teas.co.uk
Tea and coffee from the brands you know
The twelve tonne KitKat theft
Somewhere between a chocolate factory in central Italy and a depot in Poland, a whole lorry load of KitKats simply vanished, lorry and all.
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.
Some heists are about gold bars. This one was about chocolate bars, and a lot of them.
A lorry that never arrived
In March 2026, Nestlé confirmed that a lorry carrying around 12 tonnes of KitKats had disappeared. It had left the company's factory at San Sisto in central Italy, heading for a distribution point in Poland, and it never got there. Neither the lorry nor its load had been found when the theft was made public.
The numbers were almost comic. Twelve tonnes works out at an estimated 413,793 bars, and they were not ordinary KitKats. The whole load was made up of KitKat's new Formula 1 chocolate car figures, limited edition novelty bars moulded into the shape of a racing car.
The sums are fun to do. Twelve tonnes shared between 413,793 bars works out at about 29 g of chocolate each. Weighed out the way we sell sweets, in 100 g scoops, the whole lorry load would come to 120,000 scoops.
Have a break
Nestlé took it with good humour. The company said that while it appreciated the criminals' exceptional taste, cargo theft was an escalating problem for businesses of every size. It also warned that the missing bars could turn up for sale through unofficial channels in Europe, so anyone offered a car shaped KitKat at a suspiciously good price had been warned.
Part of a bigger problem
Behind the jokes is a serious point, and it is the one Nestlé made: cargo theft is growing, and it hits small firms as well as big ones. A load of chocolate is valuable, easy to sell on and very hard to trace once it has been unloaded. Chocolate thefts have hit the UK too: in 2023 a man stole a trailer of nearly 200,000 Creme Eggs in Telford, a story told in the great Creme Egg robbery.
For more sweet crimes, from a trailer of Nutella to an entire strategic reserve of maple syrup, see 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
What did Nestlé say about the KitKat theft?
Nestlé said it appreciated the criminals' exceptional taste, but that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes.
Why steal chocolate?
Chocolate is valuable, hard to trace and easy to sell on quickly, which makes a lorry load an attractive target for organised thieves.
Sources
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 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 Nutella heistIn April 2013 thieves stole about 5 tonnes of Nutella from a parked trailer in Bad Hersfeld, Germany. The spread was worth about €16,000.
- 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 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.