A box of weasel gland oil was stolen from a vehicle owned by New Zealand pest control company Goodnature, The New Zealand Herald (TNZH) reports.
The thief — or thieves — broke into the vehicle by smashing the window and stealing 16 bottles of experimental oil extracted from the anal glands of stoats, presumably unknowingly, which just so happen to smell extremely putrid.
Stoats (Mustela erminea), also known as short-tailed weasels, are considered pests in New Zealand. The heist comes in the wake of the Predator Free New Zealand project, which aims to eliminate introduced species of rats, stoats and possums that are a threat to endemic birds and other native species by 2050.
Goodnature was going to use the foul-smelling weasel gland oil to bait and trap weasels in a series of tests, TNZH says. It is suspected that the box was stolen because it was marked that chemicals were inside, which the thief or thieves may have thought could possibly be used for drug-making.
“Stoat anal gland oil is extremely smelly stuff and it lingers on any fabric or surface,” Robbie van Dam, Goodnature company director, tells TNZH.
The oil is so smelly that one drop can last for several weeks, van Dam says.
“We popped a gland in our lab a couple of years ago during research,” van Dam tells TNZH. “We had fans running and windows open in the middle of a Wellington winter, and it still took weeks to go. Some staff chose to work from home for a couple of days.”
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