Butchers stole tons of meat to sell to Czech mates

Austrian police have arrested two butchers from the Czech Republic who worked in a meat packaging plant on the border who used to sneak out into the car park at the back of their firm and throw meat over the fence where accomplices would load into the car and sell it across the border to Czech hotels and restaurants.

Police estimate that the pair aged 33 and  54 stole almost 100,000 Euros worth of meat sometimes taking up to 150 kg a day from the freezer room of the firm in Perg, in Upper Austria.

Both men have been arrested and are currently in investigative custody after they were caught in the act as they tried to throw a half a pig over the fence.

A police spokesman said that they had set up a sting operation to monitor the meat packaging firm after management complained that somewhere along the line a large amount of meat was vanishing.