Four arrested for meat thefts from W’burg IGA store

When you think about frequently stolen items, electronics, copper, jewelry and even cars come to mind, but meat.
Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne said meat theft has become fairly common in recent months.

"We get calls all the time at Walmart, IGA and Sav-A-Lot. What these people will do is steal steaks," Bird said. "We average three to four calls a week about people stealing steaks."

Williamsburg IGA Store Manager Jason Smith said that shoplifters hit his store pretty hard.

"There has been an up tick in theft of meat lately. I guess it is easier to steal a pack of meat than a television," he said. "It is just something they are taking and selling for drugs."

Smith added that he’s at the point where it doesn’t surprise him what people steal.

On Oct. 19, Williamsburg Police Capt. Eddie Cain served Brittany Leigh Lynn Prewitt, 22, Ryan D. Canada, 23, Matthew F. Canada, 24, and Christy N. Sutton, 25, with arrest warrants charging them with theft by unlawful taking.

Earlier that day, the four allegedly entered IGA in Williamsburg taking $84.47 worth of sirloin tip roast and ribeye steak concealing the meat products in either clothing or a purse, and then left the store without paying, according to arrest warrants obtained by IGA Assistant Manager Dennis Taylor.

Brittany Prewitt, Ryan Canada and Sutton all pleaded not guilty during their arraignments Monday morning before District Judge Fred White, who scheduled Feb. 6 pre-trial conferences in their cases.

Canada pleaded guilty during his arraignment on Oct. 20. White sentenced him to 60 days in jail, but agreed to conditionally discharge or probate all but 10 days of that sentence for two years. He also ordered Canada to pay $163 court costs.

Bird said that he isn’t familiar with this particular case, but he is sure the meat was probably headed where a lot of other stolen merchandise goes, drug dealers.

It isn’t uncommon for drug dealers to trade drugs for stolen property, but Bird admits that trading drugs for stolen meat surprises even him.

"I don’t know what the drug dealers are doing with the meat, but that is where it is going," he said.
Bird advises people to be cautious about buying meat through third parties.

"If a person steals it, you don’t know how long that person has had it out of refrigeration before they decide to take it somewhere to get rid of it. You can get some bad meat," he added.

Whitley County Health Department Senior Health Environmentalist Paul Lawson said he would advise people against buying second-hand meat for a number of reasons.

"It’s not a good choice. You don’t know how it has been handled," Lawson said. "Has it been temperature abused? Where did they haul it, in the back of a truck with their dogs or chemicals or oil?

"Not only is there temperature danger, if they don’t care what they are doing with it, it could be contaminated with other chemicals or anything else. I definitely wouldn’t buy anything perishable second-hand."

Lawson said that you don’t want anything out of the safe temperature zone, which for refrigerated meat is 41 degrees or colder, for longer than four hours. He said stores have to discard the meat after that length of time.

If the temperature is closer to 100 degrees, it reaches incubator temperatures where bacteria will grow even faster. This is why meat is kept at low temperatures.

If food has been kept out of the temperature safe zone for longer than four hours, Lawson said there is a wide range of bacteria that can adversely affect it.

"E-coli would be the biggest concern," Lawson said. "If the meat was contaminated sitting at room temperature, E-coli can grow very fast. There are multiple bacteria that could be on that product.

"All of them are going to grow rapidly when it gets up above 90 degrees. If it’s allowed to get to room temperature, especially in summer months, then there is a very big potential it could make you sick."