WEBVTT - Take the Wheel 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.320 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.840 Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.280 is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.720 right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.840 Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.920 If you've watched any of the Godfather films, then you 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.760 know Italy has struggled for a long time with organized crime. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.519 Its networks have bought and sold narcotics and weapons, have 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.360 committed massive fraud, theft, and money laundering, and they rely 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.959 on fear and a deep rooted corruption in business and 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:59.320 government to operate. Perhaps the strangest of their black market trades, though, 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.440 revolve around the theft of a singular Italian treasure, one 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:09.280 that is sold around the world Parmigiano reggiano, Yes, the cheese. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.000 It seems absurd on the face of it, right, complicated 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.039 heist planned and pulled off by armed men storming buildings 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.800 to swipe cheese before the authorities arrive. But these heists 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:26.039 reveal a complex enterprise with tightly organized logistics mirroring those 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.880 built around drugs or illegal arms. A good example of 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.440 the sheer scale of these thefts can be found in 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.360 the twenty fifteen cheese heist in Modina, when authorities arrested 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.639 eleven individuals and confiscated a whopping two thousand and thirty 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.280 nine wheels of parmesan worth around eight hundred and seventy 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.640 five thousand dollars. This particular crime revealed how a syndicate 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.600 can target millions of dollars worth of cheese at a time, 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.640 incredible for a single instance, though it was hardly isolated, 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.680 instead fitting into a growing pattern of cheese related crime 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:04.640 in sunny Italy, which begs the question right, why cheese 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.880 and why parmesan in particular, Well, that all comes down 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.760 to economics. You see, Unlike most mass produced cheeses found 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.959 in supermarkets, authentic parmigiano reggiano is subjected to strict laws 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.720 of production. It can only be made in a particular 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.160 region using old traditional methods. It's considered a luxury good 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.040 whose value only increases the longer it's aged, which is 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.360 usually between one to three years. A single wheel of 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.240 it can cost hundreds of dollars, and when you've got 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.720 a lot of them, that adds up. Between twenty fourteen 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.200 and twenty sixteen, it was reported that over eight million 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.440 dollars worth of cheese was stolen to be resold on 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.120 the black market. The regulatory body that oversees the making 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.120 of this famous cheese, known as the Consortzio del Formaggio 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:58.000 Parmigiano Reggiano, has estimated about three million in losses each year, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.880 since that's a tremendous hit to local economies. So far, 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.320 over fifteen thousand wheels of cheese they have gone missing 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.519 from cheesemakers warehouses. That's more than a few smashing grabs too. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.560 These thefts are not carried out by petty criminals, but 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.680 by specialized groups that have studied the industry and know 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.960 it inside and out. They know the supply chain, they 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.440 know which storage facilities have the most valuable wheels, and 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.960 they know how to get them sold internationally on the 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.040 black market. And the theft doesn't end with the cheese itself. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.919 Parmigano Reggiano holds designation of origin status, meaning that it's 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:38.160 legally protected intellectual property. When the black market sells knock 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.720 off cheeses next to the real thing, selling both as authentic, 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.320 this damages the reputation of the product, making it less 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.000 valuable in the long run and forcing cheesemakers to spend 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:53.720 excess funds to tighten security, which increases their costs. So 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.240 why hasn't this been stopped by now? Well, much of 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.800 it is owed to the constant demand for this salty, 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.200 savory cheese, as well as the low risk of getting caught. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.960 Food shipments tend to get less scrutiny at a country's borders, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.920 so much of the time its transit is undetected. Even 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.680 with increased information sharing with law enforcement and better tracking 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.680 systems introduced to the industry, the cheese remains fairly easy 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.080 to steal and sell, and so as long as demand 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.720 outstrip supply, stealing cheese will be a low risk, high 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.839 return sort of business. It's fair to say that without 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.240 drastic changes in security or market value, the raids are 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.640 unlikely to stop. After all, when a single warehouse heist 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:40.280 nets up to a million dollars, the financial incentive becomes undeniable, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.919 and so cheesemakers must remain vigilant against those looking to 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:48.960 exploit their craft, because until the rewards diminish, criminals won't stop. 0:04:49.480 --> 0:05:06.880 They'll just take the wheel early In the morning of 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.360 August seventh of nineteen ninety four, a police officer was 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.880 out on his patrol rounds in the small town of Oakville, Washington. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.880 It started raining, so the officer turned on his windshield wipers, 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.279 but instead of whicking the water away, the wipers smeared 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.960 the rain in thick, gelatinous streaks until it was impossible 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.440 to see out the windshield at all, So the officer 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.880 pulled over at a gas station. He got out of 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.280 his patrol car, put on a latex glove, and wiped 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.599 the substance off the windshield with one finger. It was 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.520 gooey and translucent, almost like jello. The officer had no 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.760 idea what this stuff was, and for a moment he 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.240 wondered if someone had thrown it at his car as 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.120 a prank, But as he looked around, he saw sticky 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.559 blobs continuing to fall from the sky all around him, 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.960 like mushy hailstones. This strange goo rained down all over 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:01.160 Oakville that morning, leaving a sticky mess in residence and patios, 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:03.839 and within twenty four hours, everyone who had come into 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.159 contact with it, including that police officer, started to feel sick. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.520 Their symptoms were flu like ranging from nausea to vomiting 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.120 or trouble breathing. Scores of birds and frogs in the 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.600 local pond dropped dead, and some human residents were even hospitalized. 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:23.719 Doctors weren't sure if the sudden wave of illness was 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.440 related to this mysterious rain of blobs in everyone's yards, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.560 but it seemed too strange to be a coincidence. They 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.000 tested the material at the hospital's lab but couldn't determine 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.640 exactly what the substance was. Meanwhile, the blobs kept raining 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.320 down five more times over the next three weeks. Residents 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.279 kept getting sick, and some of their symptoms lingered for 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.520 weeks at a time. The whole town was in a panic. Finally, 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.000 a microbiologist from the state Health Department got involved and 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.360 ran extensive tests on the blobs. He got no closer 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.919 than anyone else to figuring out what they were or 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.599 where they came from, but he was able to identify 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.279 two types of bacteria, one of which can affect the 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.880 digestive system. But the strange thing was for these bacteria 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.600 to cause illness, they would have to be ingested or 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.280 exposed to an open wound, and most of the sick 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.560 residents had only briefly touched the substance with their fingers. 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.160 The police officer had only touched it with gloves on, 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.680 and he still got sick. With no clear answers, conspiratorial 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.840 rumors began to spread. There were theories that the blobs 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.680 were falling waste from an airplane toilet or jellyfish that 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.360 had been blown up during an air force bombing drill 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.920 off the coast. Others were sure that it was a 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:39.760 top secret military experiment and the people of Oakville were 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:44.080 unwitting test subjects. And yes, that last theory sounds almost 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.720 too absurd to be true. But when the Health Department 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.560 microbiologists later went back to his lab to test the 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.720 blob sample again, it had disappeared. He was shocked because 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:55.920 a sample had never gone missing from the lab in 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.280 the thirty years that he had worked there. He went 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.400 to the management and asked them what a happened to 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.760 the blob, and they told him harshly, do not ask. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.080 I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.720 of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.480 in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. Researched and written by the 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.840 Grim and Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:22.880 more about the show and the people who make it 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:27.560 over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.600 a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:34.800 available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.280 And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.640 joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.840 the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.080 sign up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.200 until next time, stay curious.