We’re all aware that some people tend to shoplift a candy bar or sneak a shirt out of a store every now and then. In themselves, these things are nothing compared to some of the more expensive and in some cases, massively huge things people have managed to steal over the years. So, we’ve come up with a list of items that have been stolen, and it will leave you wondering why on Earth these thieves even wanted them in the first place.It happened in Simi Valley. How they managed to get the 30-foot-tall monstrosity from the lot without anyone noticing is anyone’s guess, but it was eventually found on the grounds of a nearby high school.
Honestly, it’s not that surprising given that there’s a rumored black-market demand for Nutella. The mixture of hazelnut and chocolate flavors are irresistible; hence why someone unloaded $20,000 worth from a parked truck and placed it in a getaway truck.
A semi-truck containing 20,000 pounds of cheese worth an approximate $46,000 was in a semi-truck when cheese pirates stole the vehicle in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. But apparently, cheese theft in the area is pretty common.
The employee/thief named Vincenzo Perugia hid and waited until closing time to remove the Mona Lisa. When the gallery reopened, he walked out with it under his smock and kept it at his place in Paris. It was found after he tried selling it to an art dealer in Italy. He was later arrested.
A man broke into a hair salon in Largo, Maryland and stole two large bins full of hair extensions. Fortunately, surveillance footage caught the thief in the act, but no word on whether this helped cops apprehend the man.
The room was designed and created by a German sculptor and a Dutch craftsman in Prussia. It was then relocated to the Winter House in St. Petersburg, Russia and then moved to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin. But During WWII, Nazis shipped it to Königsberg, Germany, and was destroyed during a bombing raid in 1944.
Well, it wasn’t physically taken. The Daily News filed fake paperwork to transfer the property’s deed to prove that the city’s system records transactions had a problem. The $2 billion building was technically only stolen for 90 minutes, but a point was definitely made.
Fortunately, he was arrested after attempting to smuggle the bones to the United States. He ended up spending 3 months behind bars and is now helping authorities with their investigation on the black market that’s dedicated to acquiring and selling fossils.
The crimson shoes worth about $2 to $3 million were snatched from the Judy Garland Museum. But in 2018, the FBI was able to recover them safely. They even managed to identify the thieves after they tried extorting money in exchange for their safe return.
NASA was able to confiscate the $200,000 stolen engine, which the man claimed had been sold to him by someone who worked for NASA. Rumor has it that someone else also tried selling a similar engine design in 2010 on eBay. But it might have been the very same engine.
In 2012, 720,000 gallons of maple syrup went missing in Quebec, Canada. Thieves had somehow drained 16,000 45-gallon barrels of the syrup, but it was eventually found in another facility, and the owners claimed the syrup wasn’t stolen but legally bought.
In 2003, thieves climbed outside the museum’s scaffolding, broke through a window and took the sculptures without tripping any of the motion sensors. But the thieves got caught when they attempted to extort cash from the museum’s insurance company.
It’s worth $3.5 million and meant everything to famous violinist Erica Morini before it was stolen in 1980. She passed away not long after the theft, and it took the FBI 35 years to finally get this rare musical instrument back.
