Con Man Steals Nearly 50K Pounds of Cheese

Thieves with a nose for fine cheese have pulled off a massive cheddar ripoff in London. Neal's Yard Dairy said a con artist posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer made off with 22 metric tons (48,488 pounds) of award-winning cheddar worth 300,000 British pounds ($390,000) before the company realized it had been scammed and reported the theft this week, per the AP. "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, said in a statement.

Detectives at Scotland Yard and international authorities are searching for the culprits. Nearly 1,000 wheels of cloth-wrapped cheese from three makers have gone missing: Hafod Welsh organic cheddar, Westcombe cheddar, and Pitchfork cheddar. Neal's Yard Dairy has asked international cheesemongers to be on the lookout for the stolen cheese, particularly in 10-kilogram (22-pound) and 24-kilogram (52-pound) blocks. It says it has paid all three cheesemakers in full, in keeping with its ethos of supporting small independent businesses developing the British cheese sector.

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