Why do people steal grocery meat and what do they do with it?

Two thefts and more than $4,000 worth of meat taken.

“It sounds odd, but it’s not uncommon,” said Commander Dave Colglazier with the Auburn Police Department.

“Believe it or not, there’s a street value to something like that,” he said. “We deal with shoplifting and a lot of times, and it’s not uncommon, that they steal meat because it is an item of value. It’s not uncommon that they put it down their pants or in their bag.”

But Auburn’s Grocery Outlet suffered a loss far greater than a small shoplifting incident after hours on May 29. The grocery store’s losses exceed $4,000.

“We had a guy break in through an old ventilation hatch and he went straight to the meat cooler and stole everything he could get his hands on,” said Sonja Noski, owner of Auburn’s Grocery Outlet.

“He took steaks, chicken, ground beef, anything that was in there he took, Noski said. “He also took frozen foods, and health and beauty products.”

Surveillance video eventually led investigators to a suspect. Aurburn police arrested that suspect Wednesday afternoon. Despite the arrest, the store is still out $4,000 worth of meat.

“We’re small businesses and it’s not necessarily affordable, like if we were Walmart,” Noski said.

The Auburn Grocery Outlet is not alone. Nearly two weeks earlier, the Blazing Onion restaurant in Mill Creek reported a theft of approximately $600 worth of steak, buffalo, wild boar, lamp, and chicken.

Noski said that after conversations with detectives, she suspects that drugs played a role in the motivation for the Grocery Outlet theft. Commander Colglazier, however, said that the suspect chose to remain silent after his arrest, so there is little known as to exactly why he stole the meat.

Local law enforcement officials, though, have a pretty good idea about why thieves go after meat.

“Two or three days ago my wife told me someone came to the door trying to sell her meat,” said Sergeant Stan Seo with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

People steal the meat to sell to a restaurant or another store, he said, or thieves will go around door-to-door to unload it. In the end, the motivation is more often than not, drugs, Seo said.

“I don’t think they are stealing meat to consume, especially in large quantities like that,” Seo said. “They are stealing it to sell &#8212 maybe going to a business that is willing to buy meat at a cheaper price. The driver is money; it’s cash to support, hypothetically, a drug habit. It’s no different than a car prowl.”

For example, food carts in Portland were discovered to be buying stolen meat from thieves in February, according to KOIN. Suspects stuffed grocery store meat down their pants, and took it directly to food carts. The quick turnaround is a factor in such thefts.

“Meat is valuable, but it has a shelf life,” Seo said.

Noski also noted that she has also noticed another outlet for the stolen meat: the side of the road.

“There are also people out there who sit out in their truck and sell meat from their car. Some are legit and some are not,” she said.