Michele C. Haddon / Bucks County Courier Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
If you’ve purchased eggs in recent weeks, there’s a good chance you’ve gotten sticker shock thanks to the rises in prices stemming from avian flu. Most people don’t need proof things have gotten pretty out of control, but a massive egg heist that recently unfolded in Pennsylvania only confirms that reality.
The price of eggs rose by 65% over the course of 2024 due to the spread of avian flu producers have now been fighting for a few years; a carton of a dozen of the breakfast and baking staples was selling for an average of $3.50 last February, but that number now sits closer to $5.29 as producers grapple with the chicken flocks that have been decimated by the disease.
Close to 150 million chickens have been culled since the current outbreak began in 2022 (the H1N1 strain is primarily responsible, but the H5N9 variety was recently detected at a duck farm in California), and the laws of supply and demand have subsequently reared their ugly head as producers hike prices to compensate for those losses.
There are plenty of grocery stores that have struggled to keep their fridges stocked, and plenty of places have placed a limitation on how many eggs people can buy while simultaneously increasing their prices.
That brings us to what unfolded in Pennsylvania over the weekend, as NBC News reports a Pete & Gerry’s Organics warehouse in the town of Greencastle (located halfway between Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania near the state’s southern border) was targeted by thieves who made off with 100,000 eggs valued at $40,000 taken from a trailer during a heist that transpired on Saturday.
It’s a fairly bold crime when you consider eggs are a fairly perishable good, and it’s hard not to wonder how they’re planning to offload them; it seems safe to assume the people responsible would have connections with restaurants and other businesses that may not ask many questions when presented with the opportunity to buy some eggs for cheap, but there’s always a chance they have other plans.