very sad for them and I hope their insurance steps up.
Yeah, let’s worry about that.
Alright, I feel bad because know this is a loss for the business and for the cheese world – I mean that’s a significant sum for any business to eat (get it?)….
….but at the same time all I can think of is that Kardashian clip….”people are dying Kim.”
which is terrible because theft is still theft obviously.
This story sounds so incredibly British, lol. Quick call Father Brown!
I’d love to know which French supermarket it was supposed to be that was buying the wheels. I miss a good cheddar, there’s nothing here in France that is similar.
Update on that cheddar theft:
The Guardian reported earlier today that a 63 year old man was arresred, questioned — and that he’s out on bail, while the enquiries are ongoing. I guess they’re still trying to find the cheese.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/31/man-arrested-over-theft-of-22-tonnes-of-cheese-from-neals-yard-dairy