Maybe Calgary’s residents didn’t like being eclipsed by the Olympics, or maybe there’s just an awfully high number of bored crooks living there. Either way, the city has now reported 11 cases of food tampering, mostly involving shards of metal inserted into food items, in grocery stores across the city since January.

One of the first ones was alleged to have been the work of an angry shoplifter who had been banned from a supermarket, but police think copycat perps are behind the other cases. They say they’re going to stop holding as many news conferences, and will take a lower-profile approach to future incidents in order to avoid giving anyone any ideas.

You can watch Calgary’s police Chief Rick Hanson hold a short press conference–probably his last one on the matter–on the CBC website.

“Food tampering has Calgary shoppers wary” [CBC]
“Mom who shoplifted at supermarket charged with food tampering” [Vancouver Sun]
“Food vandals attention-craving misfits: criminologist” [CNews]

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