Caught on video: Thief steals $5K of meat from Calgary business

A Calgary business is sharing surveillance footage of a brazen theft in hopes of identifying a man who made off with around $5,000 worth of meat products.

The break and enter took place at Pre Pak Meats in the 4800 block of 32 Street S.E. on Monday evening.

The business is a small distributor that sells to local restaurants, golf courses and mom-and-pop-type butcher shops.

"We're a family-run business," said Mark Leavitt, vice president of operations.

"We have employees that have mouths and families to feed. The impact to us… it's more frustrating than anything else. It's violating."

CCTV footage from both inside and outside the business captured the theft.

The footage shows a man with a hammer smash a window to gain entry to the business at around 10 p.m.

He's seen loading up a car with stolen products, returning three different times over a two hour span.

The car seemingly has a driver waiting inside.

Someone stole $5,000 worth of meat products from Pre Pak Meats on June 10, 2024.Leavitt says around 400 kilograms of meat was stolen, valued at $5,000 dollars.

"They took probably four of five boxes of top sirloin, they took a box of beef trim, a box of chicken thighs and bison," he said. "Depending where they go to sell that product could sell it for seven or eight thousand dollars easily."

Leavitt doesn't recognize the man in the video but says it is clear he had knowledge of their product and what he was looking for.

"It seemed more like somebody that was buying and selling. Taking it and reselling," he said.

"In the video, he comes in, he shops around a bit. He's got a girl in a car waiting 20 second away and phones her, she comes over. They walked right to our door, smashed our window, took our product with a car waiting around the corner. It was definitely targeted and planned they knew what they were doing."

What stood out to Leavitt was the type of product taken, which leads him to believe this wasn't an act of desperation.

"Most of the product he took is something we use for further processing. It's not necessarily you'd see necessarily on a retail shelf at Costco or something like that.

"He stole a box of beef trim. You can't do anything with beef trim without grinding it, it makes ground beef," he said.

"He stole bison, which is random, and he seemed to go right for bison and read the label. The product he took is something you'd use for further processing. It's hip cuts you would use it to make jerky."

Someone stole $5,000 worth of meat products from Pre Pak Meats on June 10, 2024.Leavitt says the business has never been targeted before and he hasn't heard of similar businesses that have been targeted, but wouldn't be surprised if there is some kind of black market for meat products.

"I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that existed, but it's nothing that I've ever heard of in the past. I mean, food's expensive out there right? So I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there is something like that going on."

When employees showed up for work early Tuesday morning, they called police.

The Calgary Police Service confirms officers were called to a break and enter around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday at the business and say investigators are reviewing CCTV footage.

The man in the video appears to have a mustache and be wearing jeans, a grey hoodie and baseball cap.

The vehicle caught on video outside was a black or dark coloured car.