‘Project Pantry’ results in 12 arrests for shoplifting at Centretown grocery store

A Bank Street grocery store was the focus of an Ottawa police operation into shoplifting that led to 12 arrests. CTV’s Austin Lee reports.

Twelve people are facing charges after police targeted shoplifting at a grocery store in Ottawa’s Centretown neighbourhood that reported more than 650 theft-related incidents last year.

The Ottawa Police Service launched ‘Project Pantry’ on Jan. 12, a “targeted shoplifting reduction initiative” focused on the Bank Street corridor, Chief Eric Stubbs told the Ottawa Police Services Board on Monday evening.

Officers with the Neighbourhood Resource Team in Centretown worked seven shifts over two weeks with loss prevent officers at the Massine’s Your Independent Grocer on Bank Street, according to Stubbs.

“As a result of these efforts, 12 people were arrested, and 78 charges were laid,” Stubbs said.

“The initiative yielded a measurable reduction in theft-related incidents and associated calls for service at this location.”

Police said there were 671 theft-related incidents at the grocery store in 2025, up from 502 reported thefts in 2024.

Stubbs said police focused on the Bank Street grocery store after officers conducted a review of “general occurrences” in the Centretown area to identify “priority locations.”

“Our analysts identified an independent grocery store as a significant hotspot that accounted for approximately 60 per cent of the reported incidents among the addresses in this particular corridor,” Stubbs said.

“This included 671 files in 2025, which was a 34 per cent year over year increase. So, an operational plan was developed with a targeted enforcement at that location. A minimum of two NRT officers were deployed to support the loss prevention officers over a two-week period.”

Loblaw thanked Ottawa police for their work during ‘Project Pantry.’

“Community safety is a shared responsibility, and we remain committed to working closely with law enforcement to help keep our neighbourhoods safe,” Loblaw said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

“Since this case is now before the courts, we’re unable to comment further.”

Stubbs said the results of ‘Project Pantry’ demonstrated the “effectiveness of intelligence-led deployment” and “proactive enforcement” by police.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday morning, Stubbs said retail theft is “something we’re hearing about” across the city.

“We want to be proactive; we want to hold these people more accountable,” Stubbs said, adding police want to be “evidence and data led.”

The chief said shoplifting complaints are a “big driver of our time” for frontline officers.

“It wasn’t focused on what grocery store is being victimized the most. It’s about calls for service,” Stubbs said, adding police had cooperation from the owner of the grocery store.

“Intelligence-led” investigations

Coun. Marty Carr, who is a member of the Ottawa Police Services Board, asked the chief during Monday’s board meeting why police focused on the Centretown grocery store.

“It was intelligence-led, or evidence-led,” Stubbs said.

“When the team looked in that area for what was causing the most calls for service for our frontline officers to respond to and what companies were being victimized the most, it brought them to this store, and it happened to be a grocery store.”

Carr also asked if the 12 people facing charges in connection with the investigation were stealing because they couldn’t afford food or if the thefts were “more organized.”

Stubbs said “I can’t speak for all 12 people arrested. I think there’s probably a little bit of a different story with all 12 people,”

“There’s certainly, within the industry of grocery stores and stealing food, there is definitely an organized crime component to it where we see meat, we see cheese – kind of these higher-end items – people get taken and we’ve seen evidence where they immediately go to another car and there’s an exchange and they drive off,” Stubbs said.

“Important to be doing proactive work”

The Ottawa Police Service added 14 officers to the downtown core in mid-December, including the ByWard Market, Sandy Hill and Centretown.

Stubbs told reporters on Tuesday that police are looking to free up officers for “proactive policing.”

“We’re very reactive or our Neighbourhood Response Teams that are supposed to be proactive get pulled away to other events,” Stubbs said Tuesday morning.

“By raising our numbers down there, we have a better chance of actually doing work like this. It’s so important to be doing proactive work.”

In September, police charged three people in connection with the theft of $75,000 worth of merchandise from stores at the Rideau Centre.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Austin Lee