Hot tubs and meat: Alberta RCMP investigating heists by trucks with bogus papers

BROOKS, Alta. — Mounties in Alberta are trying to find a transport truck operating under a bogus business name that picked up $230,000 worth of beef then disappeared.

RCMP say suspicions were raised Aug. 30 when a truck that was subcontracted to haul a full load of beef from the JBS meat packing plant in Brooks, east of Calgary, to the United States failed to make its delivery.

Officers say it was later determined that the truck was operating under fraudulent documents and the phoney name of Transport Pascal Charland out of Chateauguay, Que.

Earlier this month, RCMP in central Alberta said seven hot tubs were stolen from an Arctic Spas manufacturing site in Thorsby, southwest of Edmonton.

Mounties said the truck that hauled away the spas was also identified as Transport Pascal Charland from Chateauguay.

Cpl. Robert Harms says police are investigating whether the two crimes are related.

“There’s definitely some similarities,” he said Monday.

Police said the truck that took the meat was described as burgundy-coloured with a large bunk. It was pulling a white refrigerated, enclosed trailer.

The driver is described as a tall Caucasian male with short brown hair, slightly balding with a heavy build.

The truck in the hot tub heist, meanwhile, is a white Volvo with a sleeper that was pulling a newer-looking flat deck.

Police say that driver was described as Caucasian, between 30 and 40 years old, standing five feet six inches tall, with short brown hair and an unshaven face.

This report by The Canadian Press was first reported Sept. 14, 2020.

The Canadian Press