Egg prices are climbing so high that and thieves are pulling “Ocean’s 11”-style heists of restaurant storerooms for cartons as if they were vaults of cash at the Bellagio.
One recent egg heist took place in Seattle. There, authorities are searching for thieves who “hatched a plan to steal hundreds of eggs and other breakfast foods from a West Seattle café,” during the early morning hours last Wednesday, according to the Seattle Police Department.
It was almost 5 a.m. when officers responded to Luna Park Café after the business reported seeing the criminal activity on their security cameras. Video showed two men entering a refrigerated shed at the restaurant and removing boxes that contained an estimated 540 eggs, worth about $387 according to police.
“They were then seen on video loading the items into a van before egg-celerating from the business,” the department said in a press release issued last Friday.
While Audacy reported that the average price of a dozen large grade A eggs was $4.15 as of December, social media posts from last month showed that prices were up to $12 per dozen in some areas. A bird flu outbreak is also ravaging flocks across the country. It already contributed to a 14% increase in egg prices from November to December.
This week, top grocery chains – including Trader Joe’s, Costco and Kroger – announced purchase limits on eggs. By the end of the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects prices to increase by 20%.
Though eggs filled up most of the thieves’ basket, other items they snatched (liquid eggs, bacon ground beef and blueberries) added up to around $780. An employee arrived to actually witness the egg bandits near the shed, but they quickly fled the scene.
This Monday, café owner Heong Soon Park spoke to USA Today. He said that he noticed a white van and two men stealing things. He arrived at the property around 15 minutes after receiving an alarm.
“When I was trying to stop them, they kind of scrambled into the car and they fled the scene,” said Park. He added that Seattle had heavy snow that day, so the criminals probably knew it would be challenging for police to get to the scene. When Park looked back at the surveillance footage, he saw that the egg thieves even made two visits to Luna Café that night.
Since the theft, Park has replaced all the locks and updated the restaurant’s security system. He doesn’t think there was a way he could have prevented the initial crime from happening and that the theives knew what they wanted and where to find it.
“They just took the food product that's more valuable these days, that’s one thing,” Park explained.
A Seattle Police spokesperson told USA Today that no arrests had been made as of Monday evening. The incident is still under investigation.
“If you can help Seattle police crack this case, please call the SPD Tip Line at (206) 233-5000,” said police.
That case isn’t the only recent tale of disappearing eggs. Audacy reported last week on the theft of an entire truckload of eggs worth tens of thousands of dollars from a distributor in central Pennsylvania.
“State police said on Saturday someone swiped 100,000 eggs from a trailer at Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs in Franklin County, southwest of Harrisburg,” Audacy reported. Those eggs were worth an estimated $40,000.