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Someone Tried To Steal a Van Full of Pocky Sticks in San Francisco

Written by George KellyPublished Sep. 21, 2023 • 3:37pm
Shelves laden with multiple flavors of Pocky snacks are seen on a store shelf in the iFresh Market in Orlando, Florida's Little Vietnam neighborhood.
CHP usually conducts stops to find other highly addictive substances—this time it was over 40 boxes of Pocky. | Source: Getty/Jeff Greenberg

Readers may already know the California Highway Patrol has been drafted to wage war on the drug crisis plaguing San Francisco’s streets.

Usually, CHP conducts traffic stops to find highly addictive substances such as fentanyl. But on Wednesday, CHP officers found themselves unloading 40 to 50 boxes of Pocky—an addictive chocolate-covered biscuit stick created in Japan in 1966.

CHP patrol officers noticed a van with no license plate at around 3:52 p.m. near its San Francisco office on Eighth Street, Officer Mark Andrews told The Standard. Andrews confirmed the van was stolen.

READ MORE: San Francisco Drug Crackdown: Officials Want Drug Dealing Cases Tried in Federal Court

A video posted to X/Twitter from the incident shows officers unloading the van on Harrison Street, with cookies-and-cream-flavored Pocky boxes stacked nearby.

When officers pulled the stolen van over, they spoke with a woman behind the wheel and a male passenger. Soon after, officers took the woman into custody on suspicion of possession of stolen property. The passenger was released after questioning and was not charged, Andrews said.

The incident is being investigated as retail theft, according to Andrews, who asked any establishments with missing shipments of Pocky to contact the CHP's San Francisco office.

George Kelly can be reached at gkelly@sfstandard.com


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