teas.co.uk
Tea and coffee from the brands you know
The Nutella heist
Over one weekend in 2013, a German town woke up to find that thieves had made off with a trailer load of chocolate hazelnut spread.
In this article
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Of all the things you might steal from a lorry park, a trailer full of chocolate spread would not be the first thing most people think of. In 2013, somebody thought of it.
A sticky weekend in Bad Hersfeld
Over a weekend in April 2013, thieves made off with about 5 metric tonnes of Nutella from a trailer parked in the central German town of Bad Hersfeld. News reports put the value at around €16,000, and said an unknown number of culprits had been involved. The story was picked up from Canada to the United States, mostly because headline writers could not resist the puns.
How much is 5 tonnes of Nutella?
Five tonnes is 5,000 kg. To put that in perspective, it would fill about 12,500 jars of 400 g each. Weighed out in the 100 g scoops we use for pick and mix, it comes to 50,000 scoops. That is a lot of toast.
Why it was not quite as silly as it sounds
It is easy to laugh, but the thieves were not daft. Five tonnes of a branded food is easy to sell on to shops and market traders, it does not carry serial numbers like electronics do, and once it is out of the trailer it is almost impossible to prove where it came from. That is the same reason lorry loads of sweets and chocolate keep being targeted today, from Creme Eggs in Telford to KitKats crossing Europe.
Not the only one
The Nutella job is part of a long list of food thefts that sound funny and cost businesses real money. A year earlier, investigators in Quebec had uncovered the biggest of them all, when thieves drained millions of dollars of maple syrup out of a strategic reserve. You can read that one in the great maple syrup heist, and the rest in famous sweet thefts from lorries.
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
How much Nutella was stolen?
About 5 metric tonnes, taken from a parked trailer in Bad Hersfeld over a weekend in April 2013 and worth an estimated €16,000.
Why would anyone steal Nutella?
Food is easy to sell on quickly and very hard to trace, which is why trailers of chocolate, spreads and sweets are targeted.
Sources
- 5 tons of Nutella stolen in Germany, The Christian Science Monitor
- Nutella theft in German town valued at over $20K, CBC News
Keep reading
- Stories, heists and recordsThe great Creme Egg robberyIn February 2023 a man stole a lorry trailer holding nearly 200,000 Creme Eggs in Telford. The chase ended on the M42 and he was jailed.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe twelve tonne KitKat theftIn March 2026 a lorry carrying about 12 tonnes of KitKats, 413,793 bars, disappeared on its way from Italy to Poland.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe great maple syrup heistIn 2011 and 2012 thieves stole nearly 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup worth C$18.7 million from a Quebec reserve, swapping it for water.
- Stories, heists and recordsFamous sweet thefts from lorriesFrom 200,000 Creme Eggs on the M42 to 12 tonnes of KitKats lost in Europe, the biggest sweet and chocolate thefts, with the facts.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe Beatles and the Jelly BabiesIn 1963 George Harrison let slip that he liked Jelly Babies, and fans pelted the Beatles with them. In America they threw hard jelly beans instead.
- Stories, heists and recordsDoctor Who and his Jelly BabiesThe Doctor first offered a jelly baby in 1968. Patrick Troughton started it, Tom Baker made it a trademark, and in 1996 Paul McGann offered one too.