Police in New Jersey are on the trail of an unusually sweet crime – thousands of cases of Haribo gummy bears worth nearly 50 grand have vanished from a storage facility near Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, and investigators are trying to figure out where the candy went and who took it.
According to reports, the missing shipment included a whopping 3,222 cases of Haribo gummies that had been imported from abroad. The container was stored temporarily at a logistics site near the busy port before it disappeared. So far, neither the police nor Haribo has shared details about how the theft happened or who might be responsible.
If that sounds oddly familiar, it’s because it is. Just last month, authorities were busy tracking another major product heist – 24,000 bottles of tequila tied to Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar’s brand that was pulled off through a counterfeit trucking scheme. The Haribo case may not involve fake drivers (yet), but police say that it fits the same pattern of thefts targeting food cargo in transit.
For Haribo, the loss is a tiny fraction of its global output, but still enough to sting. The German company, founded in 1920’s produces around 60 million gummy bears a day at its U.S. factory that is located in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. However, the company still imports a steady flow of candy from Europe to meet demand in the American market.
That’s what makes the missing shipment significant – these weren’t just any gummies. They were part of the imported European stock supplementing U.S. production, which was a premium product meant for distribution across stores on the East Coast.
At roughly $15 a case, the haul might not sound like much next to the multimillion-dollar tequila heist, but it highlights an issue that law enforcement has been seeing more often – food and beverage theft. Because products like candy, snacks, and alcohol are easy to sell and hard to trace, making them surprisingly attractive targets for thieves.
For now, police haven’t said whether they believe the candy was stolen from inside the port, en route to a retailer, or through an inside job. What’s clear is that someone’s sitting on a lot of gummy bears.
Source: Brobible