Thieves Make Off With Millions In Maple Syrup

Thieves in Quebec have absconded with millions of dollars worth of maple syrup, and police are in the dark about how the caper went down.

The sweet, amber gold was siphoned out of its barrels in a temporary warehouse, and the theft was only discovered last week during a routine inventory. The news was temporarily hushed up in a cover-up that goes all the way up to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.

"The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which is responsible for the global strategic maple syrup reserve, initially kept the news quiet, hoping it would help police solve the crime quickly," reports the Globe and Mail, in one of the best sentences ever written. That paper pegs the haul as worth up to $30 million, as the storage facility held about 10 million pounds of syrup.

Police still don't know exactly how much is missing or how long it's been gone. The miscreants apparently emptied barrels and left the barrels themselves behind, so the rest of the barrels will have to be weighed and examined to figure out just how much is gone.

"We know that it's millions of dollars that was stolen," said Sergeant Richard Gagné. "It's a very large amount."

We'd really like to know how they got the syrup out of there undetected, how on Earth they moved the stuff, and where it's being kept now. As for where it will go, it turns out there's a maple syrup black market out there, and according to Reuters, that's where the Federation believes the sweet stuff is headed.

If you happen to know a guy who knows a guy, lucky you. Check out some of our best syrup recipes for some ideas on how to destroy the evidence.