'A huge disappointment': $10K worth of meat stolen from local butcher shop

A local south Edmonton meat store had thousands of dollars worth of wild game stolen early Sunday morning.

Surveillance video provided to CTV News by Real Deal Meats shows two thieves using an angle grinder and hammer to pry their way into one of the butcher shop's locked outdoor meat coolers.

Alicia Boisvert, co-owner, said the cooler was filled with $10,000 worth of wild game brought by hunters for processing, including elk and deer cuts.

"Either it's somebody who owes money, or it's somebody who knows how to cut meat," Alicia said, adding that most of the product was whole carcasses or large cuts of elk, deer, and beef.

"You're talking about primals that need to be cut," she said, saying it's meat that is not easily sold on the market without raising suspicion.

That's why Darcy Boisvert, co-owner and Alicia's husband, wonders if the theft was random or done by someone who knows how the shop is run.

"If someone who's worked for me in the past that I've fired, they know the best way if they want to get back at me is to steal game because it's not my meat, right," he told CTV News.

"It's been broken into before, and people have seen what's in there and obviously not paid attention or wanted it and realized what it was."

Edmonton police confirmed they are investigating the incident. Fish and Wildlife officials have been notified as well.

Alicia says while the hunters who owned the meat understand the situation, getting meat to replace what they brought to be processed isn't quite the same.

"Thank goodness they were all understanding," she said. "We have to order in meat from farmed animals now to replace (it) with.

"We have no choice, but it's a huge disappointment."