Butter thieves on a roll in Ontario city, slip away with $2K in goods

Police in Guelph are once again hot on the trail of butter thieves after the latest two incidents in a series of thefts spread out over the last 10 months targeted a pair of grocery stores.

In the most recent theft, two men grabbed $958 worth of butter last Wednesday from an Eramosa Road store and fled without paying, Guelph Police said.

The two culprits entered the store separately before joining forces once inside the north-end business.

“They placed in a cart four cases of butter with a value of $958 and left through an emergency exit,” police said in a news release on Tuesday.

An Oct. 12 butter theft also targeted a grocery store in the city’s north end, on Speedvale Avenue East, police continued.

That incident unfolded at about 7:45 p.m. when two men again entered the store separately only to meet up inside.

Police said they put a number of items inside a shopping cart, including three cases of butter valued at $936, before fleeing through a receiving door at the back of the store.

“Butter continues to be a hot commodity for thieves in Guelph, with two more large thefts reported last week,” police said, adding the first butter theft took place in December 2023.

“There have been at least seven large-scale butter thefts in Guelph in the last 10 months. It is not known if all the incidents are related.”

In the two recent thefts, police describe the culprits as brown-skinned men, about 40 years old (Oct. 12 theft) with medium builds.

In the Oct. 12 incident, the men were further described as standing about 5-foot-7, one wearing a dark sleeveless vest and blue-and-white baseball cap with the other man wearing a dark winter coat and red baseball cap. They were seen leaving in a white four-door sedan.

In the theft last Wednesday, one of the culprits wore a tan jacket, black pants and black winter hat while the other wore a black jacket, black pants and a black baseball cap.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 519-824-1212, ext. 7117, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

Last December, three Brampton residents were charged after $1,000 worth of butter was stolen on Christmas Eve from a store in Guelph.

In August, police investigated after butter thefts were reported at two south-end grocery stores in the southwestern Ontario city. A total of $800 worth of the dairy product was stolen in the sepasrte incidents.