Biggest Mystery Ever - Solved!

 Well, technically speaking, it may not have been the biggest one since the beginning of time, but for me it was the most mystifying mystery I have ever read about. In a county close by, someone snuck up on 30,000 chickens and then came back later and stole 15,000 more. You can read about the original chicken caper in The Great Huron County Chicken Heist(s). Apparently (and, of course always allegedly) it was an inside job as you will learn from the sources below and we are all eager to know where exactly the chickens were kept inside. 

Large Larcenies Continue to be a Problem
    A litany of them was offered in Large Larcenies. Lest you think that you can rest easy, even in a rural area, that is not the case. Rustlers have returned to Colorado as this headline indicates: "Nearly 200 Cows Disappeared: The Case Remains Cold," Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post, April 9, 2025.
   Even sheep aren't safe, even in England where there are also rustlers: "Hundreds of Sheep Stolen as Livestock Rustlers Target, UK Farms," Aleksandra Cupriak, Farmers Guide, March 6, 2024. Like cars in Toronto, farming equipment is also being nicked: "The Landscape is Centuries Old. The Crime is More Modern," Stephen Castle, NYT, April 22, 2025.
'In rural England, increasingly sophisticated farming equipment has become a target for thieves, adding to pressure on farming communities....Farms can be lucrative targets for thieves, because of the value of their vehicles and equipment. Thefts are “ever more sophisticated with examples of criminal gangs using technology such as drones” to pinpoint expensive machinery or accessories, according to Jim McLaren, chairman of NFU Mutual, an insurance company specializing in rural areas. Some equipment, the police say, is stolen to order and moved abroad...Andy Lemon, a police inspector who works on rural crime at Wiltshire Police, says that in some instances, high-value equipment has left Britain within 48 hours and ended up in Eastern Europe."

Sources:
   "Farmer Who Reported Theft of 45,000 chicks Charged With Fraud, Mischief: OPP: A Huron County farmer who reported the theft of 45,000 chicks in April 2023 has been charged with fraud and public mischief, Huron OPP said,” Beatriz Baleeiro
London Free Press, May 07, 2025
 "More than two years after a reported theft of 45,000 chicks from a Huron County farm, OPP have laid charges – against the farmer who reported the theft.
Huron OPP said Wednesday a 41-year-old South Huron man is charged with fraud over $5,000 and public mischief in a case one farmer described as “mind-boggling” when it was reported in April 2023....Huron OPP received a report on April 20, 2023, that 30,000 15-day-old chicks were stolen overnight on April 19. The alleged theft caused a stir in farming circles and stumped police.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling,” Ethan Wallace, a farmer and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture director for Huron and Perth counties, said in a Free Press story on May 16, 2023.
“Anybody that’s chased a bird or anything knows how they scatter. To undertake rounding up 30,000 of them is, yeah, absolutely mind-boggling.” In the same story, an OPP spokesperson said investigators were puzzled.“We’re really lacking physical evidence to support the report of the theft, but it still doesn’t explain where are the chicks and how are they in the barn one day and gone the next?” Const. Craig Soldan said. “It’s still a mystery.”

LARGE Larcenies

 Not Petty Thefts
  I had hoped to get this information to you before the end of the year so as to call your attention to some big stories you may have missed. Now that we have started a new one, I will suggest these past events may portend some trends to which we should not look forward.
  There are two reasons for this subject, apart from the sheer magnitude of the crimes committed. The first is that I will read stories about anything these days to avoid all the political ones. The second has to do with CHICKENS and I will begin with them because most of the work has already been done. If you don't want to bother reading all of what follows, the points are, I guess, that: 1)Very large quantities of things are being stolen; 2) Probably because prices have risen, while wages have not, and 3) because Organized Crime is involved so you can get rid of very large quantities without much trouble (like all of the fancy automobiles now missing from Toronto and which aren't even included below.) So much stuff is missing, I will just proceed in point form by commodities, most of which are edible. 

                                              Nor Mere Pilfering
The Chickens
   I still don't understand how you can steal 30,000 chicks, come back and steal 15,000 more and get away with them and it. See: "The Great Huron County Chicken Heist(s)".

Books
  Books are not much valued these days, unless they are valuable ones. See: "The Great British Book Burglary". 

Syrup
   This one happened a while back, but it is Canadian and it was such a big story that you may be watching "The Sticky" which just started on Amazon Prime Video.

See: "In $18 Million Theft, Victim Was a Canadian Maple Syrup Cartel," Ian Austen, NYT, Dec. 19, 2012. 

"It was an inside job of sorts. Thieves with access to a warehouse and a careful plan loaded up trucks and, over time, made off with $18 million of a valuable commodity...Over time, the thieves helped themselves to six million pounds of syrup."

Gold
  They cannot find your luggage at Pearson, but thieves were able to locate and make off with over $20 million in gold. There is even a Wiki entry for: "Toronto Pearson International Airport Heist." Perhaps this is where COSTCO is getting its product: See, "Gold At Costco!!"

Cheese
  In Vancouver. "On Thursday, B.C. RCMP revealed they'd recently foiled an attempted cheese heist at a Whole Foods in North Vancouver. They'd been on patrol Sept. 29 when they found a cart full of cheese outside the grocery store. A suspect fled on foot, leaving $12,800 worth of cheese behind."

  In the UK. "This most recent attempted heist comes as the cheese world is still reeling after a U.K. cheese heist that saw con artists make off with more than £300,000 (or more than $540,000 Cdn) in clothbound, award-winning cheddar. A 63-year-old man was recently arrested and released on bail. 

The cheese — 950 wheels of cheddar weighing 22 tonnes, stolen from Neal's Yard Dairy in London — has not been recovered."
 In the Netherlands. In 2022, thieves stole 161 wheels of cheese worth about $32,000 Cdn from a Dutch cheese farmer, according to the New York Times. Dairy farms in the Netherlands are frequently targeted, with the website Dutch News reporting in 2016 that 8,500 kilograms of Dutch cheese was stolen in the previous year, worth about $135,000.
 In Italy. "Italy is also often a target for Parmigiano Reggiano thieves. In 2016, CBS reported that about $9.7 million worth of the hard Italian cheese had been stolen in the past two years."
 In the U.S. "The U.S. isn't immune, with 20,000 pounds of fresh Wisconsin cheese worth about $64,000 nabbed by "cheese bandits" in 2016."
 In Canada. "...thieves made off with $187,000 worth of cheese from Saputo Dairy Products in Tavistock, Ont., in 2019."

Butter
  In Canada. "Scott Tracey, a spokesman with Guelph Police Service, said there have been eight or nine butter thefts over the last year, including one theft last December worth $1,000. In October, two men walked into a local grocer and filled their carts with cases of butter valued at $936, and four days later a Guelph grocer lost four cases valued at $958."

"Police in Brantford, Ont., are also investigating the theft of about $1,200 worth of butter from a store on Nov. 4."

In Russia: "Butter prices soar in Russia amid surging inflation in war economy

'The Armageddon with butter is escalating,' Russian economists claim on Telegram

Thomson Reuters. "The steep price rise has prompted a spate of butter thefts at some supermarkets, according to Russian media, and some retailers have started putting individual blocks of butter inside plastic containers to deter shoplifting."
  Perhaps this is where they are getting all the butter for the "Butter Sculptures."

Pies - They Are Even Stealing Dessert
  "Michelin Chef Appeals to Christmas Spirit of Thieves Who Stole 2,500 Pies:

“I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas,” said British chef Tommy Banks, after thieves stole a van full of pies," The Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2024.

Buckets - Big Time Bucket Theft
  "A Bucket Mystery: Compost Container Thefts Baffle D.C. Residents: The number of buckets stolen since the District program began last year has startled administrators," The Washington Post, Dec. 4, 2024.

 "Each of the 9,000 households participating in the Department of Public Works’ curbside composting collection program is issued a five-gallon bucket with a screw-top lid in which to place household compost for weekly pickup. A large orange sticker wrapped around the bucket identifies it as containing food waste and as “Property of District of Columbia Government.”

  But soon after the program launched in September 2023, the heists began. From sidewalks and alleys, front steps and backyards, the plastic carriers went missing. Slowly at first. Then much faster.

  By the end of the year-long pilot program, approximately 4,000 buckets had been  stolen, according to DPW.

   Widespread compost container theft was not something the agency anticipated when it launched the project, DPW Director Timothy Spriggs said in an interview. “And definitely not to the degree of the actual number of buckets that have been stolen,” Spriggs said. “So that has taken me by somewhat of a surprise.”

The motive for stealing such an ordinary, relatively inexpensive item remains a mystery."

BONUS - Bourbon. Over the Christmas holidays a neighbour involved (legitimately) in the booze business told us about a big theft of the stuff. She wasn't lying and you can easily learn about "Pappy Gate" which resulted in a lot of "Pappy Van Winkle" being stolen from the Buffalo Trace distillery. Like the missing cars in Toronto, it won't even be mentioned here.

Post Script: About The Illustration At The Top
  I came up with the title "Large Larcenies" and thought I would check and see if it was frequently used and that you might accuse me of title plagiarism. It is not much used and one of the few references is to the source of the illustration above.

The New Yorker, Nov.16, 1935.

  I suppose the good conclusion one can reach is that there have always been thieves ready to steal and that large larcenies are not a startling new form of criminality. 

The Great Huron County Chicken Heist(s)

 Have You Seen These Chicks, Or Any of the Other 44,996?

   Perhaps it is because I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where Perdue is located and poultry and pullets were often discussed, that I noticed recently a report which indicated that 30,000 chicks were stolen from a farm here in southern Ontario. Soon after that, another 15,000 went missing from the same farm near Exeter in Huron County. Apparently this farmer was not guarding the henhouse.

   The raising of poultry is still very important on the Eastern Shore and Perdue is one of the largest agribusinesses in the U.S.. Ontario is Canada’s largest chicken producer and those involved contribute $5 billion to the province’s economy. Although the scale of the operations, both here and in Maryland is huge, one would think that the stealing of 45,000 chicks is worth noting and that the monetary loss is not just ‘chicken feed.’ The stealing of 45,000 of anything is worth noting.

   I am noting it here, for two reasons. The chickens are still missing and the thefts have not been solved. If you know anything about this heist, call the Huron County OPP. I also think that the great Ontario chicken thefts will be a major story on CBS’s 60 Minutes or NBC’s Dateline, either soon (since it is a big story), or when the thieves are caught (which surely will be an interesting one.) If you watch only the CBC, you will appreciate the background I am providing and will not be totally surprised when this news appears in the U.S. and eventually comes to your attention. That such a story will not be on the CBC is explained by the fact that it is lacking in diversity, in that all of the members of the flock were of the same colour and age. As well, no Indigenous people were involved, as far as we know. 

  The questions you now have are many, the first one likely to be, “Why such a rambling prologue?” The others will be related more directly to the crime(s) and I will quickly present some here, along with brief answers which can be verified by consulting the sources provided.

   How does one sneak up on a farmer or the chicks, in the middle of the night without causing a bit of a ruckus? Particularly since more than one person would have to be involved, along with some very large vehicles. How does one corral 30,000 chicks and then have enough nerve remaining to return and grab 15,000 more? Or, are there other groups of chicken stealers? Is this only a misdemeanour, or are the 45,000 chicks worth something? Each chick costs about $1.40 and that number is a small one compared to the number of eggs they would have produced, or the number of breasts for the BBQs. These issues and more are covered in the references below, but the major question, “Who stole the chicks?” remains unanswered at this time.

   Readers of Mulcahy's Miscellany who noticed my recent post about urban crime, (Signs of the Times - Shoplifting), may now have another question about the magnitude of criminal activities in the country. In short, other farm thefts have been recorded and you now have something else to worry about. For example:

- Not long ago, 44 pigs were stolen from a farm near Stratford and in 2019 

130 pigs disappeared in South West Oxford Township. The pigs were much heavier than the chicks;

- Eight beehives were taken from a bee-keeper near Peterborough;

- Using as many as a dozen trucks, 400 tonnes of corn were taken from a farm northeast of Montreal and that probably reminds you of "The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist", when 16,000 barrels of it were taken from a warehouse in Quebec.

-Even dead animals aren't safe. In Caledon, around $1.5 million worth of moose, elk and stag antlers were stolen from a taxidermist.

Sources:

"30,000 Chicks Stolen From Huron County Farm," CBC, April 21, 2023.
"Someone Stole 30,000 Chicks From Ontario Farm," National Post, April 24, 2023.

"Police Investigate 30,000 Chicks Stolen in Ontario," AGDAILY, April 24, 2023.

"How Does Someone Steal 30,000 Baby Chickens," Calvi Leon, London Free Press, May 16, 2023.

"Great Exeter Chicken Heist Still a Mystery," Calvi Leon, Clinton News-Record, May 24, 2023.

The Second Theft:

"Another 15,000 Chicks Reported Missing From Ontario Chicken Farm," Kevin Nielsen, Global News, June 19, 2023.

"More Chicks Stolen From Ontario Farm," Andrew Joseph, Farms.com. June 20, 2023.

"$1.5 Million Worth of Antlers Stolen From Ont. Taxidermy Shop," London Free Press, Aug. 14, 2016.

Nothing Is Sacred and Nothing Is Safe.