Where's the beef? Meat, tubs stolen

EDMONTON • In a crime spree reminiscent of Quebec’s maple syrup theft, a highwayman has made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of beef and seven hot tubs in two separate heists in Alberta.

In early September, the Alberta RCMP asked for public assistance in tracking down the man who stole “seven Arctic Spas” hot tubs from a manufacturer in Thorsby, Alta., a town of about 1,000 people an hour southwest of Edmonton.

A transport truck with a false name loaded the seven spas “without legal authority” at 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, police said in a release.

The truck was registered as Transport Pascal Charland out of Chateauguay, Que., and was described as a newer flatdeck hauled by a white Volvo semi-truck. The driver was a white man in his 30s, police said.

Then, on Monday, the police said they were investigating another theft, this one, a few days before in Brooks, Alta., about two hours southeast of Calgary.

Brooks is home to one of Canada’s largest meat-packing facilities.

Here, the same trucking company — Transport Pascal Charland — was subcontracted to “haul a full load of beef from the JBS meat packing plant to the United States.”

That truck, the release says, “failed to make its delivery.”

So somewhere out there, there’s a man — or a group — with seven hot tubs and $230,000 worth of beef in their possession.

The police do not specify what might be done with such booty nor what the possible motive might be.

“The full load of beef ... is unaccounted for to date,” police said.

This time, the truck was a burgundy semi-truck, pulling a white, refrigerated trailer.

It’s unclear if the suspect is the same man: he’s described in this theft as a Caucasian man, slightly balding, tall and with a heavy build. He wore a surgical mask.

Canada’s no stranger to odd food heists. In 2011 and 2012, thieves absconded with some 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup from a storage facility in Quebec. The syrup was valued at $18.7 million. Seventeen men were later arrested in connection with the scheme.