If you could steal $11,000 worth of something, what would it be?

For one Toronto bandit over the weekend, it was broccoli.

A Toronto-area trucker -- set to deliver 30 skids of the green vegetable -- returned to his rig in the city's east end early yesterday morning to find it had vanished, said Toronto Police Const. Ray Clark.

The VKST Trade Inc. broker had driven at least $11,000 worth of the nutrient-rich vegetable from California, before parking it in a lot on The Queensway, just east of Hwy. 427, at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, said Clark.

It would have been a quick drive up The East Mall to deliver the load on Eastside Dr., but when he returned to pick it up at 4 a.m. yesterday, the tractor and trailer were gone.

"We know of trucking companies that will get a load of TVs in or something like that and, of course, everyone knows what's in the truck and then the organized (crime) rings steal it and they've already got customers," Clark said. "But broccoli? It's something totally different."

It's possible the bandit -- or bandits -- didn't know what was inside when they drove off. Or maybe there really is a spot on the black market for healthy goods.

Either way, said Clark: "That's a heck of a lot of broccoli to get rid of."

Anyone with information is asked call 416-808-2200.