Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: If you've watched any of the Godfather films, then you
Speaker 1: know Italy has struggled for a long time with organized crime.
Speaker 1: Its networks have bought and sold narcotics and weapons, have
Speaker 1: committed massive fraud, theft, and money laundering, and they rely
Speaker 1: on fear and a deep rooted corruption in business and
Speaker 1: government to operate. Perhaps the strangest of their black market trades, though,
Speaker 1: revolve around the theft of a singular Italian treasure, one
Speaker 1: that is sold around the world Parmigiano reggiano, Yes, the cheese.
Speaker 1: It seems absurd on the face of it, right, complicated
Speaker 1: heist planned and pulled off by armed men storming buildings
Speaker 1: to swipe cheese before the authorities arrive. But these heists
Speaker 1: reveal a complex enterprise with tightly organized logistics mirroring those
Speaker 1: built around drugs or illegal arms. A good example of
Speaker 1: the sheer scale of these thefts can be found in
Speaker 1: the twenty fifteen cheese heist in Modina, when authorities arrested
Speaker 1: eleven individuals and confiscated a whopping two thousand and thirty
Speaker 1: nine wheels of parmesan worth around eight hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. This particular crime revealed how a syndicate
Speaker 1: can target millions of dollars worth of cheese at a time,
Speaker 1: incredible for a single instance, though it was hardly isolated,
Speaker 1: instead fitting into a growing pattern of cheese related crime
Speaker 1: in sunny Italy, which begs the question right, why cheese
Speaker 1: and why parmesan in particular, Well, that all comes down
Speaker 1: to economics. You see, Unlike most mass produced cheeses found
Speaker 1: in supermarkets, authentic parmigiano reggiano is subjected to strict laws
Speaker 1: of production. It can only be made in a particular
Speaker 1: region using old traditional methods. It's considered a luxury good
Speaker 1: whose value only increases the longer it's aged, which is
Speaker 1: usually between one to three years. A single wheel of
Speaker 1: it can cost hundreds of dollars, and when you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of them, that adds up. Between twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: and twenty sixteen, it was reported that over eight million
Speaker 1: dollars worth of cheese was stolen to be resold on
Speaker 1: the black market. The regulatory body that oversees the making
Speaker 1: of this famous cheese, known as the Consortzio del Formaggio
Speaker 1: Parmigiano Reggiano, has estimated about three million in losses each year,
Speaker 1: since that's a tremendous hit to local economies. So far,
Speaker 1: over fifteen thousand wheels of cheese they have gone missing
Speaker 1: from cheesemakers warehouses. That's more than a few smashing grabs too.
Speaker 1: These thefts are not carried out by petty criminals, but
Speaker 1: by specialized groups that have studied the industry and know
Speaker 1: it inside and out. They know the supply chain, they
Speaker 1: know which storage facilities have the most valuable wheels, and
Speaker 1: they know how to get them sold internationally on the
Speaker 1: black market. And the theft doesn't end with the cheese itself.
Speaker 1: Parmigano Reggiano holds designation of origin status, meaning that it's
Speaker 1: legally protected intellectual property. When the black market sells knock
Speaker 1: off cheeses next to the real thing, selling both as authentic,
Speaker 1: this damages the reputation of the product, making it less
Speaker 1: valuable in the long run and forcing cheesemakers to spend
Speaker 1: excess funds to tighten security, which increases their costs. So
Speaker 1: why hasn't this been stopped by now? Well, much of
Speaker 1: it is owed to the constant demand for this salty,
Speaker 1: savory cheese, as well as the low risk of getting caught.
Speaker 1: Food shipments tend to get less scrutiny at a country's borders,
Speaker 1: so much of the time its transit is undetected. Even
Speaker 1: with increased information sharing with law enforcement and better tracking
Speaker 1: systems introduced to the industry, the cheese remains fairly easy
Speaker 1: to steal and sell, and so as long as demand
Speaker 1: outstrip supply, stealing cheese will be a low risk, high
Speaker 1: return sort of business. It's fair to say that without
Speaker 1: drastic changes in security or market value, the raids are
Speaker 1: unlikely to stop. After all, when a single warehouse heist
Speaker 1: nets up to a million dollars, the financial incentive becomes undeniable,
Speaker 1: and so cheesemakers must remain vigilant against those looking to
Speaker 1: exploit their craft, because until the rewards diminish, criminals won't stop.
Speaker 1: They'll just take the wheel early In the morning of
Speaker 1: August seventh of nineteen ninety four, a police officer was
Speaker 1: out on his patrol rounds in the small town of Oakville, Washington.
Speaker 1: It started raining, so the officer turned on his windshield wipers,
Speaker 1: but instead of whicking the water away, the wipers smeared
Speaker 1: the rain in thick, gelatinous streaks until it was impossible
Speaker 1: to see out the windshield at all, So the officer
Speaker 1: pulled over at a gas station. He got out of
Speaker 1: his patrol car, put on a latex glove, and wiped
Speaker 1: the substance off the windshield with one finger. It was
Speaker 1: gooey and translucent, almost like jello. The officer had no
Speaker 1: idea what this stuff was, and for a moment he
Speaker 1: wondered if someone had thrown it at his car as
Speaker 1: a prank, But as he looked around, he saw sticky
Speaker 1: blobs continuing to fall from the sky all around him,
Speaker 1: like mushy hailstones. This strange goo rained down all over
Speaker 1: Oakville that morning, leaving a sticky mess in residence and patios,
Speaker 1: and within twenty four hours, everyone who had come into
Speaker 1: contact with it, including that police officer, started to feel sick.
Speaker 1: Their symptoms were flu like ranging from nausea to vomiting
Speaker 1: or trouble breathing. Scores of birds and frogs in the
Speaker 1: local pond dropped dead, and some human residents were even hospitalized.
Speaker 1: Doctors weren't sure if the sudden wave of illness was
Speaker 1: related to this mysterious rain of blobs in everyone's yards,
Speaker 1: but it seemed too strange to be a coincidence. They
Speaker 1: tested the material at the hospital's lab but couldn't determine
Speaker 1: exactly what the substance was. Meanwhile, the blobs kept raining
Speaker 1: down five more times over the next three weeks. Residents
Speaker 1: kept getting sick, and some of their symptoms lingered for
Speaker 1: weeks at a time. The whole town was in a panic. Finally,
Speaker 1: a microbiologist from the state Health Department got involved and
Speaker 1: ran extensive tests on the blobs. He got no closer
Speaker 1: than anyone else to figuring out what they were or
Speaker 1: where they came from, but he was able to identify
Speaker 1: two types of bacteria, one of which can affect the
Speaker 1: digestive system. But the strange thing was for these bacteria
Speaker 1: to cause illness, they would have to be ingested or
Speaker 1: exposed to an open wound, and most of the sick
Speaker 1: residents had only briefly touched the substance with their fingers.
Speaker 1: The police officer had only touched it with gloves on,
Speaker 1: and he still got sick. With no clear answers, conspiratorial
Speaker 1: rumors began to spread. There were theories that the blobs
Speaker 1: were falling waste from an airplane toilet or jellyfish that
Speaker 1: had been blown up during an air force bombing drill
Speaker 1: off the coast. Others were sure that it was a
Speaker 1: top secret military experiment and the people of Oakville were
Speaker 1: unwitting test subjects. And yes, that last theory sounds almost
Speaker 1: too absurd to be true. But when the Health Department
Speaker 1: microbiologists later went back to his lab to test the
Speaker 1: blob sample again, it had disappeared. He was shocked because
Speaker 1: a sample had never gone missing from the lab in
Speaker 1: the thirty years that he had worked there. He went
Speaker 1: to the management and asked them what a happened to
Speaker 1: the blob, and they told him harshly, do not ask.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. Researched and written by the
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn
Speaker 1: more about the show and the people who make it
Speaker 1: over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find
Speaker 1: a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book,
Speaker 1: available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
Speaker 1: And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
Speaker 1: joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
Speaker 1: the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
Speaker 1: sign up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and
Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.