GAIL DRAKE: Cadbury egg thief not a very good Easter bunny

It was Saturday morning on Feb. 15 in Telford, England. The thief crept up to the gates of the factory and scouted the site. He returned, carrying a metal grinder and proceeded to bore open the gate. He quietly carried the grinder away, then opened a truck door, climbed in and backed the truck through the gates. He hooked the truck to a trailer packed full of product and drove through the gate.

He had pulled it off! The stolen truck with a false license plate was filled with 200,000 Cadbury crème eggs, an egg heist worth about $37,000. The Cadbury Caper of the century.

The treat-filled truck careened down the road and turned toward the M42 Motorway. Then, suddenly, the sugar bandit found himself surrounded by the West Mercia Police. Law enforcement had been alerted and were hunting for “someone presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny.”

His plan was foiled. Joby Pool, 32, raised his hands, surrendered his eggs and was taken into custody. And the West Mercia Police announced that they had “helped save Easter” by cracking the “eggs-travagent” case. Fortunately, the Cadbury haul was recovered and able to be safely delivered to retail stores in time for the holidays.

Pool pleaded guilty to criminal theft and damage and was sentenced to two years. Officials stated Pool’s crime was premeditated as opposed to an impulse theft at a store. “You don’t just happen to learn about a trailer with that kind of value being available,” prosecutor Owen Belle at Kidderminster Magistrate Court said.

For the uninitiated, these delectable egg-shaped crème confectionaries, wrapped in colored foil, originated as “Fry’s Crème Eggs” and are made by Cadbury in Britain and Hersheys in the U.S. The chocolate shells cave into a “fondant” center that resembles an egg yolk but is actually a sugar bomb. Cadbury eggs typically are available January to April.

For their 50th anniversary, Cadbury announced the company had hidden 200 golden eggs — covered in edible gold dust — in small shops across the UK. The golden eggs were disguised in normal Crème Egg wrapping and discoverable after unwrapping the foil. Each golden egg was worth a cash prize of up to $5,000. In 2023 Cadbury launched 280 rare disguised white crème eggs with up to $11,000 prizes — as long as the egg was not eaten first. Some in the UK went wild with a Willy Wonka golden ticket fever. For who can resist eating a Cadbury egg with its creamy goo?

So where did we get the tradition of eggs for Easter? The practice of decorating eggs reaches back to early cultures in Africa and Mesopotamia, where engraved ostrich eggs were found in archeology. Gold and silver eggs were commonly placed at gravesites nearly 5,000 years ago in civilizations that believed in an afterlife. In general, eggs were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth.

In the early Christian church, the use of eggs at Easter appears to originate in Persia and became part of the Greek Christian Church, migrated to the Eastern Orthodox Church in Russia, then was later adopted by the Roman Church and spread through Europe. Historians state that early Christians viewed eggs as a symbol of the resurrection, with a dormant hard exterior containing a new life within it. In Mesopotamia eggs were dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ shed on the cross. In the Middle Ages, Catholics were prohibited from eating eggs during Lent (40 days of fasting prior to Easter), which left a collection of unconsumed eggs until Easter Sunday.

The Easter Blessings of Food, published in the Roman Ritual liturgy manual in 1610, states: “Lord, let the grace of your blessing come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.”

According to Wikipedia, across the globe various cultures use eggs in their Easter traditions and ceremonies. The blessing of decorated baskets of Easter eggs is a beloved tradition in Poland. In Greece, women dye eggs with onion skins and vinegar, known as “kokkina avga.” In Lebanon, chicken eggs are boiled and decorated, then on Easter, young children duel with them, shouting “Christ is risen!” while breaking and eating them. In Germany, eggs decorate trees and bushes.

And modern egg practices have substituted plastic eggs encapsulating candy and chocolate eggs wrapped in colored foil. So let’s enjoy those gooey chocolate delights during this season — and keep an eye out for disguised prize eggs. Most importantly, let us stop to celebrate the reason for the season: the resurrection of Christ.

“Christ died for our sins,” according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” I Corinthians 15:3-4