Jamie Oliver Needs Your Help Solving the ‘Grate Cheese Robbery’

In a tale that sounds almost too cheesy to be true, British chef Jamie Oliver is calling on his fans to help solve an extraordinary crime: the theft of 22 metric tons (that’s nearly 50,000 pounds!) of award-winning cheddar worth a whopping 300,000 British pounds (about $390,000).

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The chef, known for his iconic “Naked Chef” style that strips food down to its essentials, took to Instagram to rally his 10.5 million followers, asking them to keep an eye out for “lorry loads of very posh cheese.” With a touch of his signature humour, Oliver dubbed it the “grate cheese robbery” and warned fans with a grin: “If the deal seems too gouda to be true, it probably is!”

This particular heist went down at Neal’s Yard Dairy, a well-known British cheesemaker, after a con artist pretending to be a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer pulled off the scam. Nearly 1,000 wheels of luxurious, cloth-wrapped cheddar were taken before the company even realized it had been tricked.

Cheddar may be a household name worldwide, but this isn’t your typical grocery-store cheese. While cheddar can be made in various countries, the real British cheddar is crafted by only a few artisanal makers in the UK. These cheeses come from the region of Cheddar in southwest England, making this theft a huge loss for both the company and cheese connoisseurs.

Currently, Scotland Yard and international authorities are on the hunt for these “cheddar bandits.” Until they’re found, Oliver is enlisting the help of cheese-loving detectives everywhere to track down the missing wheels.

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So, if you happen to see a suspicious amount of fancy cheddar going around, think twice before you take a slice! Jamie Oliver—and perhaps the world’s cheese lovers—are counting on you to help solve this dairy dilemma.