Crime

New Jersey Man Arrested for Stealing $200,000 of Muenster Cheese

Is this worth it? Is it?
Is this worth it? Is it? Photo: Food Passionates/Corbis

New Jersey police arrested a man named Veniamin Konstantinovich Balika last week at the conveniently located Vince Lombardi Service Area off the New Jersey Turnpike after they realized the Illinois resident was hauling 42,000 pounds of stolen Muenster cheese on his eighteen-wheeler. Authorities say Balika had used falsified paperwork to cart the cheese away from Cashton, Wisconsin, producer K&K; Cheese and was headed straight to the sales floor at the center of the East Coast’s lucrative black market for cheese, which apparently exists. Now the dairy doesn’t want its Muenster back, so authorities say it’ll be tested and possibly donated to charity if it hasn’t been tampered with; Balika will face criminal charges and possibly prison if found guilty, which is sad because no amount of Muenster cheese — stolen or otherwise — is worth hard time. [NBC Chicago via New Shelton Wet/Dry, Related]

New Jersey Man Arrested for Stealing $200,000 of Muenster Cheese