Hundreds of Eggs Stolen From Seattle Restaurant As Black Market Demand Grows

A Seattle restaurant found itself scrambling when thieves took off with hundreds of eggs and other groceries in a pre-dawn heist.

The incident, which occurred in the early hours of February 5, marks the second major egg-related theft in a matter of days.

Surveillance footage captured two men breaking into Luna Park Café's refrigerated shed near S.W. Manning Street and S.W. Avalon Way. In total, they stole roughly 540 eggs, along with bacon, ground beef, and blueberries, altogether worth about $780, according to the Seattle Police Department.

"It's scary, and now we are worried that they are going to come back," café owner Heong Park told KCPQ-TV.

Park received a call around 3 a.m. alerting him of the break-in.

"My landlord called me about 10 minutes later and said someone broke into the restaurant, you need to get there," he said. Park rushed to the café and arrived just in time to spook the suspects.

"As soon as he saw me, he kind of fled the scene," he said. "Luckily, I arrived soon enough they left two cases of eggs, they couldn't steal everything."

The theft comes amid a growing black market demand for eggs, driven by soaring prices due to ongoing bird flu outbreaks.

"It sells pretty well in the grey market," Park noted. "Right now, it's $120 a case for 15 dozen, but if they steal from us and take it anywhere, people will buy for $80."

This incident comes on the heels of another egg heist in Pennsylvania, where thieves stole nearly 100,000 organic eggs worth $40,000 from a farm.

Egg prices have skyrocketed, with a carton of a dozen costing $5.29 in the week ending January 18, a sharp increase from February 2024, when the price hovered just above $3.50. In some cities like Los Angeles, a dozen eggs were sold for over $9.00.

Authorities are investigating both cases as inflation and supply chain issues continue to make basic groceries a hot commodity.

Originally published on Latin Times