Deputies: Cheesy Crook Swiped $85K of Mozzarella

Hungry Howies pizza locations in Central Florida might be hard-pressed to deliver on orders calling for extra cheese over the next few days.

It seems a refrigerated tractor piled high with an estimated $85,000 in shredded mozzarella was swiped by thieves before it could arrive at its Lakeland destination.

The haul out of the Hungry Howies headquarters in Michigan was bound for the company’s distribution center in the Tampa Bay area. The shipment, however, was stolen in the tiny town of Summerfield in Marion County, the Ocala Star Banner reports.

The cheese heist unfolded over the weekend when the tractor trailer was left at Hubbard’s Truck Parking in Summerfield so problems with the rig could be checked by a mechanic. The driver’s girlfriend, the Star Banner reported, drove by the lot on Sunday and noticed the trailer was gone.

See Also:

• Thieves Drove Away with 36,000 Pounds of Crisco
• Man Delivers Dead Body to Lawyer’s Office

As officers began to look into the cheese theft, they also discovered a Kenworth hauler had been swiped, presumably to tow the trailer full of pizza toppings. That missing trailer has white mud flaps on it that read “Hudsonville Trailer Sales” and a Michigan plate, the Florida Times Union reported.

Anyone who spots the stolen trailer is asked to call the Marion County Sheriff’s Office at 352-732-9111.

This particular crime isn’t the only unusual food-based caper reported in recent times. Last October, someone in St. Petersburg drove away with 36,000 pounds of Crisco bound for the Publix distribution center in Lakeland.

Patch file photo

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