Blazingcatfur

Nothing seemed strange about what happened on Aug. 6, 2022, at least not at first. Just after lunchtime, a man walked into a suburban Shoppers Drug Mart and started filling his cart with big-ticket items — teeth-whitening kits and electric toothbrushes, cleaning products, a curling iron. By the time he was done, his bill was $2,452.41.

At the self-checkout, he hit some buttons and took his receipt. As he was leaving, the security alarm went off, but he waved the receipt in the air, as though there had been some mistake, and continued out into the plaza’s parking lot in Milton, Ont., about 50 kilometres northwest of Toronto.

Gangsters are converting imitation guns used for historical re-enactments and school sports days into lethal weapons at “firearm factories” across the country.

Revolvers, British Bren machine guns and German MP 40 submachine guns are among the replica firearms being altered to fire live ammunition.

Last year the number of discharges from converted imitation, antique or blank weapons outnumbered those by real firearms for the first time (64 compared with 42).

Boards of Trade in three cities have petitioned the Senate’s Transport and Communications Committee to amend the Criminal Code to enhance the protection of the nation’s telecommunications networks from copper theft, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Copper theft is a growing problem across the country with thieves targeting critical infrastructure for short-term monetary gain,” wrote the Surrey, B.C. Board of Trade. “This crime is not only disrupting essential telecommunications services, leading to outages that affect homes and businesses, but it is also endangering public safety.”