Canada police investigate theft of mummified human toe

Police in Canada have launched an investigation after a patron at a Yukon bar allegedly stole the famed ingredient of their signature drink: a mummified human toe.

For more than 40 years the Downtown hotel in Dawson City has served up the sourtoe cocktail, a shot of whisky with a blackened toe – nail and all – bobbing inside. Those who manage to touch the gnarled, severed toe to their lips earn a certificate. On Saturday a customer took it one step further, allegedly making off with the wrinkled digit after swallowing his drink. "We are furious," said Terry Lee of the hotel. "Toes are very hard to come by." The man had apparently boasted of his plans to steal the toe earlier in the evening. He later convinced a staff member to let him try the drink outside of the designated two-hour window known at the bar as toe time. "And this is how he pays her back," Lee said in a news release. "What a lowlife."

The tradition claims to trace its roots to the 1920s, when a rum runner preserved his frostbitten, amputated big toe in a jar of alcohol in his cabin. Fifty years later, the pickled toe was discovered by a Yukon native who brought it to the Downtown, where it became a celebrated ingredient in its drinks.

After Saturday's theft, the hotel contacted the police and began offering a reward to anyone with information.

"We fortunately have a couple of back-up toes, but we really need this one back," said Lee.