‘Beef Thieves’ Run Off With $300 of A5 Wagyu Beef from Berkeley’s Tokyo Fish Market

Security cameras inside a supermarket in California captured a pair of shoplifters stealing hundreds of dollars’ worth of high-quality Japanese beef known as

According to the owner of the Tokyo Fish Market in San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, he himself caught one of the “beef thieves” stuffing beef inside a purse.

The thieves ran off with around $300 dollars’ worth of the Japanese A5 Wagyu, which is the highest grade beef and very difficult to find. The owner of Tokyo Fish Market, who did not want to be identified, believes the suspects knew this, ABC 7 reports.

When the employees of the market confronted the shoplifters, they denied the allegations but then came running out of the store minutes later. A store camera caught the two fleeing and handing off the purse with the beef to a third person.

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Employees say the thieves might have not enjoyed the beef the right way as they didn’t bring ice along with it when they fled.

“I mean the only thing is that if they didn’t bring ice it probably melt it by the time they ran away with it,” one employee noted.

The store owner reported the incident to the local authorities. He shared, however, that other thieves also tried to steal Wagyu beef this week but failed.

“He ordered like $250 worth of stuff and then we gave him that and ice and it was easy to spot it because it was pretty big. 5-10 minutes later someone else was holding it,” an employee from Tokyo Fish Market said.

The market has since changed its policy, imposing that customers have to pay for the beef before they can pick it up.

Guy Crims, the managing partner of Japanese A5 Wagyu retailer in San Francisco called “The Butcher Shop,” says this type of beef is like fine wine and could go around $90 per pound.

“The reason why is so expensive is because it’s imported over from Japan. It’s flown into the United States and the amount of production is very low. This particular type of Wagyu is only about 100 animals who are sold for export every year,” Crims was quoted as saying.

Featured Image via Twitter / LuzPenaABC7

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