Thieves in "dumb-crook" beer heist

TORONTO (Reuters) - Somewhere in Canada there are thieves with nearly 50,000 cans of beer they will have a hard time selling, although police say the truck driver who disappeared with the loot has been arrested.


The shipment of Moosehead beer, worth over C$75,000 (32,000 pounds), was on its way to Mexico from an East Coast brewery when it went missing, along with the driver.


The transport truck was recovered last week -- still running -- in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, but with most of its cargo missing.


The 30-year-old driver was picked up in Lindsay, Ontario, about 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) from Grand Falls. He has been charged with theft but police reported he did not have any beer with him.


The shipment of Moosehead was labelled in English and Spanish for export to Mexico, so it could not be sold in Canada. Nor could it be shipped into or through the United States without proper documentation.


"Its one of these classic, dumb-crook stories," said Joel Levesque, a spokesman for Moosehead.


"They can't sell it anywhere in Canada without giving away the immediate fact that it's been stolen... So we have crooks stuck with 50,000 plus cans of beer that basically they can't fence."


Very little of the stolen beer has been found. Four cans, three of them empty, were found in various parts of the New Brunswick province, according to the police and media reports.


On Monday, police found another 5,000 to 8,000 cans after a half-ton truck with a homemade trailer went off the road in New Brunswick. The driver of that truck fled the scene.

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