An uncommon sort of crime is hitting grocery shops in Guelph and Brantford, as massive portions of butter are stolen off cabinets.
“Since December of last year, so about 11 months or so, we’ve had nine separate incidents where large amounts of butter were stolen from local grocery stores,” Scott Tracey, a spokesperson with the Guelph Police Service mentioned.
Brantford Police mentioned about $1,200 price of butter was stolen from a grocery retailer in that metropolis a couple of week in the past. Police described the suspects as two males in black clothes and baseball hats who took off in a white van.
In Guelph, police mentioned a whole lot to hundreds of {dollars} in butter has been stolen in separate circumstances since final yr. Tracey mentioned police don’t identified precisely why the thefts are occurring.
“There must be a market for it somewhere on the black market. I know if you go on some of the online marketplaces, for example, you can actually find butter for sale. So that would be likely. They’re not stealing it in quantities that would be personal use,” Tracey mentioned.
Suspects have solely been arrested in a single case from virtually a yr in the past, however these suspect seem to have slipped away.
“Unfortunately, [the suspects] are all now wanted for failing to appear for subsequent court dates,” Tracey mentioned.
Tracey couldn’t verify if the suspects within the photographs from Brantford Police match the descriptions of the three males arrested in December.
However Tracey doesn’t assume the thefts are only a native drawback
“There’s nothing about Guelph or Brantford that makes it particularly appealing to butter thefts. I think this is probably going on just about everywhere,” Tracey mentioned.
Employees at one retailer in Kitchener informed off digicam that they stopped somebody attempting to take lots of butter only a few days in the past.
Companies that use butter each day say the worth of it was already a problem earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic. They mentioned that is simply one other factor that is going to harm them.
The Cake Field in Kitchener makes use of round 80 kilos of butter per week, and so they hunt for no matter offers can be found each seven days.
“A lot of our customers that don’t know about, we call it ‘Buttergate’, they come in, they’re like, ‘Why are you charging so much more?’ But our prices have to reflect what we’re paying out. So unfortunately, if there’s now another thing on top of that that is causing the prices to increase, it’s just going to be more difficult for our business and our customers, too,” Jessica Harrison, proprietor of The Cake Field mentioned. “We used to be able to sometimes get butter for $2.50, especially at places like Costco and wholesale places. Now, a deal is $5.99 for one pound of butter.”
Guelph Police mentioned whereas placing much less butter on cabinets might assist shops, it is as much as companies to determine the way to fight the pricey crimes.
