(File photo: Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association)
For the second time in less than a week, police have been able to track down mass quantities of cheese reported stolen in Wisconsin.
Marshfield Lieutenant Darren Larson says the department received a tip Thursday morning that $90,000 worth of Parmesan cheese reported missing from a Marshfield distributor earlier this week might be at a Grand Chute warehouse. Larson says they contacted local authorities who then found the entire shipment intact. The cheese had been unloaded from a stolen semi-trailer into the warehouse.
Larson says the widespread attention of the theft was crucial in tracking down the missing cheese. “Because of the notoriety associated with the case, I think it hit a pretty broad market, and resulted in some really good, credible information as it related to where the current location of the cheese was,” he says.
As for who did it, Larson says there is no one in custody yet, but they are checking into some possible suspects. “I can’t go into details as far as the suspects at this point. We are following some leads currently associated with the distribution of this and the transport of this stolen product, so we’re following up on a number of different avenues, and hopefully, something will come about soon.”
The theft is the second high-profile incident of cheese being stolen in the state during the past month. On Monday, investigators recovered $70,000 worth of cheese products in Milwaukee, which had been on a semi-trailer reported stolen from a Germantown trucking company.
Contributed by WSAU