Three Canadian men thought they were making a smooth getaway when they loaded up their grocery store cart with butter and waltzed out the door without paying.
But police in Guelph, Ontario were on a roll, and busted the bungling butter burglars before they could abscond with their rich, creamy haul.
Shortly before 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, officers responded to a grocery store where two men were spotted putting a case of butter in a shopping cart and bringing it out to a car that was outside waiting for them.
Upon checking nearby parking lots of other businesses, cops noticed the same car parked outside of another grocery store. They arrested the vehicle’s two male occupants, along with a third man who approached officers as he exited the store.
In a news release, Guelph Police said a witness had reported seeing the third man abandon a cart just outside the store. When they located and inspected the cart, it contained even more stolen butter.
In all, officers recovered 144 sticks of butter and 17 containers of ghee, a type of clarified butter frequently used in South Asian cuisine. They estimated the value of the burgled butter and ill-gotten ghee to be north of $1,000.
The men arrested were not identified, but police said they were aged 40, 29, and 25. All three were charged with theft under $5,000. One of the men gave the cops a false name and was slapped with an additional obstruction charge.
Even the Guelph Police couldn’t resist having a bit of fun with the bizarre alleged theft, joking in their announcement that the suspects “may have had their holiday baking plans interrupted.”
Guelph is a midsize city in Southwestern Ontario, about 44 miles west of Toronto.
