Party-time for thieves with wine and cheese

Two sets of lorry bandits with a taste for the good life are on the run with three tons of mozzarella cheese and 18,500 bottles of Sicilian wine.

Two sets of lorry bandits with a taste for the good life are on the run with three tons of mozzarella cheese and 18,500 bottles of Sicilian wine.

Police said the driver in charge of the mozzarella was asleep in his vehicle in a lay-by on the A5 at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on Monday night when thieves broke in through the rear and stole the cheese.

The wine truck was hijacked by armed robbers after its driver, making the delivery from Sicily, became lost on the A13 between the Blackwall and Rotherhithe tunnels in London. The 39-year-old man was tied and bundled into the sleeping compartment as three men from a white van unloaded the wine. They abandoned the lorry on an industrial estate.

A West Mercia police spokesman said: "We would appeal to anyone who saw any other vehicles parked in this lay-by during that time or, indeed, anyone who has been offered large quantities of mozzarella cheese." Or wine.