SACRE BLEU!

Thieves Make Off With $100K in Snails

Around 1,000 pounds of escargot were stolen from a farm in France.

Close to 1,000 pounds of escargot, worth over $100,000, have been stolen from a French snail farm in the Champagne region of eastern France. Producer Jean-Mathieu Dauvergne told Le Parisien he was shocked to find that the Michelin-star-bound snails had been taken, an incident he said occurred between Sunday night and Monday morning. “This is really not the post that we thought we would write approaching the holidays,” L’Escargot Des Grands Crus wrote Tuesday in a Facebook post. “We were victims of a burglary and our stock of fresh and frozen snails was stolen.” The post added that the snails were enough for 10,000 meals. Most of the escargot were slated for Christmas deliveries to upscale restaurants such as Michelin-starred Domaine les Crayères. A police officer in the town of Épernay, Commander Rémi Dubois, said he believed the thieves were likely “experienced and professional.” The missing delicacy was the farm’s entire annual supply, leaving them to resort to purchasing from other producers to satisfy orders. Some restaurants said they would rather remove the item from the menu because the farm’s product is so high-quality.