WARMINGTON: LCBO bandits made off with $8K in booze, but cops have their pictures

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Somebody has $8,000 worth of Ontario taxpayers’ booze stolen from a Kitchener LCBO and the cops are investigating just who did it.

Maybe it will soon be their turn to have a hangover.

You read it right: $8,000 worth of stolen booze. As a follow-up to Wednesday’s front-page story of the Toronto Sun, Waterloo Regional Police indicated they are on the hunt to arrest the suspects who were caught on video filling up bags with bottles of hooch and calmly walking out the door of a Pioneer Park-area store in the city’s sound end.

“Most of the large bags were filled with scotch,” said a statement to the Toronto Sun from Waterloo police spokesperson Cherri Greeno. “This was a brazen, co-ordinated and organized theft committed on such a scale that the items taken are obviously not for personal consumption.”

So who’s got it? And where is it going to be sold?

If you are heading to university or college next week and purchase some lower-priced, contraband booze from somebody, keep in mind these bottles might be hot. And you could become part of a crime investigation as well.

As for the thieves who allegedly stole them, cops have their pictures.

Oops.

“The suspects showed little concern for the safety or wellness of staff and patrons inside the store and we are currently reviewing evidence, including video and photos, to identify those responsible,” said Waterloo police. “We are committed to identifying them, arresting them and holding them accountable for their actions.”

In fact, Waterloo police Chief Mark Crowell has spoken to Premier Doug Ford about this case. The premier, as my colleague Brian Lilley has written, is not happy.

“We are working with the LCBO and our policing partners in other jurisdictions to determine if this theft is related to similar ones conducted in other areas,” said police.

Grabbing bottles of alcohol off shelves and walking out the door while knowing staff and security have been instructed not to stop you has created an epidemic of similar thefts. LCBO stores and jewelry stores have become vulnerable and the system seems to have no answer for it.

Retired Toronto Police holdup squad inspector Mike Earl suggests “hammering these thieves at the door” and don’t let them away with it. Short of that, do the old Consumer’s Distributing model in which you place at order from a catalogue and a staffer goes to the back to retrieve the product.

The LCBO has not commented on any of these ideas so far. While they have also not commented on how much money a year they lose in stolen products, several reports in recent years have said it can get as high as $77 million a year.

“This is another reason why it’s so expensive,” said Earl.

He supports allowing police and trained security guards to be appropriately armed and be able to arrest people on the spot. If they are international students, here on a visa or deemed not to be an official resident, “there is nothing wrong with saying they broke the contract and send them home.”

But do something. Don’t just let them have their way with Ontario.

“It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt,” said Earl.

Something like that could have happened Monday in Kitchener’s Stanley Park area, where police allegedly dealt with an intoxicated male who entered the LCBO at 1005 Ottawa St. N. and “deliberately smashed multiple bottles of alcohol while consuming others, causing a disturbance.”

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In that case, Greeno said police arrested the individual “without incident” and believe it is not related to other incidents.

But it comes to mind that smashed bottles could become sharp edged weapons very quickly.

Whether it’s millions of dollars of lost revenue or someone potentially getting killed, one thing most agree on is LCBO stores being targeted by organized crime has to stop.

It should stop today.