"robbery" news and stories

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Turkish Cucumbers. Photo: beautifulcataya, Flickr

Twelve separate cucumber thefts have put Australian police in a pickle.

According to ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), cucumber capers have targeted market farmers in Adelaide over the past three months, stealing more than $10,000 worth of the popular vegetable.

"It's certainly a unique theft," Chief Inspector Kym Zander told ABC.

Few leads are reported at this point, but police are speculating as to all possible motives, including the case of a jealous farmer.

"We're looking at the possibility that it may be a grower that's had a failed crop and he's substituting through theft," Zander said.

Police do believe the timing of the thefts shows the thieves are in the know.

"Somebody has the knowledge that cucumbers are being picked at the appropriate time, they're being stored in boxes, buckets or bags -- and overnight the thefts are occurring," Zander tells ABC News reporter Pete McDonald.

Even if there was a lead, Zander admits it is hard to determine which cucumbers are the stolen ones.

Embezzled cukes could be sold right under investigator's noses at local grocery stores and markets, as there is no way to detect a cucumber's origin.

It looks like Hansel and Gretel aren't the only ones who tried to advantage of crumbs to lead them to where they wanted to go. The police in Sylva, North Carolina were able to use a very literal - not just literary - trail of cake crumbs to track down two thieves who attempted to break in to the police station last week.

The two suspects damaged the door of the station in their attempt to gain entry and, when they couldn't force the door, instead stole a sign, some flags and flagpoles before making their getaway. The door to the station was "smeared with cake and frosting" and a trail of the same sweets led along the main street, leading away from the station. It didn't take long before the detectives found their way to the two suspects, who "had cake all over them."

As you might expect from two people who smear themselves with cake and try to break into a police station, the pair had been drinking (heavily) at a birthday party in a nearby restaurant. Witnesses identified the suspects as having been serving the cake to partygoers, and then later also spotted them with the stolen goods.

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