8 ms·

A relatively homogenous, high-value good with minimal security controls? I'm honestly surprised that theft wasn't a problem long before this.

Turing_Machine 9y ago
Probably the average criminal just didn't think of nuts as being particularly valuable (even though they clearly are). Wasn't there a case in Canada a few years back where someone stole a huge amount of maple syrup? That stuff is pretty pricey, too. Edit: yep, $18 million worth. They were caught, eventually. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/27/men-convicted-in-quebec-maple-syrup-theft-should-face-stiff-penalties-crown-says.html https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/27/men-convicted...
- devoply 9y ago
  Hard to off load 18 million of maple syrup.
  - SilasX 9y ago
    Right, the natural barrier to a lot of these crimes is the difficulty of unloading that much product on the black market without attracting attention.
    - dogma1138 9y ago
      Organized crime won't have much problem, you mix it with other goods of the same type and offload them over a period of time.
      - stevenkovar 9y ago
        Nuts go rancid.
        dogma1138 9y ago
        1+ years refrigerated, 2+ frozen.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      No, the hard part with Maple syrup is that there normally are only a handful of suppliers from some very limited regions. It's very hard to suddenly appear out of nowhere as a major seller of Maple syrup without any history to go with it.
    - Finnucane 9y ago
      That's why they suspect organized criminal groups--to get rid of large quantities, you need your own distribution channel. One guy working by himself isn't going to have that.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- pacificmint 9y ago
  And a few years ago theft of the laundry detergent Tide became a big thing.[1][2] You wouldn't think of that as a high theft risk commodity either. [1] http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/ http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/ [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-are-criminals-stealing-tide-detergent-and-using-it-for-money/254631/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-are...
bayesian_horse 9y ago
It's really hard to run away with a valuable quantity of nuts though.

Turing_Machine 9y ago

Probably the average criminal just didn't think of nuts as being particularly valuable (even though they clearly are). Wasn't there a case in Canada a few years back where someone stole a huge amount of maple syrup? That stuff is pretty pricey, too. Edit: yep, $18 million worth. They were caught, eventually. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/27/men-convicted-in-quebec-maple-syrup-theft-should-face-stiff-penalties-crown-says.html https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/27/men-convicted...

devoply 9y ago
Hard to off load 18 million of maple syrup.
- SilasX 9y ago
  Right, the natural barrier to a lot of these crimes is the difficulty of unloading that much product on the black market without attracting attention.
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    Organized crime won't have much problem, you mix it with other goods of the same type and offload them over a period of time.
    - stevenkovar 9y ago
      Nuts go rancid.
      - dogma1138 9y ago
        1+ years refrigerated, 2+ frozen.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    No, the hard part with Maple syrup is that there normally are only a handful of suppliers from some very limited regions. It's very hard to suddenly appear out of nowhere as a major seller of Maple syrup without any history to go with it.
  - Finnucane 9y ago
    That's why they suspect organized criminal groups--to get rid of large quantities, you need your own distribution channel. One guy working by himself isn't going to have that.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
pacificmint 9y ago
And a few years ago theft of the laundry detergent Tide became a big thing.[1][2] You wouldn't think of that as a high theft risk commodity either. [1] http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/ http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/ [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-are-criminals-stealing-tide-detergent-and-using-it-for-money/254631/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-are...

bayesian_horse 9y ago

It's really hard to run away with a valuable quantity of nuts though.