Late Night Heist Leaves Beloved Cambridge Eatery Out Hundreds of Litres of Ice Cream

A long-running outdoor eatery in Cambridge, Ontario is dealing with an unusual and costly break-in after thieves made off with dozens of tubs of ice cream over the weekend.

Russ Thomas, owner of L.A. Frank’s, said he arrived at the business around 7 a.m. Sunday and immediately knew something was wrong. The back door of a shed on the property had been cut open, apparently with some kind of grinder.

“The back door had been cut with a grinder of sort, and entry was given and they had taken all my pop and my ice cream,” Thomas said.

According to Thomas, the suspects appear to have used a battery-powered grinder to cut through the locking bolts and gain access to the shed. Once inside, they stole between 25 and 30 tubs of ice cream, along with pop, water, oil and some small equipment.

Each tub holds about 11.4 litres, meaning the thieves may have taken more than 300 litres of ice cream.

“Obviously there’s this situation where the person’s not going to eat that much,” Thomas said. “They may have problems storing that much ice cream. I’m not sure what they’re doing, maybe reselling.”

Then, despite the frustration of the situation, he added a line that perfectly captures the strange nature of the theft.

“We have great ice cream. I understand why they stole it.”

The break-in represents a significant loss for the family-run business, which is now in its 34th summer of operation. Thomas estimates the stolen items and damage amount to a couple thousand dollars.

“When a small business has to eat that kind of cost, it affects everybody,” he said. “It affects my wife, it affects my family.”

Thomas said the moment he arrived at the stand, his heart sank.

“My heart just went all the way down, and I knew. I didn’t even have to look inside,” he recalled. “I take it personally and so does my wife. It hurts. It sucks.”

In a social media post, L.A. Frank’s said the theft likely happened sometime between 8 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday. The business noted that whoever was responsible would have needed tools and a way to transport the large amount of stolen product.

The food stand operates out of a city-owned building where surveillance cameras were installed last year. Thomas said the city is now working to determine whether any footage captured the break-in and whether it can be shared with police.

Despite the theft, L.A. Frank’s remains open. Thomas said the focus now is on moving forward.

“Stay strong and just move forward,” he said. “Do the best you can with what you have.”

Anyone with information about the break-in is asked to contact police or reach out to L.A. Frank’s directly.

This story is covered in this week’s Keep Canada Weird news roundup.