Police seize $20,000 of syrup after car chase

Thousands of dollars worth of Canada’s sweetest and stickiest export has been recovered by Mounties south of Calgary in a rural crime bust fit for the small screen.

What started as a routine patrol for police in Nanton, about 100 kilometres south of Calgary, ended with a high-speed chase and more than a dozen charges for three Albertans found with more than $100,000 in stolen property, including lots of maple syrup.

Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, police from the Nanton and High River RCMP detachments were in the area of Township Road 164 and Range Road 290 northeast of Nanton when they spotted a truck and cargo trailer reported stolen out of Chestermere earlier that morning.

Officers approached the truck, but the driver ditched the vehicle and jumped into a silver car waiting nearby.

Police said the car took off and led officers from Turner Valley, Nanton, High River and Claresholm on a chase, ending with the arrest of two women and one man just south of Black Diamond near Highway 22.

Mounties recovered the stolen truck and trailer, along with $20,000 worth of maple syrup.

The total value of the stolen property was about $110,000.

Shelby Isabel Lillian Kalman, 20, of Claresholm, Shawn Evan Mclaughlin, 28, of Lyalta, and Char-lee Jane Fernell, 23, of High River face more than a dozen combined charges, including possession of stolen property over $5,000 and possession of a controlled substance.

Fernell was released on a promise to appear. Kalman and Mclaughlin have been remanded into custody after a judicial hearing.

Fernell and Kalman are to appear in Lethbridge Provincial Court on Dec. 3, and Mclaughlin will be appearing on Nov. 30.

This maple syrup theft doesn’t come close to matching the dollar value or volume of syrup stolen in St-Louis-de Blandford, Que., between August 2011 and July 2012, when nearly 3,000 tonnes of syrup worth $18 million was taken from a maple syrup reserve warehouse.