Why steal 280,000 eggs? In the United States, an unusual heist that raises questions

He who steals an egg steals an ox, as the saying goes. But what do you do with 280,000 eggs? This is the question two investigators from the US state of Maryland are trying to answer, as they seek to shed light on the disappearance of a large shipment of eggs one afternoon in April 2025, worth an estimated $100,000 (around €87,000). Normally, this commodity was “not a common target” for burglars, observes The Washington Post , which investigated the case.

But with inflation and the bird flu epidemic that has been hitting the United States since 2022 , the price of eggs has exploded, and they are increasingly attracting covetousness. Thefts are increasing and, “at one point, customs officers were seizing eggs more often than fentanyl.” To measure the extent of the issue in the American public debate, the daily reports that, “during his first four months in the White House, President Donald Trump, who had declared that he had 'won thanks to the basket of goods,' uttered the word 'eggs' in public at least 167 times.”

It is in this context that, shortly before Easter , a freight company was commissioned to organize