VIENNA // A group of thieves worked hard for their haul in Austria, picking a plantation's entire €6,000 (Dh27,700) crop of elderberries without the owner noticing.
The robbers made off with about 11 tonnes of berries, police said yesterday.
The owner of the plantation in Deutsch Jahrndorf, close to the Hungarian border, only noticed his berries had disappeared when he went to harvest them himself on Friday.
The thieves, who cut an opening in the perimeter fence to access their target, had probably been at work since Monday, police said.
They even came back for more on Friday night.
Given the size of the loot, police suspected several offenders were involved in the nighttime picking. The berries were of a special variety used in the pharmaceutical industry and as colouring agents.
