Pasta Thief Hits Minnesota County Fair

Sheriffs are actively working to solve the case of the missing noodles.

The annual Benton County Fair was held in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota last week and, for six straight days, visitors got to experience everything from monster truck shows and robotics competitions, to free corn feed and an early morning poultry show. Unsurprisingly, there were also plenty of cheese curds.

But the Benton County Sheriff’s Office also had to investigate the theft of several bags of pasta from one food vendor, and a break-in at a second food vendor. As reported by St. Cloud Live, sometime between when the staff at Epicure closed up on Wednesday evening and they reopened on Thursday morning, an unknown person broke into their booth and helped themselves to several bags of pasta.

During that same time period, someone forced their way into Ubetcha’s MN Grill and damaged some of its equipment, and then broke into the Maid-Rite building (the “Home of the Loose Meat Sandwich”) and stole “the start-up cash” that was inside. According to a release from the Benton County Sheriff’s, nothing was stolen from Ubetcha’s.

Related: Wine Heist: Thief Cuts Hole in Store Roof, Nabs $600K Worth of Bottles

Although it’s a blow to the owners of Epicure, the theft of several bags of pasta wasn’t quite as big a heist as the one that took place at a Brooklyn restaurant. The night before Christmas Eve 2020, someone broke through the wall of the Borsalia restaurant in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, climbed into the kitchen, and stole around 15 pounds of cooked cappelletti, gnocchi, ravioli, and tagliatelle pasta. The burglars also emptied out the tip jar, pocketing $40 in cash.

"We went downstairs and found this big hole in the wall...but everything in the restaurant was perfect," manager Cristiano Rossi said after the theft. "When the police came we went into the kitchen and we opened the pasta storage — it was empty."

The restaurant had to close on Christmas Eve because it didn’t have any pasta to serve — and it said that the stolen carbs were worth around $4,500. “The detective joked that maybe it was another restaurant owner who ran out,” manager Cristiano Rossi added “I know our pasta is the best. But this was very strange.” (Borsalia has since closed.)

Meanwhile, anyone with information about the pasta theft or other break-ins at the Benton County Fair are encouraged to call the Benton County Sheriff’s Office at 320-968-7201 or Tri-County Crime Stoppers at 800-255-1301.

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