Thieves steal wheat in Kansas as U.S. prices soar 12.28.07, 6:03 PM ET
By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grain market speculators apparently are not the only people paying attention to record-high wheat prices.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the theft of 9,000 bushels of wheat, valued at more than $50,000, from at least four grain elevators in Syracuse, Kansas, a KBI official said Friday.
Wheat prices have roughly doubled in the past year, hitting an all-time of $10 per bushel in mid-December at the Chicago Board of Trade, the world's largest grain exchange.
The higher prices may be the motivation for the theft, said Kansas Farmers Service Association attorney Terry Bertholf, who also represents some of the grain elevators.
"It is tempting," Bertholf said, adding that the value of the stolen wheat is about $52,000.
He said the thieves likely stole the wheat from one elevator and sold it to another.
Kansas is the top wheat producing state in the United States, the world's top exporter of the grain.
"They have to get in (to the elevator) some way -- an employee lets them in, or they break a lock," he said.
"Typically a thief with a pickup steals a few bushels at a time. This is more of a planned scheme, with more people involved. ... This would involve semi-trucks."
Bruce Mellor, KBI special agent-in-charge of Kansas' Great Bend region, declined to comment in detail on the case, saying, "It's early in the investigation."
"We need to find out for sure -- where the wheat is going and where it came from," Mellor said.
This type of crime is not unique to wheat. Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Missouri stiffened penalties for buyers and sellers of stolen metal after a series of copper thefts followed spikes in metal prices earlier this year.
