Real maple syrup is expensive … evidently expensive enough to make the economics on a well-planned professional heist worthwhile.
CNN has reported that three people have been arrested and five more are being sought in connection to what can only be referred to as the sweetest heist of the century. In a report posted this last August, CNN explained that millions of dollars’ worth of maple syrup were stolen from a warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, which is located between Montreal and Quebec City. A statement made in August by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which claims to be the ‘keeper of the global strategic maple syrup reserve,’ said,
Up to 10 million pounds of syrup was in the warehouse … [The] syrup that was in the warehouse is worth more than $30 million … The theft was discovered during a routine inventory check of the warehouse, which ‘had been secured by a fence and locks, and visited regularly.’ The barrels that originally contained the syrup were empty, meaning it was somehow transferred to some other kind of containers to complete the theft.
According to a Police statement released Tuesday, at least two-thirds of the stolen syrup had been recovered. The statement also said,
[Police] had seized vehicles that were used to transport the stolen sticky stuff as well as carts, lifts, scales and kettles … Their investigation of the thefts covered the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario as well as the northern United States. Almost 300 people were interviewed as part of the investigation.
In these days of cyber-crime, unmanned drones, and mass shootings, it’s nice to see some old-fashioned criminals at work. It’s even sweeter, especially if you are a fan of maple syrup, when they get caught by good old-fashioned police work.
Picture: Sterling College/Flickr