'This is getting ridiculous': Cheese wheel thieves strike a 3rd time at Burlington Fortinos

For the third time in a month, two woman have stolen a huge amount of cheese from a Burlington grocery store.

The most recent theft occurred at a Burlington Fortinos at 5111 New Street on April 12, when the women stole cheese wheels with a total value of $580.80. A week earlier, Halton Regional Police believe, the same women struck the same store on April 5 and stole six wheels of cheese valued at around $800.

That same day, two women entered the Longo's at 1225 Fairview St., and selected a wheel of cheese valued at $180 and walked out with it.

Police said the women returned to the same Burlington Longo's on April 6 at around 7 p.m., but this time employees recognized them and followed them throughout the store.

The women left the store empty-handed before police could arrive.

So, Halton police now say the women have accumulated more than $1,500 in cheese wheels over the last few weeks.

"This is getting ridiculous," said Melinda Oliynyk, a regular shopper at the Burlington Fortinos who said she was in the store when the first theft occurred. "Police have to catch these two."

Police are working on the notion the pair could be related, possibly a mother-daughter duo, but officers have yet to confirm that.

"They just basically drove from the one store to the other store, but we got better photos of them at the second store," Const. Naresh Dabas, of the police department's retail theft unit, told The Hamilton Spectator when the first two thefts were reported.

Asked what he thought the thieves might do with all that cheese, Dabas said, "Obviously, they are not going to be eating it themselves."