On Sunday night, in North Yorkshire, England, thieves broke into a storage unit and drove off with a refrigerated van, filled with 2,500 pies. Now, the chef who made those pies is appealing to the thieves to summon some holiday spirit and donate them to a local community center, rather than having the food go to waste.
Chef Tommy Banks says he realizes he won’t see his van again—and doesn’t think the thieves were looking to make off with nearly one ton of pies. And since each box holding the pie has his name written on it, he notes it’s not likely they can profit off of them.
“I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas and maybe we can feed a few thousand people with these pies that you’ve stolen, do the right thing,” Banks said on a post on Instagram.
The pies aren’t of the sweet pastry-variety. Their fillings include steak and ale, turkey and cranberry, and butternut squash, Banks told the BBC. They were created to stock a pop-up pie stand at a Christmas market in the city.
Banks, in his video, estimated the pies had cost about $31,600 to make and said he didn’t want the food to go to waste.
“I know the pies are gone and I know you nicked my van and I’m probably not getting it back,” Banks said. “But you can’t do anything with these pies, because they’ve got my name written all over them. So can you drop them off somewhere… like a community center… and at least someone that needs them can eat them?”
The pie theft comes a little over a month after thieves stole £300,000 worth of cheese in an incident that became known as the “great London cheese heist.”