Thieves Make Off With Giant Gold Cookie

A giant gold cookie has gone missing, and police say they are stumped.

For 100 years an enormous bronze sculpture of two nude youths carrying a giant pretzel and a larger-than-life gold cookie has decorated the Hanover headquarters of Bahlsen, one of Germany's preeminent cookie makers. On Monday, someone noticed the cookie part had been stolen. Police were called to the scene.

The naked pretzel-bearers had evidently become old news around Hanover, as nobody noticed when the biscuit originally disappeared. The cookie was last observed by one of Bahlsen's workers on January 3, and it could have been stolen at any time since then.

The theft was no easy feat, however, as the cookie is made of gold-plated bronze, weighs 44 pounds, and was suspended nearly 17 feet from the ground on a busy road with 24-hour traffic.

"You can't just put it under your arm," a company spokeswoman told The Local.

Company chairman Werner M. Bahlsen has offered €1,000, or approximately $1,300 for any information leading to the recovery of the cookie, but nobody has come forward.

The cookie is only worth about €100, or $130, the company says.

"It's sentimental value is what counts for us, and that is high," the spokeswoman said.

The company makes many types of cakes and cookies. The logo featured its most famous product, the Leibnitz-Keks, a butter biscuit that was introduced in 1891.