Police search for thieves with a super sweet tooth

Expert thieves steal 100 tons of kosher-for-Pessah choclate spread.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
chocolate 88 (photo credit: )
chocolate 88
(photo credit: )
It was a heist worthy of the Ocean's 11 gang of sophisticated crooks. After months of planning, a team of expert thieves pulled up in several trucks outside a large building in the Haifa Bay industrial zone in the middle of the night. They proceeded to rapidly neutralize the alarm system, drive their vehicles into the complex, and begin loading 180,000 jars - 100 tons - of kosher-for-Pessah chocolate. That's what police say happened at the Shahar Haoleh chocolate factory in the early hours of Monday morning, when the factory became the scene of a midnight heist. "The thieves will try to resell the chocolate spread," a Zevulon Police spokesman told The Jerusalem Post. "We have launched an investigation." The factory's computers were also stolen, police said, describing the operation as well planned and sophisticated. Shahar Haoleh's marketing manager, Akiva Weitz, told the Post of his surprise at discovering the break-in. "This is the first time that this has happened to us," he said. "We came in this morning prepared to find our Pessah chocolate, and suddenly saw it was gone. We now have a shortage ahead of Pessah, and while we are working to replenish stocks, I can't guarantee we'll make it," Weitz said. He estimated that thieves stole NIS 2 million worth of chocolate.