KitKat Robbery? Say What?

Among the many safety precautions that come along with the act of buying a new car, the most obvious one is never to leave it unlocked. Nineteen-year-old Kansas University student Hunter Jobbins was in for a rude awakening when his oversight resulted in a costly personal loss – the KitKat in his glove box had been stolen.

The details of this heinous crime trace back to the 30th of October 2016, when Jobbins left his car unlocked for around 15 minutes outside his university dorm. This short interval was sufficient for the nimble thief to carry out his dark, dreadful deed. When Jobbins returned, surprisingly with no sense of foreboding, his candy bar was gone forever. All that remained was a polite note in its place.

 

The extremely popular fingers of chocolate-coated wafers were first introduced by Rowntree’s confectionary in 1935. A worker suggested creating a snack that “a man could take to work in his pack”, and the slogan “Have a Break…Have a KitKat” embellished the treat in 1957. Since Jobbins was now incapable of taking his sweet break, he took to Twitter instead, in a bid to raise awareness about this unfortunate incident. Mayhem immediately ensued, with his post getting over 160,000 retweets and 440,000 likes.

Soon enough, there was extensive media coverage during which Jobbins bravely smiled through his loss.  As the incident gained traction and the company itself got wind of it, they decided that hungry thieves could not be permitted to deprive people of their rightful snacks. “Who steals someone’s KitKat?! WHO DOES THAT?! Shoot us a DM and we’ll replace it for you”, they tweeted, replying to the original message. As it turns out, they were severely downplaying what they were about to do. Jobbins soon found his car flooded with 6500 KitKats!

Hunter Jobbins (hopefully) lived happily ever after with his sweet, crunchy friends, but this wasn’t the first or the last time that the product was targeted by evil forces. In February 2017, British citizen Jozef Gabor was convicted of stealing boxes worth £126 from a store in Derby. His compatriot Peter Mills was caught by CCTV in 2015, eating KitKats and smuggling out £50 notes in the wrappers from a cash depot, robbing his workplace of £20000 in total. Most recently, Irish teen James Kelly found that his drunken craving was not so sweet after he was ordered to serve a month at the Young Offender’s Centre for his felony.

The criminal pursuit of KitKat is quite understandable, given that it has been around for over 80 years. It is so popular in Japan that it comes in over 200 flavours (Green Tea KitKat anyone?), and the Brits are not far behind, with young Kelly going after the salted caramel flavour. But we still need our chocolate, and what with the Kansas thief still at large, the world is a dangerous place.

Jobbins was seen handing out his plethora of KitKats, but the rest of us must be very careful. This story teaches a lot of lessons. Never leave your car unlocked, and if you do want to keep a snack, do not keep it in your glove box. Ensure that all KitKats are hidden away from the thief’s sight and arm yourself with… Oh, just give the guy a break! He did apologise, after all.

Written by Ankitha Giridhar for MTTN

Edited by Shuba Murthy

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