Columbia University students stealing $5000 worth of Nutella a week

NEW YORK – Students at Columbia University are stealing up to $5000 worth of Nutella a week after the college began offering it in the dining halls. 

The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that students had taken to filling jars with the hazelnut spread and taking it back to their dorms.

“The demand [for Nutella] has been greater than originally expected,” Vicki Dunn, executive director of Dining Services, said in an email to the newspaper.

“Students have been filling cups of Nutella to-go in Ferris Booth Commons and taking the full jars out of John Jay, which means we’re going through product faster than anticipated.”

Dunn told the student council that during the first week it started to be offered, on February 11, $5000 worth of the spread disappeared.

Dining Services decided to offer the Nutella earlier this year following recommendations from the Columbia College Student Council, but no one anticipated the high demand nor the expense.

One of the council members, Peter Bailinson, said at least 100 pounds was being taken every day, the New York Times reported.

"People take silverware, cups and plates, and that adds up over the course of a year to a lot of money,” he told the New York Times.

“With Nutella, it added up much more quickly. Where Dining might have to spend $50,000 to replace silverware and cups, they were spending thousands of dollars on Nutella in one week.”