'Provolone Poacher' Lifts $2K in Cheese from Restaurant

The "provolone poacher" has struck again at a Colorado restaurant, but this time he said "cheese" for security cameras. Police say someone stole 19 cases of the Italian cheese from the Do Drop Inn in Pueblo early Tuesday, the AP reports. The restaurant doors were damaged and restaurant manager Kevin Romero tells the Pueblo Chieftain that the thief broke through padlocks on a restaurant freezer to get to the cheese, which is worth around $1,900. Nothing else was taken. Per a police report, clues left at the scene included a crowbar and other "biological evidence."

Romero says this is at least the third time cheese has been stolen from the restaurant, presumably to be sold to other eateries, in the last month and a half. However, this time the thief's image was captured by security cameras the restaurant recently installed. "The first time they came in they stole about probably five or six boxes," Romero tells KOAA about the increasingly brazen crimes. "The second time was eight to 10 boxes, and now the 19 boxes. I don't get it. There must be some black market for cheese that I don't know about." One regular customer who's either particularly perturbed or simply wanted to make a rodent-themed joke tells the station, "I hope they catch the dirty rats." (Mozzarella is better for pizza anyway.)