Enough strawberries to fill 1,500 cartons were stolen from a spot just north of the Swedish city earlier this week, which the unfortunate owner only discovered when he went out to start picking them on Wednesday.
According to Fredrik Hörenius, who owns the Ulva-Gubben strawberry picking spot, 50-70,000 kronor ($6,000-8,200) worth of the fruit was taken, which he claimed would have required between 15 and 20 people to pull off.
READ ALSO: Sweden cashes in on juicy strawberry crop
It's perhaps no coincidence that there is a strawberry shortage in Sweden this year, driving demand and by extension prices of the local varieties up. And it seems Swedes will go to desperate lengths to get their hands on their favourite summer snack – as past examples prove.
In 2004 for example, strawberries to the tune of 100,000 kronor ($11,800) were taken from a patch in Öland. Amounting to 3,000 litres of the fruit, it's thought a large group carried out the theft then travelled north to sell them in Stockholm or Gothenburg.
Even more were stolen in 2015 from a Vinslöv farm, where 3,420 litres of strawberries were taken. Incredibly, police managed to track down a third of the stolen goods as well as a getaway van, but unfortunately for the owner they were no longer fit to eat.
READ ALSO: Sweden gripped by strawberry heist
The Uppsala strawberry farmer who lost out this year will now be forced to have a guard on duty more often, after previously using one to fend off earlier theft attempts in the build-up to Midsummer – the biggest Swedish strawberry celebration of all.
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