Police Asking For Help After Wisconsin Family Falls Victim To Bizarre Crime

A Wisconsin family was left surprised after a hungry meat thief broke into their backyard recently to steal a hunk of meat.

The meat theft victims reside in the Eau Claire area. They had 12 pounds of brisket on their backyard smoker, leaving it to slow-cook overnight. Smoking brisket can be a pretty big time commitment, so smoking it overnight is a pretty common practice.

The smell of smoking meat must have attracted the thief, who decided to take advantage of the family being fast asleep. He opted to strike under the veil of darkness, but the family's security camera got some pretty clear footage of the backyard brisket bandit.

While the family is probably thankful none of their other valuables were stolen, the thief made off with a 12-pound hunk of brisket that was on their backyard smoker. That's easily something like $80-90 in meat, plus the time in preparation and smoking it, so it wasn't like it was an inexpensive loss.

The family shared the video with the Eau Claire Police Department, who, in turn, shared the video on their Facebook page to try to find the culprit.

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The video shows a man cracking open the smoker while holding a pan to put the meat in. The prepared thief then grabs a fork out of his pocket to help get the meat out of the smoker. He even licks his fingers a couple of times during the course of getting the meat into his pan before he walks away from the scene, leaving the smoker open as he left.

In the Facebook post from the ECPD, they ask if anyone knows the identity of the brisket bandit, who they say "made a clean getaway with 12 pounds of deliciousness".

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The department is asking anyone who knows who this person is to contact the Eau Claire Police Department's non-emergency phone line or to submit a tip to Crimestoppers.