6 strange Canadian food heists in recent history

On Christmas Day of 2021, four thieves broke into a warehouse in Trenton, Ont., to steal 40,000 kg of butter, a haul worth about $200,000. Unlike some other foods, butter is easy to preserve by freezing. It’s an item that someone could realistically resell over time instead of in a hurry; stored properly when frozen, butter can last up to nine months. Not that we’re giving you advice on how to steal and resell butter. Just advice on what to do with the butter that you buy legally.

In October 2020, a Quebec vineyard lost nearly 1,000 lbs of Vidal blanc grapes—enough to make between 300 and 350 bottles of wine—overnight. Someone took them right off the vines. The owner suspected the culprit planned to make their own wine in their “garage or basement.” And then…sell it? Get really drunk? Use it in holiday gift baskets?

In July 2020, the Chatham-Kent, Ont., cops got a sweet tip from a crime-spotting citizen who reported a man absconding with a wheelbarrow full of watermelons he’d snatched from a farmer’s market. Why? Maybe he planned to re-enact the “I carried a watermelon” scene from Dirty Dancing. You know, a lot. Hey, everyone has their eccentricities. Nobody puts Wheelbarrow Guy in a corner!

In March 2020, a man stole 180 kg of ground beef—along with other items—from a food bank in Edson, Alta. His total haul was worth more than $3,000. Police thought the empty shelves from pandemic panic might have prompted the break-in. Although he kept the beef, he apparently ditched some of the other stolen goods in a nearby garbage. Bad move if it was TP, buddy. That was a wildly coveted item by the end of the month.

In August 2019, someone boosted $187,000 worth of cheese from a dairy plant in Tavistock, Ont. The cheese was intended for New Brunswick; the thief got away with the heist by pretending to be the delivery truck driver. He even presented fake paperwork. And you thought that cheesy ploy only works in movies!

Canadian beer heists are as common as…well, they’re as common as you’d think they would be. (Google it. Another day, another beer heist.) But this April 2018 booze raid in Quebec came with a twist. The thieves not only took cases of beer, but also cases of beef jerky and pepperoni. They hit three different warehouse trucks to the tune of $500,000. Silly criminals! Everyone knows that the best salty snack to pair with beer is potato chips.