A Fabergé egg cannot be cooked or eaten. This egg’s 60 white diamonds and 15 blue sapphires, however, made the $19,300 pendant irresistible to a man who saw it in the Partridge Jewellers shop in central Auckland, New Zealand last 28 November. 

In an attempt to steal the egg containing an 18-carat gold miniature octopus inside, the 32-year-old thief swallowed the locket that was featured in the 1983 James Bond movie, “Octopussy.” But before the thief could escape, police arrived and arrested him, the BBC reported. 

Police waited for days for the detained suspect to naturally expel the egg. Upon recovery, it was returned to the jewelry store, and the egg-swallower was charged with theft. 

Meanwhile, a growing list of people involved in the United States’ feeding program for poor children in Minnesota state during the Covid-19 pandemic “ate more than they could chew” from the $250-million federal fund. 

At the top of the list of 78 suspects in the food fraud was the head of the non-profit Feeding Our Future (FOF), a partner in the government’s Federal Child Nutrition Program (FCNP) that reimburses providers of meals served to children during the pandemic. 

FOF founder and director Aimee Bock claimed serving 91 million meals, but the meal sites she allegedly approved and the school/daycare feedings by a network of meal providers she certified were fake, Fox News reported. 

Prosecutors said she accepted cash payments from meal-site operators in exchange for site approvals and reimbursements. 

Minneapolis Safari Restaurant owner Salim Said was among FOF’s caterers that used $250,000 in FCNP payments to buy a house, cars, designer goods, and jewels through his shell companies, according to Fox News, citing court documents. 

Also accused as FOF co-conspirators were Najmo M. Ahmed and her husband, Said Ereg, whose Evergreen Grocery and Deli fraudulently claimed to have served over 1.4 million meals to children between April 2020 and April 2021, according to tax agency Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) website. 

FOF’s over $4.2 million in payments fed the couple’s pockets instead, with Ahmed using the money to fund her lavish lifestyle, the IRS said.