A carnivorous caper: $50K in meat heisted in Calgary's northeast

A sirloin pilfered from a supermarket is a pretty regular occurrence, but the theft of $50,000 worth of specialty meat tends to raise eyebrows.

That's the upper estimateon theamount taken from a small distribution business in northeast Calgary over the weekend, something police say is unusual.

"I try and be as trustworthy as possible and it hurts to take a shot like this," said Andrew Denhamer, owner of The Fine Food Stop.

40 per cent of inventory

He's been storing his frozen products in a rented freezer truck and arrived to find the lock clipped and the truck strewn with boxes and meat rejected by the thief, or thieves.

He doesn't think the theft was random.

"We suspect it was someone that knew what we did," he said."The products were so specific and they were only taking the higher valued items. There was a lot of leftover beef shank, beef bones, chicken bones that weren't touched."

Denhamer said about 40 per cent of his frozen inventory is gone.

Restaurant trade

Many of the specialty meats, like duck leg, were destined for fine dining restaurants, but Mark von Shellwitz, the Western Canada vice-presidentfor Restaurants Canada, believes it is unlikely the stolen meat will end up in a restaurant.

"Restaurateurs are very cautious about where their food supply comes from and want to make sure it's not tainted, and most of them have very good relationships with their meat suppliers," he said.

"So I think they would find it suspicious if someone was trying to sell them some meat that wasn't an accredited supplier."

Denhamer is confident if someone tries to sell the products within Calgary, he will hear about it.

In the meantime, the loss will be covered by insurance.

• MORE CALGARY NEWS |'Feminism is cancer': Wildrose on Campus fires communications director over email
• MORE CALGARY NEWS |'We're doing everything we can:' Councillor says city working to calm fears after Bridgeland arson