Police were stunned when a large mortadella sausage went missing from a food market stand last week, mostly because the missing sausage weighed more than 170 pounds. But a pair of guilt-ridden teenagers came forward this week, and the mystery has been solved.

According to The Local, two boys aged 17 and 19 from St. Michael in Lungau, Austria, say they got the bright idea to sneak into an Italian sausage vendor’s stall and make off with one of his largest sausages. Somehow they managed to carry away a mortadella that was five and a half feet long and 176 pounds without being spotted by anybody. They made it all the way to the 17-year-old’s house with the pilfered sausage and set to eating the evidence immediately, but they couldn’t really make a dent in it. Unable to eat their own body weight in sausage, they finally gave up and rolled the leftovers in a ditch.

The next day, though, they started to feel guilty when news of the crime got out.

"The following day, after hearing radio reports about the missing mortadella, the boys were struck by their guilty consciences," the police said in a statement. The teenagers came forward to confess, and police say they have promised to pay for the crime. The sausage vendor estimates the sausage was worth approximately €2000, or just over $2,700.