Take the Wheel

The known and the unknown are front and center in the Cabinet today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
If you've watched any of the Godfather films, then you
know Italy has struggled for a long time with organized crime.
Its networks have bought and sold narcotics and weapons, have
committed massive fraud, theft, and money laundering, and they rely
on fear and a deep rooted corruption in business and
government to operate. Perhaps the strangest of their black market trades, though,

(00:59):
revolve around the theft of a singular Italian treasure, one
that is sold around the world Parmigiano reggiano, Yes, the cheese.
It seems absurd on the face of it, right, complicated
heist planned and pulled off by armed men storming buildings
to swipe cheese before the authorities arrive. But these heists

(01:20):
reveal a complex enterprise with tightly organized logistics mirroring those
built around drugs or illegal arms. A good example of
the sheer scale of these thefts can be found in
the twenty fifteen cheese heist in Modina, when authorities arrested
eleven individuals and confiscated a whopping two thousand and thirty
nine wheels of parmesan worth around eight hundred and seventy

(01:44):
five thousand dollars. This particular crime revealed how a syndicate
can target millions of dollars worth of cheese at a time,
incredible for a single instance, though it was hardly isolated,
instead fitting into a growing pattern of cheese related crime
in sunny Italy, which begs the question right, why cheese

(02:05):
and why parmesan in particular, Well, that all comes down
to economics. You see, Unlike most mass produced cheeses found
in supermarkets, authentic parmigiano reggiano is subjected to strict laws
of production. It can only be made in a particular
region using old traditional methods. It's considered a luxury good

(02:25):
whose value only increases the longer it's aged, which is
usually between one to three years. A single wheel of
it can cost hundreds of dollars, and when you've got
a lot of them, that adds up. Between twenty fourteen
and twenty sixteen, it was reported that over eight million
dollars worth of cheese was stolen to be resold on

(02:45):
the black market. The regulatory body that oversees the making
of this famous cheese, known as the Consortzio del Formaggio
Parmigiano Reggiano, has estimated about three million in losses each year,
since that's a tremendous hit to local economies. So far,
over fifteen thousand wheels of cheese they have gone missing
from cheesemakers warehouses. That's more than a few smashing grabs too.

(03:09):
These thefts are not carried out by petty criminals, but
by specialized groups that have studied the industry and know
it inside and out. They know the supply chain, they
know which storage facilities have the most valuable wheels, and
they know how to get them sold internationally on the
black market. And the theft doesn't end with the cheese itself.
Parmigano Reggiano holds designation of origin status, meaning that it's

(03:34):
legally protected intellectual property. When the black market sells knock
off cheeses next to the real thing, selling both as authentic,
this damages the reputation of the product, making it less
valuable in the long run and forcing cheesemakers to spend
excess funds to tighten security, which increases their costs. So

(03:54):
why hasn't this been stopped by now? Well, much of
it is owed to the constant demand for this salty,
savory cheese, as well as the low risk of getting caught.
Food shipments tend to get less scrutiny at a country's borders,
so much of the time its transit is undetected. Even
with increased information sharing with law enforcement and better tracking

(04:14):
systems introduced to the industry, the cheese remains fairly easy
to steal and sell, and so as long as demand
outstrip supply, stealing cheese will be a low risk, high
return sort of business. It's fair to say that without
drastic changes in security or market value, the raids are
unlikely to stop. After all, when a single warehouse heist

(04:35):
nets up to a million dollars, the financial incentive becomes undeniable,
and so cheesemakers must remain vigilant against those looking to
exploit their craft, because until the rewards diminish, criminals won't stop.
They'll just take the wheel early In the morning of

(05:07):
August seventh of nineteen ninety four, a police officer was
out on his patrol rounds in the small town of Oakville, Washington.
It started raining, so the officer turned on his windshield wipers,
but instead of whicking the water away, the wipers smeared
the rain in thick, gelatinous streaks until it was impossible
to see out the windshield at all, So the officer

(05:28):
pulled over at a gas station. He got out of
his patrol car, put on a latex glove, and wiped
the substance off the windshield with one finger. It was
gooey and translucent, almost like jello. The officer had no
idea what this stuff was, and for a moment he
wondered if someone had thrown it at his car as
a prank, But as he looked around, he saw sticky

(05:49):
blobs continuing to fall from the sky all around him,
like mushy hailstones. This strange goo rained down all over
Oakville that morning, leaving a sticky mess in residence and patios,
and within twenty four hours, everyone who had come into
contact with it, including that police officer, started to feel sick.
Their symptoms were flu like ranging from nausea to vomiting

(06:12):
or trouble breathing. Scores of birds and frogs in the
local pond dropped dead, and some human residents were even hospitalized.
Doctors weren't sure if the sudden wave of illness was
related to this mysterious rain of blobs in everyone's yards,
but it seemed too strange to be a coincidence. They
tested the material at the hospital's lab but couldn't determine

(06:34):
exactly what the substance was. Meanwhile, the blobs kept raining
down five more times over the next three weeks. Residents
kept getting sick, and some of their symptoms lingered for
weeks at a time. The whole town was in a panic. Finally,
a microbiologist from the state Health Department got involved and
ran extensive tests on the blobs. He got no closer

(06:56):
than anyone else to figuring out what they were or
where they came from, but he was able to identify
two types of bacteria, one of which can affect the
digestive system. But the strange thing was for these bacteria
to cause illness, they would have to be ingested or
exposed to an open wound, and most of the sick
residents had only briefly touched the substance with their fingers.

(07:16):
The police officer had only touched it with gloves on,
and he still got sick. With no clear answers, conspiratorial
rumors began to spread. There were theories that the blobs
were falling waste from an airplane toilet or jellyfish that
had been blown up during an air force bombing drill
off the coast. Others were sure that it was a
top secret military experiment and the people of Oakville were

(07:39):
unwitting test subjects. And yes, that last theory sounds almost
too absurd to be true. But when the Health Department
microbiologists later went back to his lab to test the
blob sample again, it had disappeared. He was shocked because
a sample had never gone missing from the lab in
the thirty years that he had worked there. He went
to the management and asked them what a happened to

(08:00):
the blob, and they told him harshly, do not ask.
I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. Researched and written by the
Grim and Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn

(08:20):
more about the show and the people who make it
over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find
a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book,
available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
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(08:43):
sign up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and
until next time, stay curious.