Two people from Surrey and one from Delta have been arrested after Vancouver police found $100,000 of stolen liquor at a Delta home on May 15.
Cst. Jason Doucette said that the arrests followed a request from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch after an internal investigation in missing liquor from the Vancouver warehouse on Rupert Street.
Approximately 1,000 bottles of liquor were found in the Delta home.
Viviana Zanocco, a spokesperson with the Liquor Distribution Branch, said that the investigation began early this year.
“Our corporate loss prevention team launched an inquiry earlier this year after some discrepancy was discovered,” said Zannoco.
Although the Liquor Distribution Branch does not measure theft directly, they do measure shrinkage, or a loss of inventory.
About 0.07 per cent of their inventory is lost to shrinkage annually, Zannoco noted, compared to the B.C. average of 1.44 per cent.
Zannoco said that a longtime male employee was arrested. He has been put on unpaid leave pending discussions with the union.
Employee theft is “super rare,” Zannoco said, adding that the amount seized was “highly unusual, it’s unprecedented.”
All three arrestees have been released pending further investigation.
