Brooklyn men tried to sell $500,000 worth of stolen eels

No, the Ocean Didn't Grow Hair - It's the Garden Eel!
No, the Ocean Didn't Grow Hair - It's the Garden Eel!

Some get-rich-quick schemes are clever, others are just bizarre. This scheme by three men in Brooklyn falls in the latter category.

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On Monday, these men were arrested after trying to sell $491,000 of stolen eels. The creatures were stolen from the Mars Global Trading shipping terminal in New Jersey back in June.

While the New York Daily news reported that the number of stolen eels amounted to over $1 million, police told Gothamist that the recovered eels were valued at just under $500,000.

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The NYPD and the owners of Mars Global Trading intercepted the resale plan. The New York Post reported that the heads of the trading company approached the men, saying that they were interested in buying the eels. They had 745 boxes of eels with them (valued at $360,000), and an additional 200 boxes elsewhere.

The men were charged with possession of stolen goods. The NYPD 66th Precinct posted a photo of the eels on Twitter:

Apparently, crimes like these are all too common. An anonymous tipster told the Post: "They're smuggling everything from cigarettes to food. So it doesn't surprise me at all."

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