London cheese specialist Neal’s Yard Dairy reported that a con artist posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer managed to steal 22 metric tons (48,488 pounds) of award-winning cheddar worth over £300,000 (€360,000) before the company realized it had been scammed and reported the theft.
Nearly 1,000 wheels of cloth-wrapped cheese from three makers have gone missing: Hafod Welsh organic cheddar, Westcombe cheddar, and Pitchfork cheddar. The dairy sells a wedge of Hafod Welsh cheddar for £12.90 (€15) for 300 grams; Westcombe for £7.15 (€8.50) for 250g; and Pitchfork for £11 (€13) for 250g. “The high monetary value of these cheeses likely made them a particular target for the thieves,” Neal's Yard Dairy, a distributor, wholesaler, and retailer of British artisanal cheese, stated.
Detectives at Scotland Yard and international authorities are currently searching for the culprits. Tom Calver, a director of Westcombe Dairy, expressed his devastation, stating that a lot of work went into making the cheese that was aged 12 to 18 months. “For that to be stolen ... it's absolutely terrible,” Calver said.
Neal's Yard Dairy has requested international cheesemongers to be on the lookout for the stolen cheese, especially in 10-kilogram and 24-kilogram blocks. The company has also assured that it has paid all three producers of the cheese in full, so the individual dairies would not have to bear the costs.
British chef Jamie Oliver has joined the search for the stolen cheddar, appealing to his 10.5 million social media followers to help solve the mystery. Labeling it the “grate cheese robbery,” Oliver urged his fans to be on the lookout for “lorry loads of very posh cheese.” He humorously added, “If the deal seems too gouda to be true, it probably is! Let’s find these cheese stealers.”
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