Hole-in-the-wall heister purloins tenderloin, snatches sausages

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This article was published 17/06/2019 (1774 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An evidently hungry thief went to a lot of trouble to steal cash, a few hundred dollars worth of meat and an extremely sharp sabre knife from a Transcona butcher shop overnight Monday.

"Somebody literally tunnelled their way in,” said Christopher Campbell, the butcher and manager at EastEnd Meats and Sausage on Regent Avenue East.

He got a frantic call from owner Li Pan Monday morning, when the shop is normally closed.

Pan works alone on Mondays, but saw the huge mess and called in Campbell to help — and that’s when they saw the gaping hole through the drywall in the store’s bathroom.

The thief or thieves “actually broke through the wall here, cut the metal open and made their way in through the side (of the building),” Campbell said, adding he believes someone used tin snips to cut their way in by hand.

It appears they tried to cut through a different location first, but hit the walk-in cooler, which has metal walls that couldn’t be punctured.

About $1,000 cash and hundreds of dollars in meat, mostly beef tenderloin and a few sausages, were taken.

Campbell is most concerned that his butcher’s knife was taken.

“(It) can easily take a hand off,” Campbell said of the stolen blade. “(It) can cut through any joint. I need to keep it sharp, of course, for cutting and precision. But (the knife) shouldn’t be out in public. This, in the hands of anyone wielding it as a weapon — (it) could take someone’s head off.”

Pan and Campbell have both been shaken by the dramatic robbery.

“That’s a lot of effort to get in here, Campbell said. "They obviously thought they were going to get more than they did.”

Pan, who has owned the store for four years and says she loves her customers — “people are friendly in Transcona, they’re very nice,” she says — is flummoxed.

“I can’t imagine people would do this,” she said. “Maybe in the movies or something.”

They’re open, “smiles on,” Campbell said, and waiting for police to investigate and insurance to repair the damage.

tvanderhart@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @tessavanderhart