Remember that odd case last June when firefighters saved and then drained a keg they liberated from the scene of the fire? Well, the case is now closed:

Oliver city council urged the RCMP to look into the matter and Mounties alleged the kegs were removed as firefighters responded to the flames. RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says investigators forwarded their findings to the Crown and were recently told charges of theft under $5,000 were not approved. Moskaluk says the Crown ruled the matter was not in the public interest. The RCMP has now closed its file on the case.

Just so you know, the "Crown" in this sense means the government prosecutor. Interesting that they did not say there was a lack of evidence but that laying charges was not in the public interest. In fact, "the matter did not meet the threshold of being in the public's interest to proceed with the matter in criminal court." On the face of the matter it is a clear cut theft. But there is a thing called de minimis - too trivial to involve the law.

Which is what I was thinking about from the outset. Not that it was not theft but that somehow culturally the fluid was less than a real asset, either because it was salvage from a fire or that it was just beer. What is really going on, of course, could well be that charges were not laid because it was firefighters and not looters involved.