Police in Chile Arrest Man For Stealing a Glacier

Chilean police made a werd find late last week during a routine traffic stop near Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, located in the Patagonia region. Police stopped a man and in the back of his truck found five tons of ice from a glacier.

The man is believed to have stolen the ice from the park to sell on the black market. In chile there is a large market for Glacier ice as they can melt it down or sell chips of it in expensive designer drinks.

The truck that police stopped for a routine traffic violation was a refrigerated truck. The police asked to see what was in the back of it. Upon further examination, they discovered that the ice had come from the Jorge Montt Glacier, which is located not far from where the man was apprehended.

The driver was charged with theft but authorities are considering adding Violating a National Monument charge to his rap sheet because the ice did come from a national park.

The ice was worth more than $6,500 dollars on the black market if he had a buyer lined up. It doesn’t seem worth it to steal five full tons of ice but what do I know?

The ice from glaciers has a worldwide market. in most countries it is not illegal to go into a park and take some ice but there is no industry that specifically mines the ice. The ice for sale is more of a novelty than anything else. The selling point is that a lot of the ice in the glaciers has been frozen there for millions of years and you can have a small chip of it in your screwdriver for a price.

Would you care about spending the extra money on a glacier chip in your drink?