Thieves have stolen more than 400,000 Kit Kat chocolate bars weighing approximately 12 tonnes from a truck in Europe.
KitKat said in a statement that the confectionery, manufactured by Swiss company Nestlé, was stolen as the vehicle was distributing the bars along a route from a factory in central Italy to Poland.
“The vehicle and its contents remain unaccounted for and an investigation is ongoing in close collaboration with local authorities and supply chain partners,” the statement said.
A total of 413,793 Kit Kat bars were stolen, the company said. Each product is traceable using the batch number on the pack, and KitKat is asking anyone who finds a match to alert the company.
The statement also referred to a joint report by the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) and the Transport Asset Protection Association (TAPA) EMEA, which concluded that cargo theft and cargo fraud are on the rise and becoming more sophisticated.
“We’ve always encouraged people to stop eating Kit Kats, but it appears the thieves took that message too literally and stole over 12 tonnes of our chocolate,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“While we appreciate the criminals’ exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is a serious problem for businesses of all sizes,” the spokesperson added.
In a statement posted to Instagram on Sunday, KitKat added: “There are no concerns for consumer safety and there is no impact on supply.”
This is not the only major chocolate heist to have occurred in Europe recently; in July 2023, a British man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing 200,000 chocolate eggs.
Joby Poole stole thousands of dollars worth of Cadbury Creme Eggs after breaking into an industrial unit and fleeing in a stolen truck, the PA Media news agency reported at the time.
Milk chocolate eggs with yellow and white fondant ‘yolks’ have a cult following in the UK and are sold at Easter time.
