‘Grocery store burglar’ ate pricey cheese and hid in rafters for weeks, WA police say

A man with expensive tastes in cheese who hid in the rafters of a grocery store for weeks has been arrested, police in Auburn, Washington, said.

The Auburn Police Department said Wednesday on Facebook that a man who was accessing Haggen grocery store through the rafters was identified and arrested.

“Property Crimes Detectives located some very expensive cheese that was missing from the store, as well as cigarettes,” police said in a Facebook post. “The cheese cannot be re-sold by the store, so it was photographed for the case, then donated to the food bank.”

Last month, police said they had been called to Haggen Lake Tapps on five separate occasions since Christmas Day. The suspect had stolen “thousands of dollars’ worth of cigarettes and liquor” on Christmas.

Then police received calls on Jan. 15, 16 and 17.

“In each incident, employees either saw the suspect or heard the suspect in the rafters above the ceiling,” police said on Facebook. “In each case, officers searched above the false ceiling but came up empty.”