Brazen thieves have made off with an astonishing $2.5million worth of 'liquid gold' premium olive oil in a bizarre heist in Texas.
The gang escaped with 18 truckloads containing 290 pallets, each with 672 bottles of premium Terra Delyssa organic and extra virgin products from the site in Houston.
The products, recognizable by their bright yellow branding and dark glass bottles, were taken from a warehouse - managed by a recently defunct business.
The HPD and CHO America, the parent company of Terra Delyssa, have reportedly obtained leads to recovering some of the stolen merchandise using the product's traceability features and trackable lot numbers.
'Knowing our product is being sold at half-price or one-fourth the price at some stores now is devastating, too,' CHO America CEO Wajih Rekik told KHOU11.
Terra Delyssa features an award-winning array of olive oil products sustainably farmed in Tunisia.
Terra Delyssa is the only olive oil brand to offer full traceability from orchard to bottle with their use of IBM blockchain technology. The technology allows consumers to scan a QR code on the bottle revealing the entire process of the olive oil, when and where the olives were harvested, milled, analyzed and bottled.
According to their website bottles of the 'liquid gold' olive oil retail anywhere from $9.99 up to $76.99 USD.
Olive oil prices are at a premium worldwide partly attributed to a drought-like conditions in Spain and a wave of theft, dilution of premium oil and falsification of shipping data across the Mediterranean.
The one-of-a-kind heist comes after a similar theft happened at the company's Canadian facility just a week ago.
The company is asking store owners to report any suspicious offers of Terra Delyssa olive oil at unusually low prices.
By Samantha Rutt For Dailymail.Com
Credit: www.dailymail.co.uk
The gang escaped with 18 truckloads containing 290 pallets, each with 672 bottles of premium Terra Delyssa organic and extra virgin products from the site in Houston. Credit: www.dailymail.co.uk
English (United States) ·