Ten Weird Things People Stole
People will steal anything. If they think they can make a profit from taking something, they will do it.
In this article, we’re looking at some of the more unusual things people have stolen from all over the world. From Napoleon’s shrivelled up penis to three tanks of prize bull semen, they’ve taken the lot.
So, what are the ten weirdest things people have stolen? Honestly, I’m shaking my head in disbelief before we even start. Anyway, let’s get started. The first one is the oddest in my book.
1 Napoleon’s Penis
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader and politician who came from relatively humble beginnings to become the self-declared Emperor of France in the early 19th century. After several years of invading neighbouring countries and fighting his enemies, mostly Great Britain and its allies, Napoleon’s expansion plans for France came to an abrupt halt in March 1814 when the Allied troops took Paris. Napoleon was forced to provide his unconditional abdication on April 6 that year and was exiled to the island of Elba. He escaped the following year, retook his throne, was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, abdicated again and was imprisoned for the last time, this time on the island of Saint Helena. That’s a very shortened version of his achievements and defeats, but you get the gist. He finally died on Saint Helena in May 1821 at the age of 51.
So, how is this all related to his missing member? Well, the doctor performing the autopsy, Franceso Antommarchi, is known to have cut off several pieces of his body, including Boney’s penis. He apparently gave it to Napoleon’s priest who took it back to the former Emperor’s home of Corsica. Now, in history, most revered leaders have their hearts returned to their homeland after death. Just look at King Robert the Bruce whose heart was placed in a box and taken to fight the Moors in Spain (link 14) before being returned to Scotland. Now that’s a hero’s story. However, who are we to judge which part of a revered son of the soil’s body should go home. While Bruce wanted his heart returned to his homeland, maybe Bonaparte did something similar and wanted his best feature to go home too, his (ahem) dried-up dong. Anyway, the priest kept it, it was passed down the family until 1916 when the withered manhood was purchased by London company, Maggs Bros Ltd. In 1924, American bookseller, A. S. W. Rosenbach bought it and it went on display at the Museum of French Art in New York in 1927. It changed hands several times, until urologist John Lattimer bought it in 1977 for $3000. It is now owned by his daughter and is estimated to be worth around $100,000.
2 An entire street in Liverpool, England
In June 1998, police reported they were hunting cheeky thieves who stole an entire cobbled street worth up to $65,000 in the inner-city Kensington area of Liverpool. Thousands of cobbles were dug up in Brecon Street leaving the road pocked with potholes and flooded with rainwater. Thieves were thought to have used a digger and lorry to uproot and make off with around 5000 cobbles, each worth between $6 and $13 each.
One has to ask the question: why did none of the residents call the police about the theft? Did no one notice? Anyway, missing cobbles is not the only claim to fame that Kensington has. It was actually home to the Liverpudlian equivalent of Sun Records. In 1958, the area’s Phillip’s Sound Recording Services studio was where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and other members of their Quarrymen skiffle group made their first recording(link13).
3 300 manhole covers in Los Angeles
In July 1990, two hapless thieves stole around 300 manhole covers from a number of streets across Los Angeles. Weighing in at 300 pounds each, the manhole covers were a heavy load. The thieves’ plan was to sell the covers for scrap and make money.
Mexican nationals, Antonio Lopez (23) and Efrain de Leon Barrios (19) were quickly caught by police as they attempted to sell the covers for $75 each at a downtown scrap merchant’s yard. They were charged with receiving stolen property.
4 Einstein’s brain
Einstein was one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century and is best-known for his theory of relativity. So, you can understand why someone might be interested in the workings of the great man’s brain. Born in Ulm, German in 1879, Einstein had a successful career lecturing in universities across the world until he was decided to emigrate to the US in 1933 following the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany.
In the US, he worked for the Institute for Advanced Study, an affiliation he had until his death in 1955 at the age of 76. Shortly after, during his autopsy (and without the family’s permission), pathologist Dr Thomas Harvey, removed Einstein’s brain for ‘scientific research’. He apparently wanted to conserve the grey matter so that future researchers could work out why Einstein was so brainy. The rest of Einstein’s body was cremated at Trenton, New Jersey and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location. You can, however, still see parts of his brain. They are kept at the Mutter Museum, Philadelphia, where, incidentally, you can also view a tumour removed from President Grover Cleveland’s jaw amongst other bodily parts of other people.
5 A bridge in Russia
A 200-tonne metal bridge that was the most direct access to an industrial plant was stolen in eastern Russia in 2007. Located in Khabarovsk, the metal bridge, which was estimated to cost around $37,000 to replace, vanished overnight. The thieves were never caught, but the owners vowed to rebuild the bridge…in concrete so it can’t be stolen again.
This is not the only bridge to go missing in the world. Thieves have also taken bridges in Turkey, the Czech Republic (Slavkov in 2012) and India too.
6 A beach in Jamaica
In 2008, an entire beach was taken from a resort in Jamaica. Yes, that’s right, thieves stole hundreds of tonnes of white sand from the Coral Spring beach in Trelawny. Development of the resort, which was under construction at the time, ground to a halt whilst developers carried out an environmental study into the impact of the theft on the local ecosystem.
The thieves have never been caught and the sand never found, but local police believe they sold it to rival resorts. What remains puzzling to police is how the thieves did it: apparently, it would have taken 500 truckloads to remove the sand.
7 Five Tonnes of Nutella
Sweet-toothed thieves stole five tonnes of Nutella — the glorious nutty chocolate spread so beloved of children across the world — from a parked truck in Germany in 2017. Worth around $18,000, the spread (the equivalent of 6,875 jars) was taken from the truck in Bad Hersfeld.
Police believe the same people were behind the thefts of two other thefts at the same place around the same time. Firstly, a truckload of Red Bull was taken followed by around $40,000 worth of coffee. Either the thieves were very tired all the time and needed a caffeine boost or they were holding the world’s weirdest party.
8 Toes from a Dead Person
A 28-year-old New Zealand man who visited the Body Worlds exhibit when it visited Auckland decided to take a toe-curling reminder home with him in the shape of two cadaver toes. Police caught the man, who has not been named, red-handed and charged him with stealing two toes and improperly interfering with the dead body of an unknown person. The toes, which were valued at $5,500, were recovered and returned to the exhibition.
Body Worlds is a travelling exhibition of real human bodies preserved through a process called plastination. It has travelled the world and has a permanent home in Heidelberg, Germany.
9 Bull Semen from California
Here’s a story from California’s police that could have left thieves in a sticky mess! Three tanks of bull semen worth an estimated $50,000 were stolen from a truck parked in Turlock, California in January 2016.
The semen, around 3,500 units, was enough to impregnate more than 1000 cows and, according to owner Anthony Reis, it took several months to collect it from his prize bulls. It was due to be delivered to farms across the state and was stored in liquid nitrogen. A frustrated Mr Reis told journalists that theft was a huge financial loss and was probably carried out by people who “had no idea what they were stealing.”
10 20,000 Pounds of Cheese
Nearly $50,000 of cheese was stolen from a trailer in Wisconsin, USA in 2017. The cheddary heist took place as the 20,000 pounds of cheese was being transport from Green Bay to Milwakee.
The driver had unhitched the trailer and left it in what he thought was a secure location while he went to carry out some errands. He returned to find the entire trailer had been towed away. This was the second cheese heist to take place that year; the first, of $70,000 cheese, took place in Germantown.