Thief uses false paperwork to steal truckload of cheese from factory

EAST ZORRA-TAVISTOCK — It’s not every day that you hear of a cheese heist and thieves making off with a truckload.

But that’s what happened in East Zorra-Tavistock in Oxford County last month, according to police.

Mid-afternoon on Aug. 9, a transport truck rolled up to a Saputo cheese factory on Hope St. West. A man got out of the truck and presented paperwork for a cheese shipment due for New Brunswick. Employees loaded the truck with $187,000 worth of cheese (police did not know what type of cheese), and the man drove off.

Four days later, after the cheese was supposed to have arrived, police were called in. That’s when the business realized the paperwork for the pickup was fraudulent.

OPP media relations Const. Ed Sanchuk said on Sept. 3 that police would be following up on surveillance footage of the incident, and urged anyone receiving a suspicious offer of a large amount of cheese for sale to report it to police.

“If you have someone who came into contact with you offering to sell large sums of cheese they normally wouldn’t have, get in touch with us,” Sanchuk said.