A man was buried and crushed to death under thousands of Parmesan-style wheels of cheese, according to Italian authorities.
Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, was crushed under the weight of his own cheese, the BBC reported Monday. A resident of the Italian commune, Romano di Lombardia, heard a sound “like thunder,” which happened to be thousands of heavy cheese wheels falling from their shelves in Chiapparini’s warehouse Sunday, the outlet reported, citing local media.
An Italian man has been crushed to death under thousands of vast wheels of a Parmesan-style hard cheese.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 8, 2023
Chiapparini was working in his warehouse when suddenly a metal shelf collapsed, according to Aljazeera. This caused the wheels of cheese, which were stacked all the way to the ceiling, to come crashing down on the Italian.
The wheels of Grana Padano, a popular cheese in Italy, weighed about 84 lbs each. It took authorities over 12 hours to find the deceased Chiapparini, firefighter Antonion Dusi said, according to the BBC. (RELATED: CBP Officers Cut The Cheese, Find Cocaine)
It took authorities so long to uncover the man’s body because they “had to move the cheeses and the shelves by hand,” Dusi continued, the Independent reported. There were approximately 25,000 wheels of the Parmesan cheese in the warehouse.
The estimated economic damage of the fallen cheese is about $7.6 million. One of Chiapparini’s neighbors described him as “very supportive … and generous,” according to the BBC.
Grana Padano is a very heavy and hard cheese that is made from unpasteurized cows’ milk before being aged for a minimum of nine months.