Canadian Thieves Steal 10 Million Pounds Of Maple Syrup

Apparently, in Canada they take their maple syrup very seriously:

TORONTO—Sticky-fingered thieves made off with as much as 30 million Canadian dollars (US$30.4 million) worth of maple syrup from a little-known strategic reserve in rural Quebec—leaving authorities to investigate just how much is missing and where it has gone.

The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers said late Thursday that during a routine inventory check at a facility that stores some 10 million pounds of syrup, inspectors discovered barrels had been emptied and reported “missing a large quantity of maple syrup.”

Quebec produces about 75% of the world’s maple syrup. Despite the theft, the federation said there would be no immediate impact on world-wide syrup supply.

The facility holds about a fifth of the province’s total quantity of unsold supply, stored each year to protect producers’ from the ups and downs of global supply and demand. Late Friday, police and an official from the federation said that not all of the syrup stored at the warehouse—in St-Louis-de-Blandford, about 100 miles northeast of Montreal—was missing. But they couldn’t give an accurate estimate of damages.

“We’re trying to value how much was missing,” said Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, executive director of the federation. “Some barrels are full, some are empty.” Quebec police are on the case, said spokesman Sgt. Ronald McInnis. Late Friday, two investigators were still at the facility, collecting evidence, he said.

Personally, I’d start with checking to see if there have also been any recent thefts of large quantities of eggs, milk, and flour.

FILED UNDER: Crime, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. A “strategic” reserve is very funny.

    Maybe you’re onto something with eggs, milk, and flour. Maybe if they are invaded they plan to make pancakes, making the invaders logey …

  2. tps says:

    John Ringo did a sci-fi series of books, “Live Fre or Die”, where its discovered that one of the few commodities that aliens want to buy from earth is real maple syrup. To them its scotch, vodka, bourbon, etc all combined into one.

  3. Lib Cap says:

    As a person who favors real maple syrup, this is not surprising.

    When you price real maple syrup, you will find that it exceeds the price of many liquors, and rival some higer-end wines… and that is just for the average stuff.

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2009-03-30-maple-syrup_N.htm

    What we consider as average easy avalable daily items are becoming more and more costly as population and demand increases.

    Replaced by non-food product substitutes (read what you get in the fake syrups… Corn syrup and misc crap.)

    Oh well…

    Soylent Green anyone?

  4. rudderpedals says:

    Sweet!

  5. James H says:

    I know real maple syrup can be quite expensive. Still. Strategic reserves?

    “The Americans are finally fed up with our comedic experts, and they’re invading!!!”

    “UNLEASH THE STRATEGIC MAPLE SYRUP RESERVES, eh?

  6. Tsar Nicholas says:

    If the fence for all this looted syrup is named “Mrs. Butterworth” that would be too much sugar to bear.

    As far as the canuckleheads go, this isn’t really surprising. All they have up there is beer, fish, oil, syrup, timber, ice hockey and time to kill. Why we never conquered and enslaved them is beyond me. Definitely a missed opportunity.

  7. Linda Brown says:

    @tps: but what did Paul and George have to say about it?

  8. al-Ameda says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    As far as the canuckleheads go, this isn’t really surprising. All they have up there is beer, fish, oil, syrup, timber, ice hockey and time to kill.

    Canada is a lot like America only without as many knuckleheads per capita.

  9. Jeremy says:

    Wait, “strategic” maple syrup reserve? I could see bacon, but not syrup.

  10. Episode 2012: A Sticky Situation

    “Quebec, called the ‘Saudi Arabia of syrup’ by some, produces between 70 and 80% of the world’s maple syrup, most of it exported to the United States.” And so it was that the syrup producers had gathered to celebrate another successful harvest (cue clip of badly animated french canadian fur trappers and lumberjacks partying next to a lake of syrup), but the party was to be short lived when Patty Larceny syrup-titiously swiped the sought after sugary sauce(giant tanker truck roars in, sucks up the whole lake, and roars off to cries of Sacrebleu!)

    Patty is now on the run with All the Syrup in Canada, and the pancake eaters of the world are depending on you to get it back!

    Gumshoes! You mission is to arrest Patty, recover All the Syrup in Canada, and CAPTURE CARMEN SANDIEGO!

  11. just nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Stormy Dragon: Cute! I didn’t see that ending coming at all. Thanks for the blast from the past.

  12. @just nutha ig’rant cracker:

    The whole story just reminded me of the kinds of bizarre thefts they used to have on that show.

  13. @Tsar Nicholas:

    Why we never conquered and enslaved them is beyond me. Definitely a missed opportunity.

    Because we tried on four separate occasions and got our asses kicked every time? We kinda figured it out it wasn’t gonna work after they burned down the White House.