stolen honey in tubs

[Luka22]

It would very much surprise me, if that would be done by a normal beekeeper. Yes, it would need the knowledge of its value, but it would also need a lot of criminal energy to do that.

I would rather ask myself, who would know what was inside the storage, if it was not advertised outside of the building and than who is aware of its value.

 

[alanf]

There cannot be many places where you could sell 5 tons of honey in 30 lb tubs. As English honey, the value is the provenance, otherwise it's just another bulk honey from some imported source which, as far as I have read, would normally be in steel drums. It's combinations of packing, lack of provenance and low price that would make any offer suspicious.

It's unlikely to be retail packed in that quantity by anybody who isn't already set up to handle it, and any other way of shifting it is going to be severely restricting the value. If it was my honey that had gone, I'd be contacting the honey packers with as much description as I had. In the meantime I'd be looking for a way to indelibly mark the containers I had left and any I was intending to use next year; make any future thefts harder to dispose of.

 

[oliver90owner]

It would very much surprise me, if that would be done by a normal beekeeper.

You're right there. Let's most of us off the hook!

My initial thoughts would be a bent beekeeper who would normally retain sufficient honey for a poor year, but has failed to do so.

The local, or even not so local, pikeys who will nick anything.

A disgruntled business associate who has perhaps arranged for goods taken 'in kind' rather than 'monetary'.

Someone targetting the business or owner for other reason.

Someone very short of plastic buckets!

a way to indelibly mark the containers I had left and any I was intending to use next year

Feed the bees with MMs?

Good time of the year for the brigands to be melting the honey enough to transfer to barrels - there might be a give-away cloud of robbing bees around, were it in the summer months!

I would think whoever might have nicked anywhere near that amount of honey would know where it was to be disposed of, previous to the acquiring of same. But it will keep, I suppose.....

 

[rolande]

Someone very short of plastic buckets!

Think you may have hit the nail on the head there!

But it will keep, I suppose.....

This of course is the key isn't it? So long as a safe storage location is available this honey can be held over for a year -or even longer. It could of course be released onto the market at the rate of (say) a ton a year until it's gone.

 

[johnfly]

He said he had CCTV images of the theft, which appear to show a man, woman and younger man piling the 30lbs tubs of honey into a lorry, having broken the locks on three storage areas at his yard.
Police confirmed they were investigating the burglary and have asked anyone with information to call 101 quoting incident 119 of December 21.

 

[Chris B]

He should get the footage posted somewhere so beekeepers everywhere can see it. A good chance of recognition I would guess.

 

[dpearce4]

youtube with a link from here would work for me.

 

[Luka22]

To post the footage sounds like a great idea. If it's people connected to beekeeping, than the chance should be high that someone recognises them.

I still can't imagine that it's a normal beekeeper, but to me it sounds like its someone accociated to beekeeping business, so they knew excatly what they were doing.

I mean I can't imagine they break into a storage hoping for something of value (TV's or whatever) and than say, well never mind, there is only buckets of honey stored, so lets take them and see what we can do with it. I am sure they knew where and what to look for, so might even be close to the person they stole from.

 

[Chris B]

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co...dington-yard/story-17669968-detail/story.html

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

He said he had CCTV images of the theft, which appear to show a man, woman and younger man piling the 30lbs tubs of honey into a lorry, .

........with a large tow hitch, having left the caravan and lurchers down the road?

ooh - got to be careful the hand wringers will be off again moaning about predjudice against certain types of people who'se ancestors carried pikes in defence of our realm (allegedly)

 

[alanf]

There are plenty of non legitimate loads being transported aroud the country. The usual contents are booze and cigs. Either 'smuggled' from lower duty countries or low grade products with faked premium labels. There are plenty of retailers prepared to supplement profits with a no questions asked box or two of goods at a bargain price.

It's the raw food in bulk packs I find odd. The idea that to be sold as premium English honey it needs to be packed in 10,000 or more supermarket sized jars. If you're going to do that, less risky and nearly as high profits passing off imported bulk honey. Otherwise you're disposing of it in buckets to hotels or caterers and it's competing with bulk imports directly. It's either been taken by someone with a pretty good idea of how to dispose of it before they started or it's opportunists who will find that there's a lot more work involved to turn it to cash.

 

[VEG]

Sounds more like someone with a lot of know how in how it was stored and the right time to do it. They must have had access to the place to know what sort of alarms and things were in place.

 

[Little John]

Sounds more like someone with a lot of know how in how it was stored and the right time to do it. They must have had access to the place to know what sort of alarms and things were in place.

Yes - and knowledge that it was there in the first place. Sounds like an inside job to me.

I reckon the only way to shift that lot without attracting suspicion would be to bottle it and flog it at boot sales and similar - a half hundredweight at a time. So maybe suppliers could be on the lookout for any new customers ordering serious numbers of jars.

Or maybe shift the load over to France for bottling ? Are lorries checking leaving this country ?

LJ

 

[Midland Beek]

One burglar said to the other: 'Jee, after all that effort breaking through three locks there's nowt worth nickin' except all these pots of paint stripper. Might as well have them then'.

 

[BKF Admin]

I know a scaffolder who lost a few hundred feet of tubes and reported it to the police.

He got a crime reference number and started to go through his insurance company to claim back his losses.

Turned out he was one of the worst payers in the area and the tubes were taken by another builder who he owed thousands to but never paid..

 

[mbc]

I know a scaffolder who lost a few hundred feet of tubes and reported it to the police.

He got a crime reference number and started to go through his insurance company to claim back his losses.

Turned out he was one of the worst payers in the area and the tubes were taken by another builder who he owed thousands to but never paid..

"I know a beekeeper who lost......"

What are you saying ?

 

[waverider]

Sounds more like someone with a lot of know how in how it was stored and the right time to do it. They must have had access to the place to know what sort of alarms and things were in place.

Person with the best know-how would be the owner!

 

[dpearce4]

seen this today on fleabay. £2k reward for info.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEEKEEPER..._Pet_Supplies_Bee_Keeping&hash=item3ccdca2d5e

 

[Hivemaker.]

seen this today on fleabay. £2k reward for info.

Been an interview on the tv news as well.

.....................................................................................................


Beekeeper offers reward after livelihood destroyed by thieves

A beekeeper from Gloucestershire is offering a reward of £2000 for the return of honey taken by thieves from his farm.

Seven pallets, each containing 40 tubs of honey, were taken from two barns on the premises in Shurdington between 4.30pm on Friday December 20 and 8am on Saturday December 21.

I breed and sell bees and my wife deals with the honey side of it. We supply shops all over the place. This was a very bad year for honey production which is why this store of honey was so important – it’s been hard to produce a cupful of honey this year.

There’s no tomorrow for me. When the few jars I’ve got left are gone that’s it. This honey is worth tens of thousands to me – my livelihood is over.

I just hope anyone who knows where this honey is comes forward. The honey is all I care about so if you have this honey and will sell it back to me I’ll give you £2000.

– Mike Roberts, beekeeper

Anyone with information should call 101, quoting incident 119 of December 21.

Alternatively information can also be given anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org. In some cases Crimestoppers offer rewards of up to £1000 where information leads to a conviction.

http://www.itv.com/news/west/update...reward-after-livelihood-destroyed-by-thieves/

 

[Black Comb]

He must run a lot of colonies to produce all that honey.