WARNING: Nutella may cause you to become a thief. (Photo: Creative commons)

Sticky-fingered thieves in Niederaula, Germany are responsible for stealing five tons of Nutella from a parked flatbed trailer. The five tons of Nutella stolen Sunday night add up to nearly 27 million calories worth of hazelnut/chocolatey goodness worth more than $20,000. According to German news reports, the five tons of Nutella stolen Sunday is not the first sugary heist in the Niederaula area. Several weeks ago, thieves made off with a large shipment of Red Bull, but it wasn't worth nearly as much as the five tons of Nutella stolen on Sunday.

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When asked whether someone might be stealing the ingredients for an enormous breakfast, Hessian police spokesman Manfred Knoch told The Local: "That's what it looks like."

But the five tons of Nutella stolen Sunday isn't the only high-profile caper involving the delicious spread to make headlines recently. In March, the NY Times ran a story on a rash of Nutella heists plaguing Columbia University. Unlike the five tons of Nutella stolen in Germany the spread was made available for students in a university dining hall. But, instead of using it for toast and bananas, students began filling soup containers with Nutella and taking it back to their dorms. And although this kind of take-away service is common in dining service halls, the cost of all that Nutella is hitting Columbia pretty hard.

"People take silverware, cups and plates, and that adds up over the course of a year to a lot of money," Peter Bailinson, a member of Columbia University's student council, told the NY times. "With Nutella, it added up much more quickly. Where Dining might have to spend $50,000 to replace silverware and cups, they were spending thousands of dollars on Nutella in one week."

Bailinson estimates students are stealing up to 100 pounds of Nutella per week. What makes Nutella so addictive? According to the company website "the unique taste of Nutella hazelnut spread continues to come from the combination of roasted hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa. In addition, Nutella has no artificial colors or preservatives."